The backup file

Format version 1

The file you download from TG Backup is built to outlive this website. It is made from two open formats, so you can open it with tools that have nothing to do with us.

tg-backup-2026-10-20.json.age = age passphrase lock + one JSON document

The lock

The file is an age file locked with a passphrase: scrypt turns your password into a key, and ChaCha20-Poly1305 encrypts the data. age is an open specification with several independent implementations.
The lock is applied in your browser. Your password is never sent to our servers, so we can't open the file, reset the password or recover it. If you lose the password, the file can't be opened.
To open it with nothing of ours, install age and run age --decrypt -o tg-backup.json tg-backup-2026-10-20.json.age. The result is the JSON below.
The free TG Backup command-line tool (open source) does the same, then lets you search and list what is inside. It never uses the network.

The document

{
  "format": "tgbackup-export",
  "version": 1,
  "exportedAt": "2026-10-20T14:03:11.000Z",
  "backup": { "takenAt": "…", "account": { "id", "username", "name", "bio" }, "counts": {…} },
  "contacts": [ { "id", "firstName", "lastName", "username", "bio",
                  "lastContactAt", "pinned", "archived", "muted" } ],
  "chatOnly": [ { "id", "name", "username", "lastContactAt", "pinned", "archived", "muted" } ],
  "chats":    [ { "id", "kind", "title", "username", "inviteLink", "rejoin", "memberCount",
                  "lastActivityAt", "pinned", "archived", "muted", "isAdmin",
                  "admins": [ { "id", "name", "username", "isCreator" } ] } ],
  "folders":  [ { "id", "position", "title", "emoticon", "flags",
                  "include": [ { "kind", "id" } ], "exclude": […], "pinned": […] } ]
}

Ids are strings. Compare them as text.
null means “not captured”, never “no”. Older backups lack some details.
Readers ignore keys they don't know. A different version number means the layout changed.
Message text and phone numbers are never stored. A person's last contact is the date of the latest message only.
inviteLink is secret: anyone holding a private invite link can join that group.

Keeping it safe

The file holds your whole contact list and private invite links, and the password is the only thing protecting it. Use a long one (we ask for at least 12 characters; a few random words work well), keep it in a password manager, and treat the file like any important document.

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