Free online VCF to CSV converter

Spreadsheets, CRMs, mail-merge tools, and databases often require tabular contact data instead of vCards. Converting the address book makes contacts easier to edit, filter, deduplicate, share, or archive in a smaller plain-text file.

What the VCF format is

VCF is the usual filename extension for vCard, a contact-exchange format used by phones, email programs, and address-book applications. A file can contain one contact or many records with names, organizations, job titles, phone numbers, email addresses, postal addresses, notes, websites, birthdays, photographs, and categories.

Apple Contacts, Google Contacts, Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird, Android, iOS, and other contact managers can import or export VCF files. VCF is structured text rather than a spreadsheet: each record normally begins with BEGIN:VCARD and ends with END:VCARD, while each property has a name, optional parameters, and a value.

What the CSV format is

CSV stores tabular data in rows and columns. The first row commonly contains field names such as First Name, Last Name, Phone, and Email; subsequent rows represent contacts.

CSV files are supported by Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc, Google Sheets, database software, CRM systems, mail-merge tools, and many import utilities. They are plain text and convenient for sorting, filtering, editing, and bulk processing. CSV has no universal contact schema, however: the destination may require particular column names, a specific delimiter, or separate columns for multiple phone numbers and email addresses.

How to convert VCF to CSV

Using 101convert

1. Open the VCF-to-CSV converter on 101convert.com.
2. Select or drag the .vcf file into the converter.
3. Start the conversion and download the resulting .csv file.
4. Open the result in a spreadsheet and inspect several records, including contacts with multiple numbers, accented characters, empty fields, and multiline notes.

The conversion can be performed for free without installing software. Do not upload confidential personal or business contacts when the file must remain on your computer; use a local application instead.

Using a desktop contact application

1. Import the VCF through the application’s contacts or address-book menu.
2. Check that names, numbers, email addresses, labels, and notes were mapped correctly.
3. Choose Export or Save as, then select CSV or Comma-separated values.
4. Choose UTF-8 encoding and the delimiter required by the destination program, if those options are available.

Thunderbird can import vCards into an address book and export address-book data as CSV. Outlook, Apple Contacts, and phone-management applications may provide similar workflows, but available fields and menu names vary by version. If the original application cannot export CSV, import the VCF into a contact manager that can, then export the imported address book.

Using a local script

For repeatable or batch conversion, a local Python program can parse vCards with the vobject package and write a defined CSV schema. Install the package with python -m pip install vobject, then run a script such as python vcf_to_csv.py contacts.vcf contacts.csv. The script should explicitly select output columns, write UTF-8, quote cells containing commas or line breaks, and define how repeated phone numbers, email addresses, and addresses are represented.

Do not convert VCF by simply splitting lines or commas. vCard files can contain escaped characters, folded physical lines, quoted-printable text, parameters, and values containing separators.

Quality and compatibility limits

CSV cannot represent every vCard feature. Photographs, contact groups, categories, geocoordinates, property labels, structured addresses, and multiple values with different types may be discarded, combined into one cell, placed in separate columns, or reduced to the first value.

vCard 2.1, 3.0, and 4.0 use different escaping, encoding, and parameter conventions. Older files may use quoted-printable content or a character set other than UTF-8. Check names, notes, and other non-ASCII text after conversion.

Spreadsheet software can remove leading zeros from phone numbers and postal codes, interpret extensions as numeric values, or display long identifiers in scientific notation. Set phone, postal-code, and identifier columns to text before editing, and save as UTF-8 CSV when the receiving program supports it. Keep the original VCF as the authoritative backup because CSV export can permanently discard contact properties.