Moving from Mailchimp, Brevo, MailPoet, or a spreadsheet? The CSV import brings your whole list over in one pass — and the export gets it back out just as easily. Both run in small batches from your browser, so even very large lists finish reliably without server timeouts.
Importing a CSV
Open Send Emails → Contacts and click Import.
1. Prepare your file
Export your list from your previous tool as CSV. The only required column is the email address; any of the other contact fields (first name, last name, phone, company, job title, website, country, date of birth) import too if present. Column names don’t need to match exactly — mapping is auto-detected.
2. Upload and map columns
Upload the file. The importer reads your header row and auto-detects the mapping from your columns to contact fields — “First Name”, “fname”, and “first_name” all land on the right field. Review the detected mapping and adjust anything it guessed wrong; columns you leave unmapped are simply ignored.
3. Assign tags
Optionally pick one or more tags to apply to every imported contact — for example imported-2026 plus newsletter. Tagging your imports is the easiest way to target (or exclude) them later.
4. Run the import
Start the import and watch the progress bar. Contacts are processed in batches driven by your browser, so keep the tab open until it completes. When it finishes you’ll see how many contacts were created and how many were updated.
How duplicates are handled
The import never creates duplicates — email is unique per contact, guaranteed at the database level. When a row matches an existing contact:
- Empty fields on the existing contact are filled in from the CSV; existing values are never overwritten.
- Tags from the import are appended to the contact’s existing tags.
- The contact’s subscription status is never changed — an import can’t accidentally resubscribe someone who opted out.
This makes re-importing an updated file completely safe.
Exporting to CSV
From Send Emails → Contacts, click Export:
- Export everything, or first apply a search or status filter and export just the current filtered view — for example, only subscribed contacts.
- The CSV includes all contact fields plus each contact’s tags.
- Large lists download in pages that are stitched together in your browser, so the export doesn’t strain the server.
Use exports for backups before bulk changes, for reporting, or to move data into other systems. Pro users also get dedicated CSV reports for campaign performance.
Troubleshooting
- “Nothing imports” — make sure the file is a real CSV (not XLSX) and has a header row containing an email column.
- Weird characters in names — save the CSV as UTF-8 in your spreadsheet tool and re-import; the dedupe rules make re-importing safe.
- Import seems stuck — the import is driven by your browser; check the tab is still open and your session hasn’t logged out.