{"rid":"storage/telegram-mtproto-user-account-unlimited-channels-as-the","card":{"rid":"storage/telegram-mtproto-user-account-unlimited-channels-as-the","eid":"telegram","topic":"storage","slug":"telegram-mtproto-user-account-unlimited-channels-as-the","provider":"Telegram — MTProto user account + unlimited channels as the volume","url":"https://telegram.org","domain":"telegram.org","category":"messaging","tier":null,"verdict":"qualifies-with-caveat","vorder":1,"grp":"usable","confidence":"reported","binding":"per-object-cap","identity_kind":"email","identity_basis":"defaulted","needs_card":null,"needs_phone":null,"needs_id":null,"needs_institution":null,"country":null,"crypto":null,"interfaces":"rest,rclone","egress_metered":0,"per_object_bytes":2000000000,"retention_days":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-21T00:00:00.000Z","verified_basis":"inherited","checked_on":"2026-10-21","stale_on":"2026-11-04","n_evidence":3,"usd_month":null,"usd_per_tb_month":null,"summary":"No total storage cap, quoted from Telegram: 'you can ... share an unlimited number of photos, videos and files (doc, zip, mp3, etc.) of up to 2 GB each'. Per...","duplicate_of":null,"n_unknown":6},"record":{"topic":"storage","slug":"telegram-mtproto-user-account-unlimited-channels-as-the","provider":"Telegram — MTProto user account + unlimited channels as the volume","url":"https://telegram.org","category":"messaging","free_tier":{"stated":"No total storage cap, quoted from Telegram: 'you can ... share an unlimited number of photos, videos and files (doc, zip, mp3, etc.) of up to 2 GB each'. Per-file 2 GB free, 4 GB with Premium. Per-account volume is effectively unbounded because you can hold up to 500 channels/supergroups (1000 with Premium) and create up to 50 channels per day, and each channel is a separate unbounded blob store.","unit":"GB","metered_on":"stored-bytes","source_url":"https://telegram.org/faq","read_on":"2026-10-21","notes":null},"per_object_cap":{"stated":"Per-file 2 GB","bytes":2000000000,"source_url":"https://telegram.org/faq","notes":"not stated"},"retention":{"stated":"not stated","source_url":"https://telegram.org/faq","notes":"not stated"},"egress":{"terms":"Free and unmetered. Telegram charges nothing for downloads and imposes no transfer quota; the only egress cost is Telegram's own speed shaping. Downloads are free even for files uploaded by Premium users: 'any user can download large 2+ GB files uploaded by premium users'.","metered":false},"interface":["rest","rclone"],"interface_detail":"rest","tooling":"Strongest tooling of any provider in this whole research area. MTProto clients: TDLib (github.com/tdlib/td, 9.2k stars, pushed 2026-10-21), MadelineProto (github.com/danog/MadelineProto, 3.5k stars, pushed 2026-10-21, alive). Field-proven storage layer: Teldrive (github.com/tgdrive/teldrive, 3.1k stars) with its own rclone backend (github.com/tgdrive/rclone). CAUTION: Telethon (12.1k) and Pyrogram (4.6k) are both ARCHIVED (Telethon read-only since 2026-02-21, Pyrogram since 2024-12-23) — do not start a new build on either.","chaining":"Unbounded by construction: 1 account x 500 channels x unlimited posts = unlimited. A second account carries a second read allowance, not a second storage allowance. Teldrive adds its own layer: 'channel-part-limit: 500000' parts per channel with 'auto-channel-create: true' — it opens a NEW channel automatically when the active one fills, so the sharding is already automated. A 2 GB file is 4000 x 512KB parts, so one channel holds ~250 TB of max-size files before rotation.","limits":[{"kind":"per-ip-shaping","value":"speed is throttled for non-Premium by an explicit server error, FLOOD_PREMIUM_","source":"https://telegram.org/faq"},{"kind":"per-ip-shaping","value":"speed is limited because the current account does not have a Premium subscri","source":"https://telegram.org/faq"},{"kind":"per-object-cap","value":"Per-file 2 GB","source":"https://telegram.org/faq"}],"limits_note":"Per-file 2 GB free / 4 GB Premium — verified against Telegram's own config, not a blog: upload_max_fileparts_default = 4000 and upload_max_fileparts_premium = 8000, times the max part size 524288 bytes = 2,097,152,000 B and 4,194,304,000 B. Upload speed is throttled for non-Premium by an explicit server error, FLOOD_PREMIUM_WAIT_X, which signals 'upload speed is limited because the current account does not have a Premium subscription'; upload_premium_speedup_upload = 10, i.e. Premium is ~10x faster. No published daily byte cap exists — Telegram documents none, and the empirical field report (Teldrive issue #561) is 10-50 GB/day for one user, with a maintainer answering 'I have seen user posting that they upload 400-500gb daily no issues. It depends on how many bots you have.' Treat 20 GB/day as folklore: no primary source found.","identity_cost":{"kind":"email","detail":null,"country":null},"reliability_note":"Throttling is the real risk, not deletion: FLOOD_PREMIUM_WAIT_X caps non-Premium throughput and FLOOD_WAIT_X backs off per method. Files persist indefinitely in practice, but a closed account takes its channels with it, and Teldrive's own README warns accounts and stored files 'can become unavailable', so a store that spans several accounts loses only the parts one account holds.","confidence":"reported","confidence_note":"One page read moves it to documented.","evidence":[{"url":"https://telegram.org/faq","date":"2026-10-21","proved":"'share an unlimited number of photos, videos and files ... of up to 2 GB each' (line 77) and 'files of any type, up to 2 GB in size each (or 4 GB with Premium)' (line 338)"},{"url":"https://core.telegram.org/api/config","date":"2026-10-21","proved":"live JSON: upload_max_fileparts_default=4000, upload_max_fileparts_premium=8000; descriptions state max file size = value x 524288"},{"url":"https://core.telegram.org/api/files","date":"2026-10-21","proved":"FLOOD_PREMIUM_WAIT_X: 'upload speed is limited because the current account does not have a Premium subscription ... upload_premium_speedup_upload times'"}],"verdict":"qualifies-with-caveat","verified_at":"2026-10-21T00:00:00.000Z","notes":"No total storage cap, quoted from Telegram: 'you can ... share an unlimited number of photos, videos and files (doc, zip, mp3, etc.) of up to 2 GB each'. Per-file 2 GB free, 4 GB with Premium. Per-account volume is effectively unbounded because you can hold up to 500 channels/supergroups (1000 with Premium) and create up to 50 channels per day, and each channel is a separate unbounded blob store.","extras":{},"binding":"per-object-cap","binding_note":"the per-object cap sets the shard size and therefore the object count; it bounds the total more tightly than any headline quota"},"claims":[{"path":"$.free_tier.stated","kind":"free-quota","num":2,"unit":"GB","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.limits[0].value","kind":"limit:per-ip-shaping","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"},{"path":"$.limits[1].value","kind":"limit:per-ip-shaping","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"},{"path":"$.limits[2].value","kind":"limit:per-object-cap","num":2,"unit":"GB","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"}],"unknown":[["$.free_tier.notes","process"],["$.identity_cost.detail","defaulted"],["$.identity_cost.kind","identity-defaulted"],["$.per_object_cap.notes","not-extracted"],["$.retention.notes","not-extracted"],["$.retention.stated","not-extracted"]],"history":[],"drift":[]}