> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.messageflow.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.messageflow.com/contacts/adding-contacts/importing-contact-lists-csv-excel.md).
# Importing contact lists (CSV, Excel)
1. To import contacts, a file with a .csv extension (e.g., in Excel) must be created. This file should contain at least one column with the header and phone numbers (in the format +48xxxxxxxxxxxxx, 0xxxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx):
{% hint style="warning" %}
**Important configuration note**: \
To prevent file signature mismatch errors and ensure all special characters are processed correctly, the file must be saved using the CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) format. If the preferred spreadsheet editor does not offer this specific option, saving the file with UTF-8 encoding that includes a Byte Order Mark (BOM) is required before upload.
{% endhint %}
2. Once the file has been created, go to **Contacts** -> **Import** and click the box below selecting the file you created, or drag it to the indicated location:
3. Once the file is loaded correctly, you need to pair the columns from the loaded file to the system fields. It is required to pair at least a cell phone and/or Email address. If the column with the phone number is named "cell" or "number" - the linkage will occur automatically.
4. Once the field linkage has been confirmed, the newly created contact group should be named or, alternatively, the imported contacts can be added to an existing group in the account.
5. If the option "**Do existing contacts update with data from file**?" is checked, all additional fields will be updated for the contact with data from the imported file.
---
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