Free VCF viewer and converter
The short answer
Your file is opened by your browser and stays on your device. This page sends nothing about it anywhere: no upload, no copy kept, and the contact details are excluded from our analytics.
How to open a VCF file on any device
A .vcf file is a contact card in the vCard format. Every phone and mail app understands it, but each opens it a little differently.
| Device | How to open a .vcf |
|---|---|
| iPhone | Tap the file in Mail, Messages, WhatsApp or Files. iOS shows the contact; tap Create New Contact, or Add All Contacts if the file holds several. |
| Android | Tap the file in Files or Downloads and choose Contacts. Or open Google Contacts, go to Fix and manage, then Import from file. |
| Windows | In Outlook, choose File, Open and Export, Import/Export, then Import a VCARD file. For a file with many contacts, convert it to CSV first. |
| Mac | Double-click the file. The Contacts app asks whether to add the cards. |
| Gmail and Google Contacts | At contacts.google.com choose Import and pick the .vcf (or a .csv). The contacts sync to every Android phone on that account. |
| Just to read it | Use the viewer above. Nothing is imported, so you can check a file before it fills your address book. |
Export contacts from iPhone as a .vcf
All your contacts, from the Contacts app (iOS 16 and later)
- Open Contacts and tap Lists in the top left.
- Touch and hold All Contacts (or any list), then tap Export.
- Choose which fields to include, tap Done, and send or save the .vcf.
A few contacts
- Open a contact and tap Share Contact to send one card.
- For several, select them in a list with a two-finger swipe down, then touch and hold and choose Share.
Step-by-step for every sharing method: share a contact on iPhone.
From a computer, with iCloud
- Sign in at icloud.com and open Contacts.
- Select the contacts you want (or all of them).
- Use Export vCard to download one .vcf file.
Import a CSV of contacts into a phone
Phones import vCards, not spreadsheets. If your contacts live in Excel or a CRM export, save the sheet as CSV, use the CSV to VCF option above, and then:
- iPhone: email or AirDrop the .vcf to yourself and tap it, or import it at icloud.com, which accepts vCards only.
- Android: import the CSV or the .vcf at contacts.google.com and it syncs to the phone. See how to send a contact card on Android.
- Moving between the two: share contacts between iPhone and Android.
What a .vcf file contains
Open one in a text editor and you will see plain lines like these. The full story of the format is in what is a vCard.
| Line in the file | What it holds |
|---|---|
| BEGIN:VCARD … END:VCARD | One contact. A file can hold thousands of these in a row. |
| VERSION:3.0 | The vCard version: 2.1 (older Android, Outlook), 3.0 (iPhone, Google) or 4.0. |
| N: and FN: | The name in parts (last; first; middle; prefix; suffix) and as it is displayed. |
| TEL;TYPE=CELL: | A phone number, with its label: mobile, work, home, fax. |
| EMAIL, ADR, URL | Email addresses, postal addresses and websites, each with a label. |
| ORG: and TITLE: | Company (and department) and job title. |
| PHOTO;ENCODING=b: | A photo, written out as text. This is why some files are large. |
A .vcf is a copy, frozen the moment it was exported. If you hand out your own details this way, a digital business card stays current instead: one link or QR code that always shows your latest details, and saves to the phone as a contact in one tap. Make one free.
How do I open a VCF file?
To read it without importing anything, drop it into the viewer on this page. To add the contacts to a phone or computer, open the file there: an iPhone or Mac offers to add the contacts, Android opens it in the Contacts app, and Outlook imports it under File, Open and Export, Import/Export.
How do I convert VCF to CSV?
Open the .vcf in the viewer above and press Download CSV. Every contact becomes one row, and each phone, email, address and website gets its own labelled column, so the file opens in Excel or Google Sheets and imports into Gmail or a CRM.
How do I convert CSV to VCF?
Choose CSV to VCF above and open your spreadsheet saved as CSV. The first row must hold column names. The converter recognises the usual ones, such as First Name, Last Name, Company, Mobile Phone and E-mail Address, and Google Contacts and Outlook exports as they are. Then download the .vcf and open it on your phone.
Is my contact file uploaded anywhere?
No. The browser reads the file on your device, and the conversion runs on this page. The file is never sent to a server, nothing is stored, and the contact details are excluded from the page’s analytics. You can disconnect from the internet after the page loads and the tool still works.
Can one VCF file hold more than one contact?
Yes. A .vcf can hold any number of contacts one after another, which is how phones export a whole address book. iPhone and Android import them all at once. Outlook’s classic import often stops after the first one, so for Outlook convert the file to CSV here and import the CSV instead.
Why does Excel show my phone numbers wrong?
Excel treats a value that starts with a plus sign as a formula or a number, so +961 71 000 000 can turn into an error or lose its plus. Open the CSV through Data, From Text/CSV and set the phone columns to Text, or open it in Google Sheets, which keeps them as typed.
My VCF file is not a contact file. What is it?
The .vcf extension is also used by the Variant Call Format, a genetics file used in DNA sequencing. Those files start with ##fileformat=VCF and need a bioinformatics tool. A contact file starts with BEGIN:VCARD. This viewer reads contact files only.
How do I create a VCF file?
Export contacts from your phone (both iPhone and Android can export to .vcf), convert a spreadsheet with the CSV to VCF option above, or make a single contact card with the free vCard QR code generator, which also downloads a .vcf file.
