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Admins can bulk import user data using a CSV file to add or update users and set roles and privileges. Before importing, ensure data imports are enabled and organizations are imported first. Consider file size limits, data updates, and email notifications. Use the data importer tool to manage imports, ensuring correct field mapping and reviewing import details.

Location: Admin Center > Objects and rules > Tools > Data importer

Admins can add many users in a bulk import rather than adding users manually one at a time. To do this, you create a comma-separated values (CSV) file that contains the user's data. In addition to essential user data, such as email address and phone number, you can also set user roles, define an agent's privileges, and add users to an organization. You can use bulk import to either add new users or update existing ones. Bulk import through a CSV file only works for Support users and roles.

You must be an administrator to bulk import users and organizations.

Important:
  • To protect the data in your Zendesk account, data imports are not enabled by default. The account owner or an admin must contact Zendesk Customer Support to enable data exports and access to the imports page.
  • If you want to bulk import both users and organizations, you must import organizations first.
This article contains the following topics:
  • Considerations for bulk importing users
  • Creating the CSV user data file
  • Using the data importer to import user data

Considerations for bulk importing users

There are a variety of limitations and considerations you should review prior to bulk importing users:
  • Limitations for bulk importing with the data importer
  • Updating existing user profile data
  • Deciding whether to send an email to users imported in bulk

Limitations for bulk importing with the data importer

You can import a core set of data about users and organizations. To import data not listed in the table below, you must use the Zendesk REST API instead. See Importing users with the Zendesk API.

  • When using the data importer, the import CSV file can't exceed 1 GB in size. We recommend a maximum of 500,000 rows. That is one header row and up to 499,999 rows of data. Furthermore, each row can't exceed 128 KB in size.
  • The import CSV file can contain a maximum of 200 columns.
  • The import CSV file can't guarantee import order for rows.
  • Don't include the same user or organization more than once within a CSV file. Doing so can cause your import to fail.
  • There's no guarantee that records are created or updated in the order they appear in the CSV file.
  • You can only import one CSV file at a time. Therefore, if you have more data than the maximum number of rows supported for the CSV file, you must create separate files for each batch and import them one after another. When you're not using the data importer, up to two batches are queued and run in the background. If you want to import more than two batches, you need to wait until the first batches are finished importing to add more.
  • You cannot use the bulk importer to import contact information from end-user Facebook or X (formerly Twitter) accounts. Instead, use the Zendesk REST API. See Importing users with the Zendesk API.

Updating existing user profile data

When performing a bulk import, you can update existing users. Be aware that some data is replaced, and some is just appended to the existing data.
Note: To update an existing user, the CSV file must include the user's external_id or email address so that Zendesk can identify them.

How data is updated by the data importer

When using the data importer, only the following user data is appended (added to the existing data):
  • phone (added as a secondary phone number)
  • email (added as a secondary email address)

All other data is replaced by the data importer.

Deciding whether to send an email to users imported in bulk

Before you perform a bulk import of users, it's important to check your welcome email settings. When you add new users via a bulk import while Guide is enabled, each user receives the welcome email message. The welcome email contains a link to verify their email address, which prompts them to select a password and then sign in. You can prevent the welcome email from being sent to these users.

To prevent the welcome email message being sent to users

  1. In Admin Center, click People in the sidebar, then select Configuration > End users.
  2. In the User welcome email section, deselect Also send a verification email when a new user is created by an agent or administrator.

  3. Click Save.

Creating the CSV user data file

When you create a list of users to import, you'll probably generate this list from some other user management system, such as an employee database. Most of these systems have some facility for creating a CSV export file. If you need to create the list from scratch, you can use a program like Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice.org Calc.

Here are some important things to keep in mind when creating your file:
  • You can download a CSV template in Admin Center > Data importer > Import > Download a CSV template.
  • The file must be properly formatted CSV and saved using UTF-8 character encoding.
  • The first row of the CSV file is the header row, and you must include it in the file.
  • The header row must contain any required fields in the table below, plus any other fields listed in the table below that you want to include.
  • Included fields must appear in the header row in the order they are listed below.
  • If you are not importing data for a field, do not list it in the header row.
  • Empty columns of data in the file will overwrite most existing data for that user. For exceptions, see Updating existing user profile data.
  • Add line breaks to notes or multiline custom fields by pressing ALT+ENTER on Windows or CTRL+OPTION+RETURN on a Mac.
Note: Microsoft Excel cannot save your file immediately. To save your file, upload it to Google Sheets, re-download it, and then upload it to Zendesk. You can also use Open Office to save the file.

The following table lists the fields that you can include in the file. The name, email, and restriction fields are all required when importing new users. When existing users are updated via bulk import, only one unique identifier is required (such as an email or external ID).

Table 1. User import data
Field Description
name Required for importing new users. User's full name.
emails Required for importing new users. User's full email address (someuser@mycompany.com). If including more than one email address for a user, separate them by a pipe (|). For example: first@yourcompany.com|second@yourcompany.com
ticket_restriction Required for importing new users. Restriction sets the team member's or end user's privileges, the tickets they have access to, etc. This is required to import new users when the user's role is set to Agent.
On non-Enterprise plans, the following restriction values are supported:
  • assigned: The team member can access only tickets assigned to them.
  • groups: The team member can access only tickets within their group(s). To add a team member to a group, see Viewing and managing team member group membership or use the Support API.
  • none: The user has no restrictions and can access all tickets.
  • organization: The user can access only tickets requested by them or other users in their organization.
  • requested: The user can access only their own tickets. They must be listed as the ticket's requester.
Restriction values of organization and requested can be assigned when the user's role is set to End-user. All others apply only to team members.
Note: On Enterprise plans, agent roles override the standard agent restrictions. This means that you can't use any of the standard restrictions listed in the table above to import or update an agent. You must specify an agent role. If you accidentally use a role name that doesn't exist in Support, the user's role defaults to Light Agent.
external_id If you have an ID other than the user's email address (such as an employee ID or customer reference number), you can include it here. External IDs must be unique for each user, or data will be overwritten.

If you need to configure multiple email addresses or phone numbers for a single user, you can do so by creating multiple entries for the user in the CSV file and using the same external_id column for all rows you want associated with a single user. With the exception of the additional email or phone numbers, the values in all other columns should remain the same for each row.

If any external ID, email address, or phone number matches more than one existing user, that row is rejected from the bulk import.

Note: If you import users with the external_id field as their only identifier (meaning you're not also including email address), you still need to include the email field in the CSV file with no data. For example:
details Detailed information concerning this user, such as an address. This information is visible to team members only, not to end users.
notes Notes concerning this user. Notes are visible to team members only, not to end users.
phones The user's telephone numbers. Unique phone numbers are added as direct lines. Phone numbers that already exist are added as secondary lines. If you're including more than one phone number for a user, separate the phone numbers with a pipe (|). To work with Zendesk, phone numbers should be formatted with the internationally standardized E.164 format.
shared_phone The user's shared telephone number. To work with Zendesk, phone numbers should be formatted with the internationally standardized E.164 format.
role Case sensitive: End-user or Agent. If you don't set a role, the user is set to End-user.
custom_role When the role is set to Agent, specify the custom role name, as listed on the Roles page in Admin Center. Light agent is also accepted.
skip_verify_email If you need to create users without sending out a verification email, set this value to true.
time_zone Consists of a string such as "Eastern Time (US & Canada)". For a list of valid names, view the Time zone list menu on the Localization page (Account > Appearance > Localization) in Admin Center. Example: If the menu lists "(GMT+02:00) Berlin", then use "Berlin" as the time_zone name.
locale The user's locale. A BCP-47 compliant tag for the locale (e.g. en-US). If both locale and locale_id are present, locale_id is ignored and only locale is used.
local_id The user's language identifier.
moderator Boolean. Designates whether the user has forum moderation capabilities.
only_private_comments Boolean. When set to true, the user can only create private comments.
remote_photo_url A URL pointing to the user's profile picture.
signature The user's signature. Only agents and admins can have signatures.
suspended Boolean. Indicates whether the user is suspended. Tickets from suspended users are also suspended, and these users cannot sign in to the end-user portal.
alias An alias displayed to end users.
organizations The name of the organization that the user will be added to. The organization must already exist, or the import will fail.

On Professional and Enterprise plans, you can add a user to multiple organizations by separating the organization names with a pipe character. For example: Organization1|Organization2|Organization3. A maximum of 50 organizations are allowed.

A user's default organization is set to the first organization alphabetically. It isn't possible to set a different default organization during a bulk import. However, the default organization for a user can be adjusted manually or with the Support API - Set Membership as Default endpoint.
default_group_id

New team members (admins and agents) are automatically added to the account's default group. However, you can use this field to specify alternative default groups for users during bulk imports.

End users can't be added to groups.
tags When user and organization tagging has been enabled for Zendesk Support (see Adding tags and users to organizations), you can add user tags. Separate each tag with a comma.
custom_fields.<field key> When you perform a bulk user import, you can import a custom user field by specifying the custom_fields. prefix and the field key. 

For example, for the field key subscription_date, use the following to set the imported values for this field.

custom_fields.subscription_date

Custom field keys are case-sensitive and must be entered in lowercase letters.

If you are importing information into a checkbox, enter true to have it checked or false to leave it unchecked. To set the value of drop-down list options, use the tag you added when you created the drop-down list. For custom date fields, use either the YY/MM/DD or YYYY-MM-DD format.

To locate the key for a custom user field:
  • In Admin Center, click People in the sidebar, then select Configuration > User fields. Then, click the name of the custom field. The field key appears in the properties panel on the right.

If a field value is not formatted correctly, the import will fail, and you will receive an error report specifying which records failed to save.

Note: If the custom user field you're importing is a lookup relationship field, enter the ID of the related object as the value for this field. For example, for an organization, enter the organization's ID; for a user, enter the user's ID; for a custom object record, enter the record's ID. To find an organization, user, or custom object record ID, you can export data from your account or use the Organizations API, Users API, or Custom Object Records API.

Using the data importer to import user data

You can use the data importer to import a CSV file that creates or updates existing users, and captures logs of all imports attempted through the Data importer page.

To add or update users with the data importer
  1. In Admin Center, click Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Tools > Data importer.
  2. Click Import.
  3. Under Target destination, select Users.
  4. Under Import type, choose one of the following:
    • Create only: Only new users are added. Any data in the CSV file pertaining to existing users is ignored.
    • Update only: Update data for the existing users listed in your CSV file. The external_id is required to update users. Any data pertaining to new users is ignored.
    • Create and update: Add new users and update data for the existing users listed in your CSV file.
    Note: If any external ID, email address, or phone number matches more than one existing user, that row is rejected from the bulk import. Check your import history.
  5. Under File upload, drag and drop your file or click to upload and select your CSV file from the file browser.

    If you need to change the file you've selected, click the delete icon () next to the file name.

  6. Click Next.
  7. Review the Field mapping list.
    • If the field mapping is correct, click Next.
    • If the field mapping isn't correct, click Back. Edit your CSV file to adhere to the format requirements, then reupload the file.
  8. Review the summary of import details in the confirmation dialog and then click Start import.

    After the import starts, the imported changes can't be reverted. To check the status of an import, check your import history.

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