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Import Hundreds of Contacts from a Spreadsheet

Learn how to import your existing contact list from a CSV file in seconds, complete with custom fields like birthdays and membership numbers.

4 min read

Already have a list of contacts in a spreadsheet? Import them all at once instead of adding them one by one. This guide shows you how.

Prepare Your File

Save your spreadsheet as a CSV file. It needs at least a phone column. Additional columns like first_name, last_name, email, and any custom fields will be imported too.

contacts.csv
phone,first_name,last_name,email,birthday,membership
263771234567,Sarah,Moyo,sarah@email.com,1990-05-15,GOLD
263772345678,James,Ndlovu,james@email.com,1988-12-03,SILVER
263773456789,Grace,Mutasa,grace@email.com,1995-07-22,BRONZE
Important: Phone numbers should include the country code (e.g. 263 for Zimbabwe). The platform will auto-format them.

Import Steps

1
Upload CSV
2
Pick Group
3
Import
4
Done!
  1. Go to Contacts → Import
  2. Click Choose File and select your CSV
  3. Optionally pick a contact group to add the imported contacts to (or leave blank)
  4. Click Import — the platform auto-detects your columns

Duplicate phone numbers are automatically skipped — only new contacts are added. You'll see a summary showing how many were imported and how many were skipped.

Pro tip: Any extra columns in your CSV (like birthday and membership) become custom fields on each contact. You can then use them as variables in your messages — e.g. {birthday} or {membership}.

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