Telegram export viewer and converter
Open your Telegram Desktop export to read, search and print the chats, or turn the contacts into a VCF or CSV file for your phone, Gmail or Outlook.
Drop the export folder here
The folder also shows photos and plays videos and voice messages. Your files stay on this computer: nothing is uploaded.
No export yet? Open a made-up example to see how it works.
| First name | Last name | Phone |
|---|
Getting the export out of Telegram
- Open Telegram Desktop on a computer. The phone apps can't export.
- For everything: Settings, Advanced, Export Telegram data. For one chat: open it, click the three dots, Export chat history.
- Tick what you need (Contacts, Personal chats, Photos), set the format to Machine-readable, and export.
- Pick the folder Telegram made (it starts with DataExport or ChatExport) above.
Picked the HTML format by mistake? Export again with Machine-readable. You can leave out the videos to make it quick.
What you get
Every chat as a readable transcript: day headings, names, replies with the message they answer, forwarded posts, polls, edits, reactions and group events like “Mira added Oleg”. Search one chat or all of them. Download a chat as plain text (handy for pasting into notes or an AI tool) or as a spreadsheet with one row per message.
Contacts come out as a VCF that iPhone and Android import directly, or as a spreadsheet laid out the way Google Contacts or Outlook expect. Phone numbers are cleaned up (+1 (312) 555-0101 becomes +13125550101), and names typed into one box are split into first and last name when it's clear where the last name starts (“Ana María” stays whole). Uncheck that to keep every name as typed.
Questions people ask
How do I export my Telegram chats and contacts?
Use Telegram Desktop on a computer; the phone apps can't export. For everything: Settings, Advanced, Export Telegram data, tick what you want, and set the format to Machine-readable. For one chat: open it, click the three dots, then Export chat history.
Can it open the HTML version of the export?
No. The HTML version is a set of web pages made for reading, not for converting. Export again and pick Machine-readable as the format. You can tick off photos and videos to make the second export quick.
How do I get the contacts onto my phone or into Gmail?
iPhone: email or AirDrop the VCF to yourself, open it and tap Add All Contacts. Android: in the Contacts app, tap Organize, then Import from file. Gmail: at contacts.google.com, click Import on the left and pick the VCF or the Google CSV. Outlook: in People, choose Import contacts and pick the Outlook CSV.
Why are photos missing from the chat?
Photos are separate files next to the result file. Pick the whole export folder, not only the result file, to see them. If a photo says it wasn't included, Telegram left it out because of the media settings you chose when exporting.
Why are the message times off by a few hours?
Telegram writes each time in the time zone of the computer that made the export. If that computer was set to another zone, switch Times to your own time zone. Very old exports only have the exporting computer's times.
How do I save a Telegram chat as a PDF?
Open the chat here, press Print, pick the dates you want, then choose Save as PDF in the print window. Each day gets a heading, every message keeps its sender and time, and the page numbers and chat name print at the edges.
Can it handle a very big export?
Yes. The file is read in the background in pieces, so the page keeps working while a large export loads. Exports of several hundred megabytes open fine on a laptop. A phone may run out of memory on the biggest ones.