Contact list importing allows you to upload your CSV phone/email list and use it with SMS/Email marketing channels in Manychat.
⚠️ Important:
- This feature is only available for Pro accounts.
- Importing contact lists is disabled by default in all new Manychat accounts. Contact the support team to request approval and enable it.
- You need to connect the relevant channel for the data you want to import. You can't import the email if you don't have an email channel enabled. To import phone numbers, make sure to connect the SMS channel.
- You can upload only those contacts who gave you consent to receive SMS or Email. Note that you are responsible for collecting such consent outside of Manychat. When you upload contacts to Manychat, they will be automatically considered opted-in for the corresponding channel.
- Importing and creating new contacts will affect the cost of your monthly Pro subscription. For more details on our pricing, refer to our Pricing Info page.
Go to Contacts tab and press the Import button.
Click the Select .csv file with contacts to upload your contact list:
⚠️ Note: If you'd like to import a large number of contacts, we highly recommend importing them in separate chunks, each containing no more than 20,000 lines. We also recommend naming each column in the first row (First Name, Last Name, Phone, Email, Country, etc).
Check that you have selected the correct file, confirm that you have obtained contacts’ consent to send SMS and email messages, and click the Next button to proceed.
Match CSV columns to System and Custom Fields in Manychat.
💡 You can create custom fields in Settings > Fields.
⚠️ Note: Before you import, make sure the phone contains the country code. Without a country code, the contact will not be treated as "Opted-in" for SMS.
The imported data is matched with the data of existing contacts. The system gets data from the CSV file and maps it to system and custom fields. If the phone number or email in the file matches those tied to an existing contact, Manychat will update the data to match the CSV file. If the system doesn't find matches in email and/or phone, it creates a new contact.
Check the number of columns for import and select/create a tag for the imported contacts (optional). You can add or delete several tags.
Click the Confirm Import button to start importing the contacts.
💡 If you have an active Rule with the "New contact" trigger, it will be automatically triggered for every contact in the uploading list.
The circular progress bar indicates that the contacts are being imported. When the import is completed, you'll see the number of created and updated contacts.
Head to the Contacts tab and check your new contacts.
💡 If contacts were uploaded without the First Name and Last Name - their name will be based on their email or phone.
⚠️ Note: You cannot edit the imported contact's name and avatar. Here's how you will see their contact card if their name is not added.