Two Simple Ways to Export Google Contacts to Excel
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Key Takeaway
Google Contacts doesn't support exporting contacts as an Excel file. Luckily, there's still an easy method to directly export them to Excel.
Google provides Google Contacts to help users store and manage contacts. Before becoming an independent app, Google Contacts was the built-in contact manager in Gmail. It supports two export formats: CSV and vCard.
But what if you need to export your Google contacts to an Excel file? In this article, I will show you two different ways to perform the export. The first method is direct, and the second one requires a conversion.
Cisdem ContactsMate
The Best App to Export Contacts to Excel
- Support various contacts sources: Google, Outlook, iCloud (Mac only), Mac's Contacts app, etc.
- Export contacts to supported sources to Excel, CSV, vCard, and more
- Import contacts from CSV and vCard files
- Allow you to view, search, add, edit, delete, group, tag, email, share, print, back up, and sync contacts
- Identify and delete or merge duplicate contacts with a click
- Detect incomplete or invalid contact information
- Easy to use for everyone
Free Download macOS 10.11 or later 
Free Download Windows 10 or later
Method 1. The absolutely easiest way to export your Google contacts to Excel
Applies to: Mac, Windows
The easiest way to export contacts from Google to Excel requires an application called Cisdem ContactsMate. This contact manager for Mac and Windows makes it quite easy and straightforward to download Google contacts to the format you need.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Directly export your contacts to Excel
- Support other export formats, such CSV and vCard
- Allow you to export all or selected contacts, as well as decide which fields to export
- Allow you to remove duplicate contacts with a click before export
- Provide other useful features
Cons
- Require an extra step to export contacts in the "Other contacts" section
Steps on Mac
1. Download and install Cisdem Contactsmate. After successful installation, run this program.
Free Download macOS 10.11 or later
2. The first time you open it, allow it to access your contacts by clicking OK.
3. Choose Add Account in the toolbar at the top.
4. Click Add Account in the window that appears. Then choose Google and sign in to it.
5. Make sure that the switch next to Contacts is turned on.
6. Click the circle icon next to the Updated contacts detected message that appears in the side bar, and your Google contacts will be added.
7. Control-click Google in the sidebar and choose Export. In the dialog that appears, select Excel from the Format dropdown menu. Then click Save.
Tip 1
Contacts in Google Contacts' Other contacts section are automatically collected from Gmail. To export your Gmail contacts to Excel, there's an extra step. That's to select all contacts in Other contacts and click the Save contact icon to save them to your Google Contacts, which can be the very first step to take.
Tip 2
By default, you will export all fields of every Google contact. If you want, you can export fields of your choice only. In step 7, choose Field > Custom Fields. Click the gear icon next to this menu. In the Preferences window that opens, choose the Export Fields tab. In the Available Fields section, select the contact fields (such as name, phone number, or address) that you want to export to Excel, then move them to the Selected Fields section.
Tip 3
Before exporting your contacts, you can remove duplicate contacts if needed. Click Google in the sidebar, choose Scan in the toolbar at the top. When the scan is complete, you can use Fix All to remove all exact duplicates and merge or edit partial duplicate contacts.
Steps on Windows PC
1. Download and install ContactsMate.
Free Download Windows 10 or later
2. Open the app and add your Google account. Once it's added, your Google contacts will sync with ContactsMate.
3. Click Manage contacts in the top right corner and choose Export contacts.
4. In the Export contacts dialog that appears, choose XLSX (which is the extension for Excel files) as the export format. Click Export.
Method 2. How to export contacts from Google to Excel via conversion
Applies to: Windows PC, Mac
Although Gmail doesn’t provide a direct way to export Gmail contacts to Excel, we can do it via conversion. This method involves two major processes: download Gmail contacts to CSV file, and then convert CSV to Excel.
Gmail can export contacts to CSV (comma separated values). CSV is a text file that contains many fields of data information and each line of the file is a data record. After we get a CSV file from Gmail, we convert it to Excel.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Export selected or all Gmail contacts to Excel
- Does not need to install an app on your computer
Cons
- Has to convert the exported CSV file to Excel file
- Needs a CSV to Excel file converter
- The layout of converted Excel file is not as good as you expected
Steps
1. Navigate to Google Contacts website https://contacts.google.com/.
2. Sign in with your Gmail account and password.
3. Select contacts you want to export by chcking the boxes next to them. To export all Gmail contacts, select one contact first. Then click the small triangle button st the top. Click All.
4. Click the 3-dot icon in the upper-right corner. Choose Export.
5. select the Google CSV option. To export Google contacts to Outlook, select the CSV for Outlook only option. Click Export.
6. Now, a CSV file of Gmail contacts is downloaded to your computer.
7. To get an Excel spreadsheet, you need to convert the CSV file to Excel.
8. Find a file converter tool like CSV to XLS Converter https://cloudconvert.com/csv-to-xls.
9. Head over to the website and upload the exported CSV file containing Gmail contacts.
10. Click the Convert button to start the conversion from .csv file to .xls file.
After the conversion, download the Excel file to your computer.
Benefits of Exporting Gmail contacts to an Excel file
When you are considering to export Gmail contacts, Excel is indeed a good choice. But why should we choose Excel format rather than other file formats? There are many benefits:
- Excel spreadsheet is easy to edit, delete and modify your contacts information in batch.
- Excel file is a standard file formats and compatible to most of applications.
- Excel is easy to compare the data in rows and columns.
- To print out your Gmail contacts, It is convenient to adjust the layout of Excel spreadsheet to meet your needs.
- You can arrange Gmail contacts in Excel in order by names, companies, titles or other things.
- In an Excel spreadsheet, you can extract data that you need from Gmail contacts.
FAQs
When I export Gmail contacts to CSV, can I open the CSV file by Excel?
Yes, but you may come across some difficulties.
CSV is a text file format that uses commas to separate values. It can be opened directly by Microsoft Excel, NeoOffice, LibreOffice Google Drive, etc. However, when you open this CSV file directly by Excel , you may run into some problems:
- You cannot open it
- The data in this file is usually in a big mess
- The layout is not user-friendly
- There will be many empty columns
All in all, it will take you some time to solve these potential problems. Therefore, I recommend you export Gmail contacts to Excel directly with ContactsMate.
If I remove some contacts information in the Excel, will the original contacts from Gmail be affected?
No. If you make some changes to the contacts in Excel Spreadsheets, the original data from Gmail will not be affected.
Can I import contacts from Excel sheets to Gmail?
Yes. But you cannot import the Excel (.xls) to Gmail directly. Gmail doesn’t support importing contacts from an Excel file. First of all, you need to convert the Excel to CSV (.csv).
Conclusion
Now, you have learned two methods on how to export Gmail contacts list to Excel. Have you decided which one will you choose? As for me, I would like to export Gmail contacts to Excel directly. It’s quite easy. The second method is also convenient, but it requires you to do a bit of conversion.
With a passion for tech and writing, Sarah joined Cisdem, where she focuses on creating articles about using utility tools to enhance file management and simplify contact management.
Adrian Li is Cisdem’s Chief Engineer and serves as the editorial advisor for Duplicate Finder and ContactsMate. His work and insights have been featured in leading tech publications such as Fossbytes, TUAW, Redmond Pie, SafetyDetectives, and BestForAndroid.
Dr. Gregor Schmid
Your post is helpful, thank you! Then i used the first contacts manegement tool to organize all my contacts, it's convenient:-)