Bulk import & export

For migrations, marketing seeding, or external analysis, bulk operations let you move thousands of contacts at once.

In this guide:

• Bulk import a CSV
• Field mapping
• De-dupe rules
• Bulk export
• Limits and tips

Step 1: Open bulk import

On the Contacts page, click Import. Drag a CSV file into the dropzone, or click to browse.

Screenshot: The bulk-import dropzone with a CSV file selected.

The CSV should have a header row. Standard columns Hilal Chatbot recognizes:

• email (required for any non-anonymous contact)
• name
• phone
• tags (comma-separated)
• Custom fields (anything else; treated as captured fields)

Step 2: Map fields

After upload, Hilal Chatbot shows a preview with auto-detected column mappings. Review and correct:

• Customer Email → email
• Full Name → name
• Plan Tier → custom field plan_tier

Click Proceed.

Step 3: De-dupe

Before saving, Hilal Chatbot checks each row against existing contacts:

• Match by email → update existing contact (merge fields, append tags).
• No match → create new.

For full control, pick the strategy:

• Update on match — overwrite existing fields with CSV values.
• Append on match — only add new fields; existing values stay.
• Skip on match — only create new contacts.

Step 4: Confirm and import

Confirm the row counts (will create N, will update M). Click Import.

For small imports (≤ 1,000), runs immediately. For larger, queues and emails you when complete.

Bulk export

On the Contacts page, click Export. Pick fields:

• Identity (name, email, phone)
• Tags
• First/last seen
• Custom fields
• Conversation count
• External IDs

Click Export → CSV. Same flow as conversation exports — small downloads inline, large queue and email.

Limits

• Per-import row limit — depends on plan, typically 50,000.
• File size — typically 50 MB.
• Rate limit — 1 bulk import every 10 minutes per organization.

For larger migrations, contact support — Enterprise plans support direct database imports.

Tips

• Always export before import. A snapshot helps if you need to roll back.
• Test with 10 rows first. Mapping errors are easier to spot at small scale.
• Tag imports. Add a tag like imported-2026-05-01 so you can filter to the imported batch later.

Common pitfalls

• Duplicate emails in CSV → Hilal Chatbot keeps the last row (rows above are overwritten).
• Invalid email formats → those rows are skipped; an error report downloads.
• Tags not splitting → ensure tags column uses comma separation, not semicolons.

What’s next