Import Contacts (CSV)

Note

POST https://api.whatbot.in/public/v1/contacts/csv — upload a CSV file to create/update many contacts at once. Same upsert behavior as the Contacts API.

Request

Send the file as multipart/form-data under the field name file. It is read as UTF-8. Save it without a byte-order mark (Excel’s “CSV UTF-8” adds one): with one, the first header is not recognised — if that is phone, every row lacks a phone.

cURL

curl -X POST https://api.whatbot.in/public/v1/contacts/csv \
  -H "X-API-Key: wa_live_xxx" \
  -F "file=@contacts.csv"

CSV format

The first row is a header. Each row needs a phone or a source_ref; any column that isn’t one of the named ones below becomes a custom attribute on the contact.

contacts.csv

phone,name,tags,city,product_interest,budget
9876543210,Ravi Kumar,"gold,vip",Chennai,gold coins,15L
9812300002,Priya Nair,silver,Mumbai,silver,5L
9843311220,Arjun Rao,,Bengaluru,coins,25L

Column	Required	Becomes
phone	One of phone / source_ref	The contact’s number (normalized to E.164)
source_ref	One of phone / source_ref	Your own reference for the contact
name	—	Contact display name
tags	—	Tags, comma-separated inside the cell (quote the cell)
opt_in	—	1, true, yes, y or opted_in (any case) marks the contact opted in. Otherwise an opt_in_status column is used if present (opted_in, opted_out or pending); without one the contact is pending
ext_lead_id	—	An external lead reference
anything else	—	A custom attribute. Empty cells are skipped.

Rows with neither a usable phone nor a source_ref are skipped.

Response

200

{ "upserted": 3 }

upserted counts the rows that were created or updated.

Each row replaces the contact

As with POST /contacts, a row writes the contact’s name, tags, attributes and opt-in status as they appear in the file — a blank name cell or a missing tags column clears what was there, and a row with no opt-in value resets the contact to pending. Export the full contact, not just the columns you changed.

Tip

You can also import a CSV without code: Contacts → Import CSV, or Settings → Contacts. Use this endpoint when you want the import automated (e.g. a nightly export from your CRM).