How to Convert a CSV or Excel Contact List to a VCF (vCard) File

To convert a CSV to VCF, upload or paste the CSV into a converter and download the .vcf file, which iPhone, Android, Google Contacts and Outlook can all import. The CSV to VCF converter matches name, phone, email and company columns for you and can write phone numbers in international format.

Each row becomes one vCard 3.0 entry, the version iPhone and Google export themselves.

Why the format matters

Phones and contact apps import vCards, while spreadsheets and CRMs prefer CSV. Excel cannot save a .vcf, so a spreadsheet of contacts has to be converted. To go the other way, from a phone export back to a sheet, use the VCF to CSV converter.

The by-hand way

1. Export the contacts to CSV, with a header row.
2. Write each contact as a vCard by hand, or with a script, labelling every field (TEL, EMAIL, ORG) and escaping commas and semicolons.
3. Join the cards in one text file and save it as .vcf.

Hand-built files go wrong on accented names and long lines, which the standard requires folding at 75 bytes. The converter handles both.

Step 1: load the file

Paste the CSV with a header row, or upload a .csv, .xlsx or .ods up to 25 MB. Google Contacts and Outlook exports work as they are, including Google's Phone 1 - Value columns.

Step 2: set the phone format

Leave international format on and pick the country most numbers are from, so (415) 555-2671 becomes +14155552671. If Excel stripped a leading 0, the option cannot recover it; format the column as Text and retype. Background in formatting phone numbers in Excel.

Step 3: check the columns and download

Check Which column is which and fix any wrong guess; the file rebuilds as you change it. Download contacts.vcf and open it on your phone, or import it in iCloud, Google Contacts or Outlook.

What this check cannot do

• It converts what is in the sheet; it cannot tell whether a number still works or is a mobile.
• One address per contact: home and business address columns are joined into one.
• Photos, groups and custom fields are not carried over.
• Legacy .xls files are not read; save them as .xlsx or CSV first.

Next: check the emails before they go into a phone

A contact file usually carries email addresses too. Run them through the verify page: the first 100 email checks are free with a Google sign-in, no card. See bulk email verification and pricing.

Try it now

Open the CSV to VCF converter.