Rather than add users manually one at a time, you can add many users in a bulk import. To do this, you create a CSV (comma separated values) file that contains the user's data. Aside from the essential user data, such as email address and phone number, you can 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 via a CSV file only works for Support users and roles.
You must be an administrator to bulk import users and organizations. If you are using a trial account, you cannot bulk import users.
Limitations of bulk importing users and organizations
You can import a core set of data about users and organizations. For example, using bulk import, you can import the data described in the table below; however, you cannot import timezones, photos, language preferences, etc. To import data not listed in the table below, you need to use the Zendesk REST API instead. See Importing users with the Zendesk API or Importing organizations with the Zendesk API.
- The import CSV data file must contain no more than 2000 rows of data (one row for the header and the rest for the user or organization data).
- You can only import one CSV file of 2000 or less rows of data at a time. Therefore, if you've got more than 1999 users or organizations to import, you need to create separate files for each batch and import them one after another. Up to two batches are queued and run in the background. If you want import more than two batches, you need to wait until the first batches are finished importing to add more.
- You cannot use bulk importing to import contact information from end-user Facebook or Twitter accounts. Instead, use the Zendesk REST API. See Importing users with the Zendesk API.
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.
- 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.
The following table lists the fields that you can include in the file.
Field | Description |
---|---|
name | Required for importing new users. User's full name. |
Required for importing new users. User's full email address (someuser@mycompany.com). You can give users more than one email address. See Assigning multiple email addresses to a user. | |
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.
Note: If you don’t enable Include external ID in CSV output file, external IDs are excluded from the CSV import results file (see Importing the CSV user data file).
Note: If you import users with the external_id field as their only identifier (meaning you're not also including their email address), you still need to include the email field in the CSV file, even though it would contain no data. For example:
|
details | Detailed information concerning this user, e.g. an address. This information is visible to agents only, not to end-users. |
notes | Notes concerning this user. Notes are visible to agents only, not to end-users. |
phone | The user's telephone numbers. Unique phone numbers are added as direct lines. Phone numbers that already exist are added as secondary lines. |
shared_phone_number | If this is a shared phone number, set to "true". A shared phone number cannot be used as a user identity. |
role | Case sensitive: "End-user", "Agent", or "Admin". If you don't set a role, the user is set to End user. |
restriction | Required for importing new users when the user's role is set to agent. Restriction sets the agent's privileges, the tickets they have access to, etc. Required when importing new users that will be agents.
You can enter one of the following values:
In the Enterprise version of Zendesk Support, you can also use the restriction field to assign your agent users predefined or custom roles. See Assigning an agent to an Enterprise agent role below. |
organization | 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, you can add a user to multiple organizations by separating the organization names with a pipe character (see Importing users into multiple organizations). |
tags | When user and organization tagging has been enabled for Zendesk Support (see see Adding tags and users to organizations), you can add user tags. Separate each tag with the comma. |
brand | If the account has multiple brands, you can specify a brand subdomain. The brand subdomain you specify determines the brand of the welcome email sent to the user, as long as that brand is active and has an enabled help center. If the brand subdomain you specify is not active, doesn't have an enabled help center, or doesn't exist, the column is ignored and the welcome email is sent using default brand.
Specify only the name of the brand subdomain. For example, use mydomain and not mydomain.zendesk.com. |
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 If you are importing information into a checkbox, enter 'true' to have it checked or 'false' to leave it unchecked. Note: To locate the key for a custom user field, click the Admin icon (
![]() 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. For custom date fields, use either the YY/MM/DD or YYYY-MM-DD format. Important: To set the value of drop-down list options, use the tag you added when you created the drop-down list.
|
A note about welcome email sent to users in a bulk import
When you add new users via a bulk import, 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 all these users by updating the welcome email setting.
To prevent the welcome email message being sent to users
- Click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, then select Settings > Customers.
- In the User welcome email section, uncheck Also send a verification email when a new user is created by an agent or administrator.
Note: This option is not available until you enable Guide.
- Click Save tab.
Importing users into multiple organizations
If you're on Professional or Enterprise, you can add users to multiple organizations during your bulk import.
To do so, in the organization cell in your CSV user data file, enter multiple organizations separated by a pipe character. For example: Organization1|Organization2|Organization3
Here's a CSV example for adding a user to three different organizations.
"name","email","external_id","details","notes","phone","role","restriction","organization","tags"
Enrico Venticello,"venticello@somecompany.com",,,,,,,Organization1|Organization2|Organization3,,
If you list an organization that does not exist, the import will fail.
A user's default organization will be set to the first organization alphabetically. It is not possible to set a different default org using the .csv import. The default organization for a user can be adjusted manually or by using theSupport API - Set Membership as Default endpoint.
Assigning an agent to an Enterprise custom role
On Enterprise, you can assign agents custom roles Custom roles are often used to give agents extra permissions or increased restrictions.
If you've created your own custom agent roles, you can assign one of these roles to users during a bulk import by including the name of the custom role in the restriction field. In the following CSV example, a user is assigned a custom role:
"name","email","external_id","details","notes","phone","role",
"restriction","organization","tags"
Enrico Venticello,"venticello@somecompany.com",,,,,"agent","Help Desk Mastermind",,
In the example above, the user (Enrico Venticello) is given a general role ("agent"), with the additional permissions associated with the custom agent role ("Help Desk Mastermind").
Note that you must have already created the custom role in Zendesk Support before you can use it in your CSV. If you accidentally use a role name that doesn't exist in Support, the user's role defaults to Light Agent. You can then manually change the agent's role in their user profile.
Also, the import is case insensitive, which means that both of following custom role names set the agent to the same role: "Help Desk Mastermind" and "help Desk mastermind".
Assigning multiple email addresses and phone numbers to a user
You can assign primary and secondary email addresses and phone numbers to a single user during a bulk import, using the external_id column.
To do this, give the same external ID (and all the ticket fields to be imported, for example, role) to more than one email address or phone number, as shown in the image above. All emails or calls associated with the same external ID will be routed to the user associated with that ID.
Note that when the first of the two email addresses matches an existing user, that user is updated. However, if the second email address matches an existing user as well (the same user associated with the first email address, or a different user), the user associated with the first email address is updated with both email addresses, and the second user errors out, saying that email address already exists.
Importing the CSV user data file
You can import new users or update information for existing users.
- Click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, then select People.
- Select Bulk User Import (located in the right column).
- Select import options:
-
Create new users: This is selected by default and cannot be disabled. This is because users that exist in the import data, but not in Zendesk, will always be created.
-
Update existing users: You can additionally select this import option to replace existing data for the users listed in your CSV file. You only need to include the fields that you want to update in the file. If you have empty columns of data it will overwrite the existing data for that user. For a list of exceptions, see Updating existing user profile data.
-
- (Optional) Select Include external ID in CSV output file.
When the import process is complete, you will receive an email notification that includes a link to a separate CSV import results file. You can use this link to download the file and view the results of your import.
The file shows the status of the user data that you attempted to import (Created, Updated, Skipped). It includes the email address or an external ID for each user that is created or updated, depending on the contents of the file you imported and whether Include external ID in CSV output file was enabled.
If you don’t enable Include external ID in CSV output file, external IDs are excluded from the CSV import results file. External IDs are additional identifiers such as an employee number, customer reference number, or a user ID from another system. A user can only have one unique external ID. It is an optional attribute for users.
- Either click Choose File or the Let me paste in data instead link.
- Click Import.
Your import is added to the queue and the users are added to Zendesk Support when the import process is complete. See Limitations of bulk importing users and organizations. You'll receive an email when the import is complete.
Updating existing user profile data
As noted above, when doing a bulk import, you can select the Update existing users option, which allows you to update the user profile data of users that you've already added to Support. Be aware, however, that some of the data is replaced and some of the data is just appended to the existing data.
The following user data is replaced:
- name
- external_id
- role
- restriction
- organization
- Custom fields
The following user data is appended (added to the existing data):
- details
- notes
- tags
- phone (added as a secondary phone number)
- email (added as a secondary email address)
131 Comments
Hi Will!
I have opened a ticket on your behalf in order to further investigate why you cannot bulk import users.
Looking forward to hearing from you there!
Regards,
Ingrid R. | Customer Advocate
Hi,
I have a similar issue of being unable to find the link to bulk importing users. What I see on the admin -> people page is something like:

i.e. only 3 options available: "bulk importing organizations", "bulk deleting users", and "deleted users". There's no "bulk importing users"?
Regards,
John
Hi John -
When this happens, there's typically a setting that we have to enable from our side of things. I'm working on getting a note added to the article about this known issue.
In the meantime, I'll create a ticket for you so that we can get someone working on turning this on in your account. Look for an email notification about that from me shortly.
For any other users who have this issue, your best course of action for this particular problem is simply to email support@zendesk.com, as we would need to shift you into a ticket to get it enabled anyway.
Hi, is that possibile to import pre-set password to end-user? Thank you
Hi,
I can't find "Import Users" i sent an email regarding this but I haven't gotten a response on this.
Please help.
I see the option, but when I click it, it just leads to a blank page. Trying to copy and paste the link directly results in the same
https://*******.zendesk.com/import?kind=user
Hi team,
Getting - "Missing mandatory field in header: email."
Although I have it there, and has previously worked updating bulk users. Have followed all instructions as per usual.
Have tried numerous variations etc. No dice.
EDIT: seems like name was also needed when updating, not just email. Odd. That worked though.
Hi Conza,
Any chance you could provide a screenshot of your headers you're using so I can take a look?
Thanks!
Hi, is there any way to to activate Zendesk Chat (and chat role) for any of the agents while importing via CSV?
Btw, there doesn't seem to be a reference to this profile section in Adding and managing end users
Hi Pedro,
I did some digging on my end and it doesn't look like you can enable Chat on a profile using the bulk import method. You'd either need to manually update this from the agent's profile or using the API.
As for this section missing in the documentation you're referencing. I believe that the article is specifically for Support accounts without Chat. If you're looking for how to create/add a Chat agent you'll want to take a look at this article: Setting up Zendesk Chat in Zendesk Support
Hope this helps!
Thanks a lot, Brett, it seems API is the way to go!
Glad I could help Pedro :)
I am in the process of trying out Zendesk. I am wanting to d a bulk import of users. The article says to click on People and select Bulk Import users from the right side column. I do not see this option. The only options I see are Bulk organization import, Bulk end user delete, and Deleted users. What am I missing here?
Hi Shahin,
Bulk user import is not available on a Support trial as mentioned above. To gain access to the bulk user import feature you'll need to upgrade your plan level to at least Essential.
Cheers!
Recently my user import has not included shared phone numbers. I'm pasting in the CSV data and everything else imports just fine. The shared numbers used to import, not sure why it stopped.
Anybody know why the shared phone number no longer imports?
Here's an example of the CSV data that I'm importing:
Name,Email,external_id,Phone,shared_phone_number,tags
John K. Doe,john@doe.co,S552215,+1 (212) 222-2222,+1 (212) 333-3333,
Hey Mark,
I'm going to create a ticket on your behalf so our Customer Advocacy team can dig into this further.
You'll receive an email shortly stating your ticket has been created. If you can, go ahead and attach the CSV file you tried importing so we can take a look for you.
Thanks!
Is there a way to have alias and multiple groups as part of the bulk import for agents?
Hey Monica,
Groups and an Alias will need to be assigned manually within the agent interface. Those aren't available as fields within the CSV unfortunately :-/
The only other option would be to use the Zendesk API to bulk update these users after they've been imported.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
I'm trying to import my customers file, but it doesn't work. The number of customers should be over 700, but only 4 customers show up in my Zendesk people. And, I also designated organizations to each customer, but only one customer is included an organization. I chatted with a chat agent of Zendesk, she said it seems good. Could you see my .csv file then tell me what is the problem?
Stephanie
It may be because you are using commas in the 'details' and 'origanization' columns.
To check this, open the CSV file in a text editor and check that the text is surrounded in quote marks. That way the Zendesk will not confuse the commas in your notes with the comma that separates the fields.
For example:
my name, myemail@abc.com, id, "My details, are here","This is a note, that has commas too",
Graeme Carmichael
Thank you for comment. But I figured the problem. It was because there were some blank in email. It is necessary to fill out the emails.
Thank you for your time!
Stephanie
Ah, glad you are sorted. Thanks for getting back.
Is it possible to bulk update user segments (Guide) for zendesk users?
Hey Justin,
There's no way to bulk update user segments at this time. I also checked our API documentation and it looks like you can only update one user segment at a time through there as well.
Let me know if you have any other questions!
Any way to bulk import users as Light Agents?
I tried using the column Light Agent, but all the users remain as "End-Users".
Hi Peng,
In order to do do a bulk light agent import you will need to have agent in the role column and you will need to have a restriction column where you specify "light agent".
More information can be found in the following article: How can I bulk upload users and specify custom roles?
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Cheers!
Hi,
I have currently the problem, that I can't import users correctly when i want to assign multple email addresses to a user.
That should be done to add in the first line all information to the user and in the lines below further mailadresses like
CustomerName;FirstMail@123.com;123;...;...;...;..;...;.;....;..;..;..;;; (dots are further info)
;testmail@123.com;123;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
But if I do this like described in your section "Assigning multiple email addresses and phone numbers to a user" the second line removes all information I have added before.
Can you help me with this? Your support advised me to use the API calls, but that can't be the solution.
Thanks
Christian
@Christian Becker,
I think you might need to use the CSV for that use case and add the External ID column. The External ID has to match!!
Hi,
I want to update a specific custom user field of my agents. How can I do it?
Hello Pedro Reis,
You should be able to add custom user fields via the instructions in the article I've linked below that goes into detail on Adding Custom Fields. If you do run into any complications, though, do not hesitate to reach out to us.
Best regards.
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