How to Convert VCF Contacts to CSV (and Back) for Google or Outlook
Switching phones, cleaning up a messy address book, or handing a list of 300 customer contacts to the sales team: contacts move between phones as .vcf (vCard) files, and between people as spreadsheets. VCF to CSV converts both ways.
Steps
- Open a .vcf or CSV file, or paste the text.
- For VCF → CSV, pick a layout. For CSV → vCard, check the column matching.
- Download the CSV or the .vcf.
Three CSV layouts
- General: full name, name parts, and a pair of columns for each phone, email, address and website, plus birthday, anniversary, notes and groups. This layout adds columns as needed, so no value is lost.
- Google Contacts: uses the column names Google Contacts expects for import, including phonetic names.
- Outlook: uses Outlook's fixed headings. Because Outlook has a fixed number of slots (only so many phones and emails per contact), anything without a spare column is counted in the status line under the table so you know what didn't fit.
What it can read
vCard 2.1, 3.0 and 4.0, including the tricky parts: folded lines, quoted-printable text (common in older Android and Nokia exports, which is why names sometimes look like =E0=A4=85) and Apple's custom labels. Photos, logos and other binary data are skipped so the spreadsheet stays plain text.
Going back: CSV to vCard
Choose CSV to vCard and the page matches your spreadsheet columns to contact fields. Check the dropdown beside each column (for example, make sure "Mobile" maps to a phone field, not notes) and download a vCard 3.0 file. Most phones and contact apps import vCard 3.0 cleanly.
Example: cleaning a 1,200-contact address book
Years of phone migrations leave duplicates, contacts with only a first name, and numbers in five formats. Export from your phone as .vcf, convert here with the general layout, open the CSV in a spreadsheet, sort by name to spot duplicates, standardise the numbers, delete junk. Then convert back with CSV to vCard and import. An hour of tidying, and you won't wonder who "Ramesh Plumber 2" is ever again.
Example: Android to Google Contacts
Export contacts from an old phone, convert with the Google Contacts layout, and import the CSV at contacts.google.com. Contacts sync to the new phone once you sign in.
Tips
- Back up first. Keep the original .vcf untouched until you've confirmed the import worked.
- Import into a label or group if your contacts app allows, so you can undo a bad import by deleting that group.
- Watch for country codes. Mixing "+91 98..." and "098..." creates duplicates later. Standardise in the spreadsheet.
- Spreadsheet zeros: if you open the CSV in Excel and numbers lose their leading zero, use CSV to Excel, which keeps them as text.
Why vCards are messier than they look
A vCard looks like simple text, but every phone maker has added its own twists over the years: custom labels, different line folding, encodings for non-English names, multiple versions of the format. That's why opening a .vcf in a text editor and copying fields by hand rarely works for more than a handful of contacts, and why a converter that understands the quirks saves real time.
Privacy
A contacts file is a list of other people's personal data, so it matters where it goes. The tool page says contacts stay in the tab; a reload of pasted text brings them back, and closing the tab clears the file. Google ads appear on the page, as on the rest of the site.
FAQ
Which vCard versions work? 2.1, 3.0 and 4.0.
Are photos included? No, binary fields are skipped.
How do I import into Google Contacts? Use the Google Contacts layout and import the CSV there.
Can I turn a spreadsheet into contacts? Yes, with CSV to vCard.
Moving or cleaning contacts? Start with VCF to CSV.
— Alok Kumar Singh