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Import your user data into Intercom

Import your users into Intercom from Mailchimp, Mixpanel or a CSV.

Beth-Ann Sher avatar
Written by Beth-Ann Sher
Updated over a week ago

If you are a current Intercom customer, you can import your users from the following sources: 

Note:

All methods allow you to import username, email, userID and signup date in the format DD/MM/YYYY, ISO 8601, or a Unix time stamp. Please note that if you use DD/MM/YYYY you can't send us the time.

  • CSV imports also allow you to create custom user attributes (include a column for each).

  • Mixpanel includes last_seen.

  • MailChimp imports the user's IP.


Get started

First, log in to your Intercom account and click 'New users or leads' from the people list.

Then, select 'Import people': 

Next, choose the method you want to use to import users and follow the import steps. 

You can also access all of these options in Settings > Data > Imports & exports:

If you import users into Intercom and they immediately match the criteria for a message that you have live, they will get that message right away.

How to import users from a CSV

Step-by-step:

If you've selected the CSV import option, simply complete the following steps to import your users:

1. Complete steps 1 and 2 outlined above in the 'Import users any time section'. Make sure you click ‘Open CSV Import tool.’

2. Select ‘Import users’ to import a list of logged-in users or customers of your product. Or choose ‘Import leads’ to import a list of leads into your Intercom workspace. 

3. Drag and drop your CSV file and Click ‘Upload.’ The maximum file size limit is 20 mb. You should break up the file if it's larger than that.

4. Intercom will now prompt you to select the relevant columns that contain your users’ email addresses, IDs, full names and dates of sign-up. Click ‘Select this column’ for each and click ‘Confirm.

All users or leads in your CSV must have an email address.

5. If you have added additional columns, Intercom will prompt you to give your custom attributes a specific name. Click 'Confirm' once you have named your custom attribute.

6. Tag your CSV list with a memorable term such as ‘New Sign-Ups 2015’

7. Once imported, you can search your Intercom User list for ‘tag: New Sign-Ups 2015.’ Now you’re ready to do things like send a one-off message to everyone on the list or create a segment for that group and send them a targeted Proactive support message.

You'll need to add the country calling code to the start of your phone numbers. For example, for US numbers you would add '+1' or '001'.

Can I update user data with a CSV import?

Yes. You can update values, and add new attributes for existing users. All CSV imports require you to have a column with user email addresses. A few things to note:

  • You can update the email of a user by sending the same user_id and different email address. We'll update the user with that user_id in Intercom to reflect the new email address.

  • You can't update the user_id by setting a new value for it and using the existing email address - that would create a new record.

  • If you use both user_id and email in Intercom, sending email in a CSV import is enough to match the user record in Intercom.

Import users via Rest API

It's possible to import users, along with custom user attributes, via the REST API. Once you've imported users, you can also add historical event data for your users via the Events API.

Check out this tutorial which covers how to import contact user and lead data from a JSON file using the Intercom APIs.

See your Data Import History

You can see your data Import history in settings section in Intercom. 

What does the "Multiple records match" error mean?

The "multiple records matched" error typically occurs when there are multiple users in your system with the same email address. This creates a conflict because the system cannot determine which user to update. To resolve this, you'll need to ensure that each user has a unique email address or user ID.


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