What this site is. And what it is not.
TG Compass is a free, independent directory of public Telegram groups and channels. It is not run by Telegram, not connected to Telegram, and not paid by anyone whose group is listed.
Why it exists
Telegram has no public directory. Its own search mostly surfaces groups you have already joined or opened, so the usual way to find a new one is a link somebody sends you. That works if you already know the right people, and not otherwise.
Telegram said it passed one billion monthly users in 2025. A platform that size with no way in from outside is the gap this site fills. Nothing here needs an account, and nothing here costs money.
Two ways to find something
Search covers the whole index. Type a keyword and it matches against every group name and description we hold. This is the right choice when you already know the word you are looking for.
Topic lists are short and written by hand. They are the right choice when you do not know the word — when you want to see what exists in crypto, or news, or technology, and read a sentence about each one before deciding.
Either way, a result is a link that opens the group in Telegram. You need a Telegram account to join a group, but not to browse anything here.
What it cannot do
This section is longer than most sites would make it. Knowing the limits before you rely on something is worth more than a list of features.
- It cannot check whether a group is any good
- Listing a group says it is public and that we found it. It is not a recommendation, a safety rating or a sign that anyone here has read it. Open a group, look at the pinned messages, and leave if it is not what it claimed to be.
- It cannot find private groups
- Only groups with a public t.me link can be found from outside Telegram — here or anywhere, including inside Telegram itself. Private groups use invite links created by an admin, and nothing can search those.
- It cannot filter by language, country or size
- An older version of this page said it could. It never did. The index holds a handle, a title and a description, so those are the things a search can match on. Where a hand-written topic list knows a channel's language, that entry says so.
- It cannot tell you who is behind every channel
- On the topic lists, an entry says whether the organisation named runs the channel itself, whether somebody else reposts it, or whether a government funds it — but only where that could be established. Where it could not, the entry says nothing rather than guessing.
What gets recorded
There is no account, so there is nothing to attach a search to. We do count how many times each group link has been opened, which is a number per group and not per person — it exists so the index can tell an active listing from a dead one.
The full detail is in the privacy policy, and the rules for using the site are in the terms.
Getting in touch
Corrections are the most useful thing you can send. If a listing is wrong, a link is dead, or a channel is not who it says it is, write to contact@tgcompass.com.
You can suggest a group for a topic list at the same address. To be straight about it: the lists are short and edited by hand, so most suggestions do not make it.
TG Compass is an independent service. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Telegram Messenger LLP.