Import contacts from CSV or Excel

🎯 Goal

Bring your existing customers into MeAPI in one go, with their names, tags and details ready for campaigns.

🧰 What you need

• A spreadsheet of contacts who agreed to receive WhatsApp messages from you
• Excel, Google Sheets or any tool that saves CSV

Step 0: prepare the file

One row per person, with column names in row 1. Only the phone column is required:

customers.csv

phone,name,tags,city,last_order
+919810000000,Ravi Kumar,vip;jaipur,Jaipur,2026-09-14
9820000000,Priya Shah,wholesale,Surat,2026-10-02

• Phone: with country code is best (+919810000000). Numbers without one get the default country you pick during import.
• Tags: separate several with ; or ,.
• Any other column can become a custom field (city, last_order…).
• In Excel: File → Save As → CSV UTF-8. In Google Sheets: File → Download → CSV.

Steps

1. Open Contacts and click Import CSV. Then Choose a CSV file (up to 10 MB). Only .csv files are accepted here. Save Excel sheets as CSV first.
2. Map the columns. For each column pick Phone number, Name, Tags, Custom field (keeps the column name) or Don’t import.
3. Numbers without a country code are in: choose the country, such as India (+91).
4. Optional: Tag every imported contact, for example import-oct-2026, so you can find or target this batch later.
5. Numbers already in your contacts: Skip them, or Update them (name, merge tags, fields).
6. How did these contacts opt in? Pick the source and the Opt-in date, and tick the box confirming that these people agreed to receive WhatsApp messages from you. Import stays disabled until you do.
7. Click import. Import finished shows how many were added, updated and already there, and lists the rows not imported with the reason, such as an invalid number. Click Done.

login.meapi.in/contacts

• The Import contacts dialog after a file is chosen.
• Each column of your file with an Import as choice: Phone number, Name, Tags, Custom field or Don’t import.
• Numbers without a country code are in, and Tag every imported contact (optional).
• Numbers already in your contacts: Skip them, or Update them.
• How did these contacts opt in?, the Opt-in date and the consent tick box.

Consent is not optional

WhatsApp requires an opt-in before you message someone. Importing a bought or scraped list breaks WhatsApp policy. It also leads to blocks, a Low quality rating and possibly a banned number.

Tips

• Bigger than 20,000? Split the file and import it in parts.
• Who can import? Roles with the Contacts → Import permission. Others don’t see the button.
• Sending once to a list? A campaign’s Upload or paste audience also takes a CSV or Excel file. See Campaigns.
• A number repeated inside the file is imported once, and its last row wins.
• Test a campaign on the batch tag first. Send to a small segment before everyone.

Common mistakes

• Excel turned numbers into 9.1981E+11. Format the phone column as Text before saving.
• Leading zeros such as 09810000000. Remove the 0, or let the default country handle it.
• Semicolon-separated “CSV” from some Excel locales. Save as CSV UTF-8 (comma delimited).

What’s next

Segments →Target the people you just imported.Tutorial: your first campaign →Send them a template.