I was building a Telegram bot to monitor messages from different channels, each with over 60,000 members. The bot would work perfectly sometimes—receiving and processing new messages as expected—but then suddenly stop receiving any messages at all. No errors, no warnings.
This inconsistency was frustrating. The bot wasn't crashing; it was simply missing messages from these large channels. After some troubleshooting, I discovered that the library itself had issues. This is actually a known issue in GramJS (#575) that affects many developers working with large channels.
Even with connection retry logic and keep-alive checks, messages from large channels still wouldn't arrive consistently. The solution which finally worked was switching from GramJS to TDLib library. I did tried teleproto before switching to TDLib but that also did not work.
After exhausting GramJS workarounds, I switched to TDLib—Telegram's official native library. TDLib is designed to handle high-volume channels reliably and is used by Telegram's own apps.
Why TDLib Works Better
- Native Performance: Written in C++, TDLib handles massive message streams efficiently
- Reliable Connection: Maintains stable connections even with high-traffic channels
- Official Support: Maintained by Telegram, actively updated for edge cases
- No Session Desync: Properly handles large channel state synchronization
For a complete guide on building production-ready Telegram bots with TDLib and Node.js, check out my detailed tutorial: How to Build a Telegram Bot with Node.js and TDLib.
After switching to TDLib:
- 100% message reliability from all 7 large channels (60,000+ members each)
- No missing messages even during high-traffic periods
- Stable connection that doesn't desync
- Better performance with lower resource usage
Key Differences: GramJS vs TDLib
| Feature | GramJS | TDLib | |---------|--------|-------| | Large channel support | ❌ Unreliable | ✅ Reliable | | Connection stability | ⚠️ Intermittent | ✅ Stable | | Message gaps | ❌ Common | ✅ Rare | | Performance | ⚠️ Moderate | ✅ Excellent | | Setup complexity | ✅ Easy | ⚠️ Moderate | | Documentation | ⚠️ Limited | ✅ Comprehensive |
Choose the Right Tool for the Job - GramJS is great for small-scale projects, but TDLib is the only reliable choice for production apps monitoring large channels.
Test with Real Data - GramJS issues only appeared with actual large channels. Always test with production-scale data.
Don't Fight Framework Limitations - I spent days trying to fix GramJS. Switching to TDLib took half a day with the help of Claude Code and it solved everything.
Monitor Message Gaps - Add logging to detect when messages are missed. This saved me from deploying an unreliable solution.
If you're building a Telegram bot that needs to monitor large channels (50,000+ members), don't use GramJS. The connection instability and message gaps will cause endless headaches. TDLib requires slightly more setup but provides rock-solid reliability at scale. It's the same library Telegram uses in their official apps—that should tell you something.
Related Articles:
- How to Build a Telegram Bot with Node.js and TDLib - Complete TDLib implementation guide
- Killing Zombie Processes in Docker - Docker best practices for Telegram bots