How to Import your Data Into HubSpot - A Comprehensive Guide

One of the first tasks you'll inevitably have to complete when adopting HubSpot is importing your data. In case you previously stored your data in Excel, or relied on a legacy CRM, HubSpot's import tools make it simple for you to move your data quickly, while ensuring that your team can take action based on the data.

Why should you import into HubSpot?

You do business with more than just contacts. Engaging with companies, closing deals, and resolving tickets are also part of your job. You might even have a custom object or two. Regardless of how you track your data, import allows you to quickly reflect your business processes in HubSpot. Ensure your team has a full understanding of who you're doing business with by integrating data across objects.

The Easy Way to Map Data and Validate Errors

The only thing worse than cleaning a spreadsheet of data, is realizing you skipped cleaning a column of data…after you finished your import. That's why HubSpot's import tool auto-maps your data to existing HubSpot properties and surfaces errors in your spreadsheet before you import. As a result, you can rest assured that your data will be clean and actionable from the very beginning.  

What kind of data can you import into HubSpot?

It's easy to import data into HubSpot - but understanding the different data points that you're able to import will help you match your existing business processes to HubSpot's data model. Here are the specific elements of HubSpot's data model you can import.

Objects

In the CRM, objects represent the information that you're tracking. You may have created custom objects to suit your business' specific needs, such as contacts, companies, and deals. The rows in your spreadsheet represent the records associated with each object. In your spreadsheet, you will store information about these records in properties.

In order to create new records or find and update existing records within import, each object must have specific properties. These properties will be highlighted on the import mapping guide within the import tool.

Associations

Relationships between records can be shown using associations. By creating associations between records in the CRM, your team will be able to see information across all associated records quickly and easily to do their jobs more efficiently.

Suppose you are importing a spreadsheet of contacts and want to associate them with the companies they work for. Simply include the company information on the same row as their associated contacts if you're importing one file. Creating an association between two files of data requires a common column of data between them. The label can also describe the relationship between the two records.

Activities

HubSpot activities refer to the interactions your team has with CRM records. A salesperson might leave notes on an open deal, meet with a company, or call a potential client. Using the import tool, you can create and associate activities just as you can records.

By importing these activities into the CRM, you can report on your team's productivity and see who is performing best.

Complete guide to importing files, records & contacts into HubSpot

You don't want to lose any of your organization's vital historical data when you move to a new CRM - there are many moving parts. When you import into HubSpot, you can create records and activities and update your database, regardless of whether this is your first CRM or you are moving from another system. 

The video below is an overview of on how to set up you files in HubSpot👇🏻

Glossary

• CRM Object: a type of a relationship or process that your business has, such as contacts, companies, deals, and tickets. When importing, an object is the type of dataset you're importing into HubSpot.

• Record: an individual instance of an object (e.g., “Tom Smith” is a contact record). In a single object import file, each row of your file represents one object record. If you're importing multiple objects in one file, each row will represent records that are associated with each other.

• Activity: an engagement that can be associated with records, such as an email sent to a contact, or a note logged on a ticket record. Activities include calls, emails, meetings, notes, and tasks. You can create new activities and can update existing calls via import, but you cannot update existing emails, meetings, notes, or tasks. Calls and tasks can be imported on their own, but emails, meetings, and notes must be imported and associated with a CRM object.

• Property: a field created to store information about your records and activities. In an import, properties will match up with your file’s column headers.

In this example, the object being imported is contacts. Each row represents a contact record, and each column of information represents a contact property (First Name, Last Name, Email Address).

• Unique identifier: a property value that HubSpot uses to recognize each record as one of a kind. In an import, you need a unique identifier to avoid creating duplicate records (e.g., two records for “Tom Smith”) and to associate different records (e.g., import “Tom Smith” and associate him with his company “Smith Inc.”). The unique identifiers available for use when importing are:

  • Email: the email address of a contact. This is required when importing contacts to avoid duplicates or to associate contacts with another object. If you don’t have contact email addresses, use the Record ID to update and associate existing contact records.

  • Company domain name: the website domain of a company (e.g., example.com). This is required when importing companies to avoid duplicates or to associate companies with another object. If you don’t have company domain names, use the Record ID to update and associate existing company records.

  • Record ID: a unique property value given to each record by HubSpot. If you export existing records from HubSpot, each record will have a Record ID. This is a required column when importing and associating existing deals, tickets, or custom objects with another object, but can also be used as the unique identifier for contacts and companies if you don't have emails or company domain names.

  • Custom property that requires unique values (contacts, companies, deals, tickets, and custom objects only): if you've created a property that requires unique values, you can use the property as a unique identifier in your import files.

• Association label (Professional and Enterprise only): a value that specifies the relationship between records. Once you've created association labels, you can import them with your records.
• Map columns: a step in the import process, when you'll be prompted to match the column headers in your file to HubSpot properties.

For example, you want to import and associate contacts and companies in one file. The objects being imported and associated are contacts and companies. Each row represents a contact record and its associated company record. Each column header represents properties that will be mapped during import. The file shown below includes contact properties (First name, Last name, Email address, Phone number, Favorite food) and company properties(Name, Company domain name). There is also a unique identifier for each object that will link the two unique records in HubSpot (Email address for contacts and Company domain name for companies). During the import process, you'll map columns to HubSpot properties (First Name column to the First Name HubSpot property).

File requirements and technical limits

All files being imported into HubSpot must:

• Be a .csv, .xlsx, or .xls file.
• Have only one sheet.
• Include a header row in which each column header corresponds to a property in HubSpot. The column headers can be organized in any order without affecting the import. You can confirm if a default property already exists to match your header or create a custom property prior to importing. Learn more about property requirements.
• Contain less than 1000 columns.
• Be UTF-8 encoded if foreign language characters are included.
• Contain cells in Number format if you're importing date-time properties in an Excel file.
• Only contain currency data formatted for USD using decimals (e.g. 123.45). 

There are additional technical limits for the import tool depending on your HubSpot subscription. These limits include the size and row limits of an import file, as well as how many files and rows you can import per day.

• If you're using HubSpot's free tools, you can:
  • Import files up to 20MB.
  • Complete up to 50 imports per day.
  • Import up to 500,000 rows per day. If you import a file containing more than 500,000 rows, it will take multiple days to complete.
• If your account has a Starter, Professional, or Enterprise subscription, you can:
  • Import files up to 512 MB.
  • Complete up to 500 imports per day.
  • Import up to 10,000,000 rows per day, with a limit of 1,048,576 rows per file. If you're importing via the imports API, you can import up to 80,000,000 rows per day.

Property requirements

Formatting property values

Depending on the property field type or the data your cells contain, there are other specific formatting requirements:

• Additional emails or domains: if you're importing contacts with more than one email address, include an Additional email addresses column with their secondary emails. If you're importing companies with more than one domain name, include an Additional domains column with their secondary domains. To include multiple emails or domains in a cell, separate the values with semi-colons (e.g., email@email.com; emailtwo@email.com). If you're importing to create contacts or companies, you cannot set a new contact's Email or new company's Company domain name to an email or domain that's an existing additional email/domain for another record.
• Blank cells: the import tool ignores blank cells in a spreadsheet, so when importing new property data, leave cells blank for records without a value for the property. If an existing record already has a value for the property within HubSpot, blank cells will not clear the existing property value. To clear existing property values in bulk, you can manually edit the values or use the Clear property value workflow action.
• Checkbox properties: learn more about importing to checkbox properties.
• Custom number, text, or date picker properties: if you've set validation rules, your imported values must follow the rules or they will not be imported.
• Date properties: for properties containing a date, to format a value for this property:
  
  
  • Months can be a number, three letters, or a full name (10, OCT, Oct, OCTOBER, October), years can be two digits or four (2023, 23), and separators can be a forward slash, hyphen, or period (10/28/2023, 10-28-2023, 10.28.2023).
• Valid date formats are day month year (e.g., 28/10/2023), month day year (e.g., 10-28-23), or year month day (e.g., 2023.OCT.28). 
• For date-time properties, to include a time, add the timestamp as hh:mm (28/10/2020 14:30). By default, the import tool uses a 24-hour clock. To specify a 12-hour clock, add AM or PM to the timestamp (10/28/2020 2:30 PM). If you don't include a timestamp, the time is set to midnight by default.

Please note: if you're importing a default HubSpot date property (e.g., Close date), your values must be formatted as a UNIX timestamp in milliseconds. The date-time property cells must be in Number format if importing an Excel file. Learn more about how to format timestamp values and how to convert a date into UNIX format.

• Enumeration properties: the values in your import file must match either the label or the internal value of the property's defined options. For HubSpot default enumeration properties (e.g., Lifecycle stage, Industry), the values must match the internal value or the label in English.

• Owner properties: to assign an owner to a record or activity during the import:

  • For objects, include a [Object] owner header. For activities, include an Activity assigned to header.

  • Add the name or email address of the user to each row in that column. Users who are assigned a record through import will not receive a notification that they were assigned a new record or activity.

• Percentages: when importing a number property formatted as a percentage, you can format your values with a % percent sign or as a decimal. For example, to import 25%, your cell should contain either 25% or .25.

• Phone number: the contact properties Phone number and Mobile phone number, to import and automatically format the phone number based on country code, format as +[country code][number]. If there is an extension, add ext[number]. For example, a phone number with a United States country code would look like +11234567890 ext123.

• Price: for properties containing a price, you must use one of HubSpot's accepted currencies. The list of accepted currencies and their currency codes can be found in the Currency tab of your account default settings.

• Product properties:

  • If importing a Term property value, you can format the value in the Term column as a number in months (e.g., 10 for 10 months), as PXM where X is the number of months (e.g., P6M, for a term of 6 months) or PXY where X is the number of years (e.g., P1Y, for a term of 1 year).

  • If importing a Billing frequency property value, use monthly, annually, or quarterly if the product has a recurring price type. Leave the cell blank if the product has a one-time price.

• Owner properties: to assign an owner to a record or activity during the import:

  • For objects, include a [Object] owner header. For activities, include an Activity assigned to header.

  • Add the name or email address of the user to each row in that column. Users who are assigned a record through import will not receive a notification that they were assigned a new record or activity.

Required properties

Depending on which objects or activities you're importing, the following properties are required, and must be included as columns headers in your files:

• Contacts: at least one of First name, Last name, Email, or for existing contacts, Record ID.

• Companies: at least one of Name, Company Domain Name, or for existing companies, Record ID.

• Deals: if you're creating new deals, Deal name, Pipeline, and Deal stage. For existing deals, Record ID. 

• Tickets: if you're creating new tickets, Ticket name, Pipeline, and Ticket status. For existing tickets, Record ID. 

• Products: Unit price and Name, or for existing products,Record ID.

• Line items: Name, Quantity, Price, and the associated deals' Record ID or Deal name. Include the product's Product ID if you're also associating the line item with a product, which will be mapped as a line item property during the import.

Please note: when importing line items with deals, the import will not update the deal amount. To update update the associated deal amount, you can manually edit the line items or associate the line items with a deal in HubSpot.

• Calls: Call notes. When importing new calls, it's also recommended to include Activity date.

• Emails: Email body and Email direction.

• Meetings: Meeting description, Meeting start time, and Meeting end time. When importing new meetings, it's also recommended to include Activity date. The start time, end time, and activity date values should be formatted as date-time properties.

• Notes: Note body.

• Tasks: Task title and Due date. The due date should be formatted as a date-time property.

Please note: while not required, it's recommended to include Activity date when importing new activities to specify the date and time an activity occurred. If you don't include this property, the Activity date values are automatically set to the date and time of the import.

Optional properties

Additional properties are not required, but can also be imported into HubSpot to add or update data in bulk. You can import the following additional properties:

• HubSpot default contact, company, deal, and ticket properties, excluding certain automatically set properties that cannot be edited. Learn more about default contact, company, deal, and ticket properties.

• Any custom properties you've created for contacts, companies, deals, tickets, or custom objects.

• HubSpot default call, email, meeting, note, and task properties. Learn more about default activity properties.

Association and deduplication requirements

The following are required to successfully avoid duplicates and associate records when importing. If you're importing same object associations, refer to the section below for additional requirements.

• To import and associate multiple objects in one file, include information about associated records and/or activities in the same row. In two files, use a common column to connect the records in each file. You can refer to the example files for more help importing and associating records.

• To update existing records, associate records, and avoid duplicate records, your files must include a unique identifier property for each object. For all objects, you can export existing records and use the Record ID as a unique identifier, or use a custom property that requires unique values. For contacts, you can also use Email. For companies, you can also use Company domain name.

  • If you're importing multiple objects and are including Record IDs, it is recommended to differentiate the file column headers to match the ID with the correct object (e.g., one column called Record ID - Contacts and another called Record ID - Companies).

  • If you're using a custom unique value property to deduplicate contacts, the Email property will still require unique values.

  • If you're using a custom unique value property to deduplicate companies, the Company domain name property will not require unique values. This means you can import duplicate company domains. If you don’t want multiple companies with same domain, you should remove duplicate domains from your file before importing, or use Company domain name as your unique identifier instead.

• You can use a secondary email as the unique identifier for existing contacts who have a secondary email address listed in HubSpot. If you use a secondary email, and do not include the Record ID column in your file, the secondary email will not replace the primary email. However, if you include both the secondary email and Record ID as columns in your file, the secondary email will replace the primary email.

• To associate one record with multiple activities or records of another object, include the record's unique identifier in multiple rows for each record you want to associate. For example, Luke Danes is a manager at Luke's Diner, but a contractor at The Dragonfly Inn. To associate him with both companies, you'd need to include two rows for Luke Danes with the columns Email (or Record ID), and Company domain name (or Record ID) for each company.

Please note: if you don't include unique identifiers (e.g., Email, Company domain name, Record ID), the import will create duplicate records instead of associating each to the same record.

• To import association labels (Professional and Enterprise only), include an Association label column. You must create the association labels in HubSpot prior to importing.

  • To set a company association as primary, include the value Primary in the Association label column for that row.

  • To set multiple labels to describe the relationship between two records, you can include multiple association label values in one cell, separated by a semicolon (e.g., Manager; Billing contact).

• If you're importing association labels in a multiple file import, you need to include the Association label column and a unique identifier for the object you're associating in the same file.

• If you're importing paired labels for cross-object associations, only include one of the labels in the Association label column. The labels will be assigned to the correct object during the import process.

• To create child-parent company associations via import, include a Parent company column in your import file with the parent companies' Record ID values. Learn more about importing child companies.

Same object association imports

You can import one file to associate records of the same object in bulk. When setting up your file, the following requirements are specific to same object imports:

• At least one record in a record pair must already exist in HubSpot before importing. For example, you can import a new contact and associate it with an existing contact, but you cannot import to create and associate two new contacts.

• If you're associating multiple records with one record, separate the records' unique identifier values by a semi-colon in the same cell (e.g., luke@lukesdiner.com; rory@yale.edu; sookie@dragonfly.com).

• If you're labelling associations (Professional and Enterprise only):

  • The association labels must already exist in your association settings before importing.

  • If all records have the same label, you can add this label during the import process.

  • If the records have different labels, include a label column in your file, with the corresponding label for each association.

  • If you use paired labels (e.g., manager and employee), the record in the Associated [unique identifier] column will receive the label added in the import process or included in the file's label column. The other record in the row will receive the other label in the pair.

• During the import process, you'll need to select a checkbox to include same object associations.

In the example file below, Rory and Jackson are new contacts being associated with unique labels to existing contacts, using their Email values as the unique identifier. Sookie is an existing contact being associated to two existing contacts with the same label. In the first row, the association label is part of a label pair, which means once the import is completed, the associated record will have the label Parent and Rory will have the paired label, Child.

Sample import files

The following files include the required column headers for each object or activity, as well as possible additional headers. You can add your own column headers to update or create any additional properties that are important to maintain your organization’s HubSpot database.

One object or activity

• Contacts sample spreadsheet: XLSX or CSV

• Companies sample spreadsheet: XLSX or CSV

• Deals sample spreadsheet: XLSX or CSV

• Tickets sample spreadsheet: XLSX or CSV

• Products sample spreadsheet: XLSX or CSV

• Tasks sample spreadsheet: XLSX or CSV

• Calls sample spreadsheet: XLSX or CSV

Once your file is ready, learn how to import one object or activity into HubSpot.

Please note: products can only be imported in a single object import. You can associate an existing product to a line item, or manually associate a product to a deal or quote.

One object with same object associations

The following example files include the required fields to create new records and associate them with existing records of the same object.

• Contact to contact: CSV.

• Company to company: CSV.

• Deal to deal: CSV.

• Ticket to ticket: CSV.

Multiple objects with associations

You can import and associate multiple objects, or objects and activities, together in one file or in two separate files, where each file represents one object/activity.

Import multiple objects in one file

To import and associate multiple objects/activities in one file, include the records/activities you want to associate within the same row of your file. These sample files represent common use cases, but you can mix and match objects or activities by replacing the column headers.

• Contacts and companies sample spreadsheet:  XLSX or CSV.

• Contacts and companies with association labels sample spreadsheet: XLXS or CSV

• Contacts and tickets sample spreadsheet: XLSX or CSV

• Companies and deals sample spreadsheet: XLSX or CSV

• Companies and notes sample spreadsheet: XLSX or CSV

• Companies, deals, and notes sample spreadsheet: XLSX or CSV

• Deals and new line items sample spreadsheet (with associated products) : XLSX or CSV. When importing in one file, you can only import one line item per deal.

• Calls and contacts sample spreadsheet: CSV

• Notes and tickets sample spreadsheet: CSV

• Tasks and existing deals sample spreadsheet: CSV

• Emails and existing contacts sample spreadsheet: CSV

Once your file is ready, learn how to import and associate multiple objects or activities into HubSpot.

Import multiple objects in two files

When importing and associating in two files, each file represents one object or activity. You can only import two objects or one object and one activity in a two file import. To import more than two objects/activities, you can import in one file.

To identify which records should be associated across the files, include a common column in both. One of your files should have a unique value for each row in this column. In the other file, use those values to indicate which record each row should be associated with. For example, a common use case is to import and associate contacts and companies. In the following sample files, Company Name is the common column:

• Companies sample spreadsheet: XLSX or CSV.

• Contacts sample spreadsheet: XLSX or CSV.

In the company file, there is a unique value for each row in the Company name column. In each row of the contacts file, the values in the Company name column match the company that the contact will be associated with. You can use these files when importing contacts and companies, or mix and match other objects, as long as you include a common column.

Additional examples include:

• Deals and companies with association labels in two files: in these sample files, Company name is the unique key for the Company object.

  • Deals sample spreadsheet: XLSX or CSV.

  • Companies sample spreadsheet: XLSX or CSV.

• Deals and new line items in two files: in these sample files, Deal name is the unique key for the Deal object. When importing in two files, you can import multiple line items per deal.

  • Deals sample spreadsheet: XLSX or CSV.

  • Line items sample spreadsheet (with associated products): XLSX or CSV.

• Calls and contacts in two files: in these files, Email is the common column and unique key for contacts.

  • Calls sample spreadsheet: CSV.

  • Contacts sample spreadsheet: CSV.

Once your files are ready, learn how to import and associate multiple objects or activities into HubSpot.

Import records and activities

To add or update data in bulk, you can import files into HubSpot. You can import records, such as contacts and companies, or activities, such as an email sent to a contact or a meeting for an ongoing deal.

The following are the types of imports you can complete, and the objects and activities supported:

• Single object or activity import: import to create and/or update one object or activity. In a single object import: You can create and/or update contacts, companies, deals, tickets, calls, products, and custom object records.

• You can create, but not update, tasks.

• Multiple object and activity import: import to create, update, and/or associate multiple objects and activities. You can import multiple objects and activities in one file, or two objects/an object and an activity in two separate files. In a multiple object import:

  • You can create and/or update contacts, companies, deals, tickets, calls, and custom object records. You can create and/or update line items, but they must be associated with deals.
  • You can create, but not update, emails, meetings, notes, and tasks. Emails, meetings, and notes must be associated with an object.

Before you import

Before you start an import:

• You must have Import permissions, and Edit permissions for the object record you're importing into HubSpot. 
• Learn more about objects, records, properties, and how to manage your CRM database in HubSpot.
• Set up your import files and confirm you have all the required fields. Properly setting up your files helps you avoid import errors or incorrect data being added to your CRM. You can refer to sample import files to help you get started.
• There are additional ways to create, sync, or associate records that you can consider:
  • For contacts and companies, you can turn on the setting to automatically create and associate companies with contacts based on the contact’s email domain. If you have contacts with email domains that are different from their companies' domains, or if you're importing other objects, follow the instructions to associate your records via import.
  • If you have data in another system and want to set up a two-way sync, learn how to connect and use HubSpot data sync rather than importing.

Import records and activities

To watch an overview on how to import into your HubSpot account, check out the video below:

How To Import Contacts To HubSpot CRM From A Spreadsheet (Google Or Excel)

Once you've set up your files, to import into HubSpot:

• Click Import in the top right of any object home page, or access your import settings:
  • In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the main navigation bar.
  • In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Import & Export.
  • Click Go to import.
• On the Imports page, click Start an import.
• Select File from computer, then click Next. You can also select Repeat a past import to complete an import with the same properties as a previous import.
• Depending on the type of import, select the number of files and objects/activities:
  • Single object or activity import: 
    • Select One file, then click Next.
    • Select One object, then click Next.
    • Select the object or activity in your import file. Calls and tasks are the only activities that can be imported on their own.

• Multiple object or activity import in one file:
  • Select One file, then click Next.
  • Select Multiple objects, then click Next.
  • Select the objects and activities in your import file, then click Next.

• Multiple object or activity import in two files:
  • Select Multiple files with associations, then click Next.
  • Select the two objects or object and activity, then click Next.

• For each object or activity, click choose a file, then select your import file.
• Click the Choose how to import [objects/activities] dropdown menu for each object/activity and select how to import your data:

• Create and update [records/activities]: the import will create new records and activities, as well as identify and update existing records. To create new records or activities, your file must contain the required properties for that object/activity. To update existing records, your file must contain a unique identifier.
• Create new [records/activities] only: the import will only create new records and activities. Existing records in the import file will be ignored. To create new records or activities, your file must contain the required properties for that object/activity.
• Update existing [records/activities] only: the import will only update existing records. New records or activities in the import file will be ignored. To update existing records, your file must contain a unique identifier.

Please note: emails, meetings, notes, and tasks cannot be updated via import, regardless of how you choose to import the data.

• If you're importing same object associations, select the Same-object associations checkbox.
• If you're importing data in a language other than your default language, click the Select the language of the column headers in your file dropdown menu and select the language. Selecting the correct language enables HubSpot to better match your column headers to existing default properties. If there is no match in your selected language, HubSpot will search for an English property to match.
• Click Next.
• If you’re importing and associating multiple objects in two files, indicate which column is included in both files:
  • Click the Common column headers found in your files dropdown menu and select the name of the common column.
  • Click the Which object is [common column] the unique key for? dropdown menu, then select the object that the property should be imported to. For example, if you're importing contacts and companies and are using Company name as the common column, select Company to upload this data to company records.
• Click Next.
• On the Map columns in your file to [object/activity] properties screen, HubSpot will map the columns in your file to the selected object or activity's properties based on the header, the header language, and the property name. If you’ve imported two files, there will be a mapping page for each object or activity.
• The Mapping Guide displays the properties required to create and/or update the objects or activities. If your file is missing any of the properties needed to complete the goal of your import (e.g., you chose to update existing deals but didn’t include a Record ID column), you should fix your import file and restart the import to avoid errors.
• In the Preview Information column, there’s a preview of the first three rows from your spreadsheet.
  • If there are no errors detected, there will be a success checkmark in the Mapped column.
  • If certain errors are detected, there will be an exclamation alert icon in the Mapped column with the number of errors. Click [x] errors to learn how you can resolve the errors.

• If any columns were mapped to the wrong object or activity's properties, click the dropdown menu in the Import as column then select the correct [Object/Activity] properties.

• If you're importing to associate same object records, map the associated records' unique identifier property as an association. To do this, in the row of the unique identifier:
  • In the Import as column, click the dropdown menu, then select Association. 
  • In the HubSpot property column, click the Choose property dropdown menu, then select the unique identifier property (e.g., Email, Record ID).

• If any columns don't map to an existing property, or mapped to the wrong property, click the dropdown menu in the HubSpot Property column. In the dropdown menu, you can do one of the following:
  
  
  • To map the column to an existing property, search for and select an existing property. You can hover over a property to view its details and ensure you're mapping to the correct property before selecting.
  • To set up a new custom property (objects only), click Create new property, then set up your property in the right panel. The data in the column will be mapped to this new custom property.

• To skip importing data from an individual row, click the dropdown menu in the Import as column, then select Don't import column. To skip importing data from all unmapped columns, select the Don't import data in unmapped columns checkbox in the bottom right.

• If you’re updating existing records, or want to avoid duplicates while associating cross-object records, ensure you’ve mapped the correct unique identifier (e.g., Record ID, email, company domain name, or custom unique value properties):
  
  
  • Record ID: click the dropdown menu in the Import as column, then select Record ID, or if you’re importing multiple objects, select Record ID - [Objects] for the correct object. If a row in your file doesn't contain a value for Record ID, a new record will be created.

• Email (contacts only) or Company domain name (companies only): map the column to the corresponding property in the HubSpot property column.
• Custom property that requires unique values (contacts, companies, deals, tickets, and custom objects only): if you’ve created a property that requires unique values, map the column to that property in the HubSpot property column. If you’re importing multiple unique value properties, you’ll select which property to use as the identifier on the Details page before finishing your import.
• If you use a custom property that requires unique values as the unique identifier:
  • For companies, the Company domain name property will no longer require unique values.
  • For contacts, the Email property will still require unique values.
• For contacts, if you use an existing contact's secondary email as the unique identifier, the secondary email will not replace the primary email as long as you do not include the Record ID column in your file. If you include both the secondary email and Record ID in your file, the secondary email will replace the primary email when imported.
• When associating line items with existing products, there is no Record ID for products. Instead, for the line items file, select Line item properties in the Import as column and Product ID in the HubSpot property column.
• If you're updating records, select the checkboxes in the Manage existing values column to prevent the import from overwriting records’ existing property values. When this is selected for a property, the import won't update the property for records that already have a value, but will update the property for new records or existing records with no current value for the property.
  • To prevent the import from overwriting existing values for individual properties, select the Don’t overwrite checkbox in the row of the property.
  • To prevent the import from overwriting existing values for all properties included in the import, select the checkbox at the top of the table.
• If you’re importing and associating objects, to import association labels (Professional and Enterprise only):
  • Click the dropdown menu in the Import as column, then select Association label. Importing a new association label will not overwrite an existing association label. The imported label will be added to the record as an additional association label. Learn how to manually remove an association label from a record.
  • When importing two objects, the HubSpot property column will automatically populate the object relationship for the objects you're importing (e.g., Contact and Company). If you're importing more than two objects, select the two objects whose relationship the association labels describe.

• Once all columns are mapped or set to Don't import column, click Next. If you've imported two files, map the second object or activity's properties, then click Next.
• Enter your import details:
  
  
  • Enter an Import name.
  • If your files include multiple unique value properties (contacts, companies, deals, tickets, custom objects only), click the Property to use to find existing [objects] dropdown menu and select the property you want to use to update or deduplicate records.
  • If you're importing contacts:
    
    
    • To automatically create a list of the imported contacts, select the Create a list of contacts from this import checkbox. Even if you've imported only to add existing contacts to a list (i.e., a file with Email or Record ID values but no new property values), the records will still be included as Updated records on the import history table and the individual import's summary.
    • To agree that contacts expect to hear from you and that your import file does not include a purchased list, select the checkbox. Learn more about HubSpot's acceptable use policy.
    • If you've turned on data privacy settings in your account, click the Set the legal basis for processing a contact's data dropdown menu and select a legal basis of processing.

• If you're importing a file with a date property, click the Date format dropdown menu and confirm how the date values in your spreadsheet are formatted.
• If you're importing a file with a number property, click the Number format dropdown menu and confirm which country's number format to use for your data.

• Once you've set the options for your import, click Finish import.

Once imported, you can view new and updated records each object's home page, new tasks on the tasks index page, or new activities on records. If your import contained errors, learn how to resolve import errors. You can also view, analyze, and complete actions with your previous imports, including creating a list, viewing, or deleting imported records.

Your data is now ready to be uploaded to HubSpot. Automate the process of filling in company information or contact information that is missing using artificial intelligence. You can fix small formatting errors with HubSpot's data quality tools. Save time by setting up filtered views for specific reps or automating data management. When your CRM accurately reflects your data, you can spend less time managing data and more time growing your business.