# Import contacts > Add many contacts at once from a spreadsheet, without duplicates. - Type: Task - App: Admin console - Screen: Contacts - Section: General settings - Also searched as: upload contacts, load contacts, excel, csv, xlsx, spreadsheet, bulk, add many contacts, migrate contacts, template - Open: https://help.bridge.new/console/contacts-import?lang=en - Markdown: https://help.bridge.new/md/console/contacts-import.md Bring all your contacts into Bridge in one go Upload an Excel or CSV file and Bridge creates every contact at once, checks each row and shows you the result before anything changes. In 6 steps. ## What you can do - A template built from your attributes - Fill it in yourself or with an assistant - Optional: a WhatsApp chat with each one - Nothing changes until you confirm ## Steps ### Step 1 · Open Import contacts Start from the Directory: the import has five steps. In Contacts, on the Directory tab, select Import in the toolbar. An assistant of five steps opens: the columns, fill it in, upload, start conversations, and check and import. No contact is imported until you select Import contacts on the last step, and you can close it at any point without changing anything. - Contacts › Directory › Import - You can close it at any step - Nothing is imported until the last step Open: https://help.bridge.new/console/contacts-import/1?lang=en ### Step 2 · Download the template Get a file with exactly the columns Bridge expects. The first step lists the columns your file needs, taken from your workspace: first name, last name, phone and email, the owner email, and every contact attribute you created, such as Company, Segment or City. First name, last name and phone are required. Select Download the template to get a file with these headers and one example row. An attribute is a piece of information Bridge keeps about each contact. - Built from your workspace’s attributes - Required: first name, last name and phone - Comes with one example row Open: https://help.bridge.new/console/contacts-import/2?lang=en ### Step 3 · Put your contacts in the template One contact per row, in the template’s format. Choose how: fill the template yourself, or let an assistant such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini reformat your own file with the prompt Bridge gives you, built from your columns. Keep the header row as it is and write one contact per row. Write each phone in a single cell with its country code, such as +57 300 118 4472, and format that column as text so the plus sign is kept. Leave a cell empty rather than guessing. If an assistant prepares the file, review it before uploading it. - Keep the headers as they are - Phone with country code, in one cell - Or let ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini do it Open: https://help.bridge.new/console/contacts-import/3?lang=en ### Step 4 · Upload your file Bridge reads the file without changing anything yet. Drag the file onto the box, or click to choose it: XLSX or CSV, up to 10 MB. At this point Bridge only reads the file; reading is not importing, so your contacts stay as they are. - XLSX or CSV, up to 10 MB - Reading is not importing Open: https://help.bridge.new/console/contacts-import/4?lang=en ### Step 5 · Start conversations, if you want Each new contact can get a WhatsApp from their owner. This step is optional. Turn on Start conversations on import and each new contact gets a WhatsApp message from their Bridge user, the person in the Owner email column, sent from the workspace’s default WhatsApp line. Only approved WhatsApp templates can open a conversation. You choose who sends to rows with no owner, or leave them out. Only the contacts this import creates are contacted. - Optional, from the default WhatsApp line - Sent by the person in Owner email - Approved templates only Open: https://help.bridge.new/console/contacts-import/5?lang=en ### Step 6 · Check and import See the result first, then confirm. Bridge reads the file and shows what will happen: how many contacts are ready, how many have a problem and are left out, and how many are already in Bridge and are skipped. Export the details to see every row with a problem, fix those rows in your file and upload it again; contacts already imported are skipped. Select Import contacts to finish. The new contacts appear in the Directory. - Rows with a problem are left out - Contacts already in Bridge are skipped - Then they appear in the Directory Open: https://help.bridge.new/console/contacts-import/6?lang=en ## Related guides - Tour of this screen: [Get to know your contacts](https://help.bridge.new/md/console/contacts.md): Your customers and prospects, and who can see them. · Open: https://help.bridge.new/console/contacts?lang=en - More in General settings: [Get to know the people in your workspace](https://help.bridge.new/md/console/users.md): Who works in Bridge, their licence, their access and their teams. · Open: https://help.bridge.new/console/users?lang=en - More in General settings: [Create a contact attribute](https://help.bridge.new/md/console/contacts-attribute.md): Keep your own information about each contact, such as Customer type or Renewal date. · Open: https://help.bridge.new/console/contacts-attribute?lang=en - More in General settings: [Choose who sees contacts](https://help.bridge.new/md/console/contacts-access.md): Decide who can create contacts and which contacts each person sees. · Open: https://help.bridge.new/console/contacts-access?lang=en - More in General settings: [Create a WhatsApp template](https://help.bridge.new/md/console/whatsapp-template.md): Create a WhatsApp template and send it for approval to start conversations. · Open: https://help.bridge.new/console/whatsapp-template?lang=en - More in General settings: [Get to know your team's rules and hours](https://help.bridge.new/md/console/rules.md): How your team writes and when it replies. · Open: https://help.bridge.new/console/rules?lang=en