SwanRate | Telegram Bot Market

Key Insights & Trends

Anonymous chats — the top trend of January

5 out of 20 growth leaders are anonymous chat bots. The category grew +9.5%. Leaders: @Ruletkaa_Chat_Bot, @anon2323_bot, @secretme.

VPN continues to grow

Category +6.9%. New players emerging with +500% growth. @yula_vpn_bot reached 778K MAU.

Gaming bots gaining audience

@Gemsplaybot, @SantasGiftsBot, @swagaplaybot — growth from +350K to +500K per month. Gamification attracts users.

@poslaniya — virality phenomenon

Anonymous messages — 2.2M MAU, growth of +1.6M in 2 months. Virality driven by sharing mechanics.

Utility bots remain stable

@BotFather, @StoryWeatherBot, @pic — slow but steady growth of 5–15%. The backbone of the ecosystem.

Market in Numbers

Bots with MAU ≥ 10K

40.2K

New bots vs last month

+10.9K

Total MAU of top 200

377.6M

MAU growth in January

+8.2%

Top 20 Growth Leaders of January

Source: SwanRate DB, 880K+ bots. Ranked by absolute MAU growth in January 2026.

Deep Dive: Anonymous Chats & Dating

Chat Roulette

3.4M

32 bots · +10.6%

Anonymous Messages/Q&A

14.8M

80 bots · +8.3%

Dating

19.8M

112 bots · +4.0%

Anonymous 1-on-1 Chats

16.7M

92 bots · +3.9%

Top 10 in Category

VPN Bots — January Trends

VPN Bot Market Share by MAU

Deep Dive: Gaming Bots

Tap-to-Earn

48.2M

890 bots · -3.1%

Mini Games

31.6M

724 bots · +12.4%

Casino / Betting

28.9M

614 bots · +5.7%

Play-to-Earn

20.8M

426 bots · -1.2%

Top 10 Gaming Bots

Trends: Growth Leaders (Weekly Dynamics)

Weekly MAU data, December 2025 — January 2026. Top 5 by absolute growth.

Anonymous Chats: Top 5 Trajectory

Weekly MAU dynamics for top 5 anonymous chat bots.

Weekly Growth: Heatmap

Color intensity = weekly MAU growth rate. White = maximum growth.

New Bots — From Zero to 100K+

Bots launched in December–January that rapidly gained audience.

⚡

@dozmbot Mini game — from 148K to 990K in 6 weeks

990K +842K

🎰

@Gemsplaybot Game — from 43K to 542K in 6 weeks

542K +499K

🔎

@ProfailCheker_Robot Anonymous checker — from 19K to 406K

406K +387K

💫

@swagaplaybot Game — from 94K to 448K in 6 weeks

448K +354K

🕵

@anonimnye_voprosy_tgbot Anonymous Q&A — from 26K to 618K

618K +592K

🌈

@ptichkabot AI photo — from 158K to 449K in 5 weeks

449K +291K

Top 10 Bots with Declining Audience

Bots with the largest absolute MAU decline in January 2026.

Categories — Market Overview

Categories: December vs January

Comparison of total MAU by category: December 2025 vs January 2026.

Radar: Top 5 Categories

Axes: bot count, MAU, growth, new bots, average bot size.

Market Share: Treemap

Block size is proportional to total category MAU. January 2026.

Forecast: February 2026

Anonymous chats: growth to continue

+12–15%

@poslaniya and @Ruletkaa_Chat_Bot will maintain momentum. Expect new clones entering the category. Viral mechanics not yet exhausted.

VPN: plateau

+2–4%

Main VPN growth came in December–January. February should see slowdown. @avoVPN_bot will maintain leadership.

Gaming: consolidation

-5% T2E

Tap-to-Earn will continue declining. Mini games (@dozmbot, @Gemsplaybot) will retain audience. Casino — stable.

AI bots: surge

+20–30%

AI photo and AI chatbots — the fastest growing category. @ptichkabot, @ChatGPT_General_Bot will keep gaining. New GPT wrappers incoming.

Methodology

Data is collected from public Telegram API sources. Telegram only shows MAU (Monthly Active Users) for bots with an audience above 10K users.

Data source: SwanRate DB, 880K+ bots tracked
Period: December 2025 — January 2026 (weekly snapshots)
Growth metric: absolute MAU change over observation period
Categorization: automatic based on bot description + manual verification
Limitations: Telegram MAU updates with a 24–48h delay; data unavailable for bots with <10K MAU