CSV to VCF Converter
Convert a CSV or Excel contact list to a VCF (vCard) file your phone actually accepts — entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded: your contacts never leave your device. Auto-detects Google Contacts and Outlook column names, lets you fix the mapping, previews the first contacts as cards, and writes correct vCard 2.1, 3.0 or 4.0 — as one .vcf or a zip of per-contact files.
Drop your CSV or Excel file here
.csv, .xlsx or .xls — processed on your device, never uploaded.
What this CSV to vCard converter does differently
The conversion runs as JavaScript on your device. There is no server to receive your contact list — you can go offline after the page loads and it still works.
Most converters hard-code one version and don't tell you which. Here you pick, with plain-language guidance on what Android, iPhone, iCloud and old phones each accept.
Google's "Given Name" era headers, its newer "First Name" era, Outlook's "Mobile Phone" naming, quoted commas, empty rows, missing headers — detected and handled, with an editable mapping table as the safety net.
The first five contacts render as cards — name, phone, email, company — so a mis-mapped column is obvious before it's in your phone, not after.
CSV in, vCard out: the format, briefly
A CSV(comma-separated values) file is a plain-text table: one contact per line, fields separated by commas, usually with a header line naming the columns. Spreadsheet apps, CRMs, Google Contacts and Outlook all export it. It's a great interchange format for tables — and a terrible one for phones, because there is no agreed set of column names. One app writes Given Name, another First Name, a third just Name.
A VCF file (Virtual Contact File) carries vCard data — the standard contact format that phones, email clients and address books agree on. Each contact is a BEGIN:VCARD … END:VCARD block with typed properties: N (structured name), FN (display name), TEL with a TYPE like CELL or WORK, EMAIL, ORG, TITLE and the structured address ADR. One .vcf file can hold thousands of contacts back to back, which is exactly how bulk phone imports work.
Converting well is more than swapping delimiters: commas and semicolons inside values must be escaped, long lines folded at 75 octets per the RFC, names split into family/given parts, phone types preserved, and — for vCard 2.1 — non-ASCII text quoted-printable encoded. This converter does all of it, and the reverse tool undoes it just as carefully.
Which vCard version do you need?
The 1996 original. Choose it only for old feature phones, SIM-card managers and some car head units that predate 3.0 support. Uses quoted-printable encoding for non-ASCII names — this tool applies it automatically so accented names don't arrive as garbage.
The RFC 2426 workhorse and the version Google Contacts and iCloud themselves export. Android imports it. iPhone imports it. Outlook imports it. When in doubt — and for any phone made in the last 15 years — pick 3.0.
RFC 6350, the current standard. Cleaner syntax, UTF-8 only. Great for modern CRMs and apps; risky for iCloud's web importer and older Outlook builds, which can reject it. Use it when the receiving software says it wants 4.0.
Rule of thumb: Android → 2.1 or 3.0 (both fine, 3.0 preferred), iPhone / iCloud → 3.0, modern apps & CRMs → 4.0 if they ask for it.
Field mapping reference
These are the column names the auto-detector recognizes out of the box, and the vCard property each becomes. Anything not listed can still be mapped by hand — the dropdowns in Step 2 override every guess.
| Source | CSV / Excel column | vCard property | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Contacts (old export) | Given Name / Family Name | N + FN | Structured name — family and given parts land in the right N slots. |
| Google Contacts (old export) | Phone 1 - Value / Phone 1 - Type | TEL;TYPE=CELL | First phone column is treated as the mobile number. |
| Google Contacts (old export) | E-mail 1 - Value | EMAIL | Additional E-mail 2/3 columns become extra EMAIL lines. |
| Google Contacts (old export) | Organization 1 - Name / Organization 1 - Title | ORG + TITLE | Company and job title. |
| Google Contacts (old export) | Address 1 - Formatted | ADR | The whole formatted address goes into the street slot when it's one column. |
| Google Contacts (2025+ export) | First Name / Last Name | N + FN | Google switched header names in newer exports — both generations are detected. |
| Outlook CSV | First Name / Middle Name / Last Name | N + FN | All three name parts are kept. |
| Outlook CSV | Mobile Phone / Home Phone / Business Phone | TEL;TYPE=CELL / HOME / WORK | Each phone column keeps its own TEL TYPE. |
| Outlook CSV | E-mail Address | EMAIL | Secondary Outlook e-mail columns map to a second EMAIL line. |
| Outlook CSV | Home Street / Home City / Home State / Home Postal Code | ADR (structured) | Street, city, region and ZIP each land in their own ADR component. |
| Generic spreadsheets | Name / Full Name / Contact | FN (+ best-effort N) | A single name column still produces a valid structured N by splitting on the last space. |
| Generic spreadsheets | Phone / Tel / Number / Mobile / Cell | TEL | Almost any phone-ish header is caught; unrecognized columns can be mapped by hand. |
Importing your new VCF on Android — the short version
- Convert above with vCard 3.0 (or 2.1 for very old devices) and the single-file output.
- Get the .vcf onto the phone — USB cable, email it to yourself, or drop it in Google Drive.
- Open Contacts → tap your profile picture or ⋮ → Settings → Import → .vcf file (wording varies slightly by manufacturer) → pick the file.
- Prefer the cloud? Import at contacts.google.com instead and the contacts sync to every Android device on the account.
Full walkthrough with Samsung/Pixel menu differences, SIM copying and troubleshooting: CSV to vCard for Android →
Importing on iPhone — the short version
- Convert above with vCard 3.0— iCloud's importer is strict, and 3.0 is what it likes.
- On a computer, sign in at icloud.com/contacts, click the gear / ⋯ menu → Import vCard, choose your .vcf.
- Contacts sync down to the iPhone automatically over iCloud.
- No computer? AirDrop the .vcf to the phone, or email it and tap the attachment → Add All Contacts.
Full walkthrough including the Files-app route and duplicate handling: CSV to vCard for iPhone →
CSV to VCF — FAQ
How do I convert a CSV file to VCF?
Drop your CSV file into the converter above. It reads the header row, auto-matches your columns to contact fields (name, phone, email, company, address), and shows the first five contacts as preview cards. Check the mapping, pick a vCard version (3.0 is the safe default), and click Download — you get a .vcf file with every contact, ready to import into any phone or contacts app. Nothing is uploaded; the whole conversion runs in your browser.
Is CSV to VCF conversion here really private?
Yes. The file is parsed with JavaScript running on your own device (PapaParse for CSV, SheetJS for Excel). There is no upload endpoint — you can disconnect from the internet after the page loads and the converter still works. Most competing converters send your entire contact list to their server first; ours never does.
What's the difference between VCF and vCard?
Nothing meaningful — vCard is the name of the format (the standard) and .vcf is its file extension (Virtual Contact File). 'Convert CSV to vCard' and 'convert CSV to VCF' mean the same thing, and this tool does both — it writes standard vCard data into a .vcf file.
Which vCard version should I choose — 2.1, 3.0 or 4.0?
Choose 3.0 unless you have a specific reason not to. vCard 3.0 is what Google Contacts and iCloud themselves export, and both Android and iPhone import it without complaint. Pick 2.1 only for very old feature phones, some car head units and legacy SIM-management tools. Pick 4.0 for modern CRMs and apps that follow the newest RFC 6350 standard — but note iCloud's web importer and older Outlook builds can reject 4.0 files.
Can I convert an Excel file (.xlsx) to VCF without uploading it?
Yes — drop the .xlsx or .xls file straight into this converter. It's read in your browser with SheetJS; the first worksheet becomes your contact table and the rest of the flow is identical to CSV. See the dedicated Excel to VCF page for Excel-specific advice (phone numbers losing their + prefix, dates turning into numbers, and so on).
How do I import the VCF file into an Android phone?
Two common routes. On the phone: copy the .vcf over (USB, email, Drive), open the Contacts app, tap your avatar or the fix-and-manage menu, choose Import from file, and pick the .vcf. Or in a browser: go to contacts.google.com, click Import, select the .vcf, and let it sync to every Android device on that Google account. Android happily accepts vCard 2.1 and 3.0.
How do I import the VCF file into an iPhone?
The cleanest bulk route is iCloud: on a computer, sign in at icloud.com/contacts, click the gear (or the three-dot menu), choose Import vCard, and select your .vcf — the contacts sync down to the iPhone automatically. On the phone itself you can AirDrop the .vcf from a Mac, or open it from Mail/Files and tap Add All Contacts. Use vCard 3.0 for iCloud — its web importer is picky about other versions.
My CSV came from Google Contacts / Outlook — will the columns be recognized?
Yes, that's the converter's home turf. Google's old-style headers (Given Name, Phone 1 - Value, E-mail 1 - Value, Organization 1 - Name), its newer First Name / Last Name style, and Outlook's export headers (First Name, Mobile Phone, E-mail Address, Home Street…) are all auto-detected. Anything it can't identify shows as 'Ignore' in the mapping table, and you can point it at the right field with one dropdown.
Can I get one .vcf file per contact instead of one big file?
Yes. Under Output, switch to 'Zip of one .vcf per contact'. You'll get a .zip archive containing an individual vCard file for every contact, named after the person. Phones want the single-file option, but per-contact files are handy for CRMs, email signature tools and document management systems.
Will accents, Chinese, Arabic or emoji in names survive the conversion?
Yes. Output is UTF-8, which vCard 3.0 and 4.0 handle natively. For vCard 2.1 — which predates modern Unicode handling — non-ASCII text is automatically quoted-printable encoded with an explicit CHARSET=UTF-8 label, which is exactly what legacy 2.1 importers expect.
Is there a limit on how many contacts I can convert?
No hard limit — the constraint is your browser's memory, and a CSV with tens of thousands of rows is no problem on any modern machine. Because nothing is uploaded, there's also no file-size cap, no queue and no 'premium' tier: the full converter is free.
My CSV has no header row — can I still convert it?
Yes. Tick 'My file has no header row' and every row is treated as data. Auto-detection needs headers to guess, so assign fields manually with the dropdowns — the sample-value column shows you what's in each column so you can tell the phone column from the ZIP column at a glance.
Why do some rows disappear from the contact count?
Rows where every mapped column is empty are skipped, since they'd produce blank vCards. The counter above the mapping table tells you exactly how many rows were skipped. If a row you care about vanished, check that at least one of its filled columns is mapped to a field rather than 'Ignore'.
Can I convert VCF back to CSV?
Yes — use the VCF to CSV tool on this site. It parses vCard 2.1, 3.0 and 4.0 (including quoted-printable-encoded 2.1 files from old phones), shows the contacts as a table, and exports a clean UTF-8 CSV that opens in Excel and re-imports into Google Contacts.
Converter output is periodically re-tested against Google Contacts import, iCloud's vCard importer and Android's Contacts app, and the generator follows RFC 2426 (vCard 3.0), RFC 6350 (vCard 4.0) and the vCard 2.1 specification. Last checked: July 24, 2026. About this site