---
title: "Import contacts into an audience"
description: "The CSV import on the audience page, over the API. Every well-formed address becomes a contact if it is not one yet, and every one lands in this audience, up to 500 rows per call. Send a longer list in several calls."
url: "https://openemail.uk/docs/api/audiences/import"
area: "API"
category: "Mailbox"
---

# Import contacts into an audience

The CSV import on the audience page, over the API. Every well-formed address becomes a contact if it is not one yet, and every one lands in this audience, up to 500 rows per call. Send a longer list in several calls.

`POST /audiences/{id}/import`

## POST /audiences/{id}/import

The CSV import on the audience page, over the API. Every well-formed address becomes a contact if it is not one yet, and every one lands in this audience, up to 500 rows per call. Send a longer list in several calls.

## Example

Needs `audiences:write` and `contacts:write`, because it creates contacts. Each row is an `email` and an optional `name` of up to 200 characters.

**curl**

```
curl -X POST "$OE/audiences/aud_4c1b8e2a7d9f05c36b4e8a71/import" -H "$AUTH" -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{
  "contacts": [
    { "email": "grace@example.com", "name": "Grace Hopper" },
    { "email": "katherine@example.com", "name": "Katherine Johnson" },
    { "email": "not-an-address" }
  ]
}'
```

**Response**

```
{
  "object": "audience_import",
  "audienceId": "aud_4c1b8e2a7d9f05c36b4e8a71",
  "created": 1,
  "added": 1,
  "skipped": 1,
  "invalid": ["not-an-address"]
}
```

> `created` counts the new contacts, `added` the new memberships in this audience, and `skipped` the rows that were not imported. `invalid` lists the malformed addresses exactly as they were sent. A new contact is saved as `manual` and joins the default audience as well.

> An address that is already a contact is reused, never duplicated, and keeps its name: a `name` here only fills one that was empty. An address that was deleted from the book becomes a contact again, and the same address twice in one call counts once.

> Safe to replay: a second identical call creates nothing and adds nothing. Nothing is sent to anybody and nobody is subscribed to anything.