FAQ

Questions, answered.

Is Targa really free?

Yes — genuinely free, not a trial, no card required. The free plan runs every detector. Paid rungs buy more channels, more message volume and more seats — never a different set of detectors.

What happens when I hit my plan's message limit?

You'll know long before it happens: admins get a heads-up at 80% and repeated reminders from 95%. On the free plan, protection pauses at the limit until you upgrade or the month resets — your group sees a single status line. On paid plans you can set a monthly ceiling: when you pass your monthly limit, extra messages are added automatically, 50k messages for $10 at a time, up to that ceiling, and you're alerted each time. Without a ceiling, protection pauses at the limit until you add extra messages, upgrade or the month resets. You can also add extra messages by hand; they last until the month resets.

How do I add Targa to my group?

Request access at app.targa.dev/register (private beta), then add @HeyTargaBot to your group as an admin and connect the channel from your dashboard.

What admin permissions does the bot need?

Two: Delete Messages and Ban Users — that's what removing spam and restricting spammers require. Everything else can stay off: Change Group Info, Invite Users via Link, Pin Messages, Manage Topics, Manage Video Chats. Leave Add New Admins and Remain Anonymous off — @HeyTargaBot never needs to escalate its own rights, and a security bot should be visible. Set its member tag to “bot”: promoting any bot flips Telegram’s corner label from “bot” to “admin”, and a security bot shouldn’t wear the label impersonators imitate. You can also add it with no admin rights at all: it stays a passive observer and still computes your Targa Score at member depth.

What do members see vs. admins?

Each audience gets its own command menu: members see only what they can use — /report to summon admins discreetly (the report is hidden from other participants, so no one sees who reported), /rules, and /why to read the reason behind any moderation action. Admins get the full menu, led by /score. No member ever sees moderation commands they can't run.

What does 'explainable' mean in practice?

Every action carries a structured reason. Send /why with the verdict id and you get the verdict, the score, and the exact signals that fired — for example avatar_pHash_matches_admin · join_age<10m · first_message_link.

How do I report a wrong ban or spam that got through?

Tap Wrong call? on the Targa notice — a 👎 reaction on it does the same — or forward the spam to @HeyTargaBot in a DM. From the dashboard it is one click on any page, and members can raise it with /report. The report arrives with Targa's own verdict attached — the score, the signals that fired and what it did — so you never have to explain what happened. Replies reach you on the web and in the bot's DM, and you can answer from either. Nothing is posted in your group. Every plan, Free included.

Is my report private?

Yes. Every issue is a private thread: nothing is posted in your group, and screenshots are re-encoded and deleted when the issue closes. Every report shapes the detector.

What kinds of spam does it catch?

Fake admins, lookalike characters, messages edited into spam, scams hidden in pictures and QR codes, link and crypto giveaway spam, floods and raids. And the attacks no rule describes: conversational scams that turn at message five, phishing written for your group, coordinated rings. In any language.

Will it conflict with my existing moderation bot?

No. Targa focuses on screening messages and members; rule-based moderation bots can run alongside it.

Is Targa open source?

No — closed source, and hosted by us. You don't run infrastructure, and detection internals stay ahead of adversaries.

What data does Targa see?

Messages in groups it protects, as any admin bot does. Verdicts and signals are retained so /why works; see the dashboard's privacy page for specifics.

Is Targa a Telegram Guardian bot?

Yes. Guardian bots are a Telegram feature, not something we invented: Telegram introduced them in June 2026, and its Guard Mode lets a group hand its join requests to one bot. Targa supports it: turn on Approve new members for your group and give Targa the Process Join Requests admin right, and it screens every join request before the account gets in. Accounts on ban lists, admin impersonators and raid waves are declined at the door, everyone else is approved in seconds, and every decline is logged with a reason. In watch-only mode Targa only logs what it would decline and leaves each request to you. It's included on every plan, Free included.