Exporting your contacts to CSV
By Clint ParsleyLast updated
In short. On the Contacts page, an admin clicks Export CSV to download the list as it is filtered right now, up to 10,000 contacts. Each contact comes with every field it has, one column per custom field, and its sending status, so unsubscribed and suppressed contacts are in the file and marked.
Account admins see an Export CSV button at the top of the Contacts page. It downloads the list you are looking at: the same search, engagement tier and filters, in the same order. To export everyone, clear the filters first. Members don't see the button; ask an admin for a copy.
What is in the file?
One row per contact, with everything SEMAOS holds for it:
- Contact details: email, first and last name, company, title, work and mobile phone, lead status, tags (separated by semicolons), and where the contact came from.
- Sending status: Active, Unsubscribed, Suppressed or Invalid email, followed by Yes/No columns for suppressed, unsubscribed and invalid email, and the reason from your suppression list (for example Hard bounced). The file always includes unsubscribed and suppressed contacts, so it covers people you can no longer email too.
- Engagement: the engagement score and tier, total opens and clicks.
- Dates: when the contact was added, its last activity (the latest send, open or click), and the last send, open, click, score update and edit. Dates are in UTC, written as
2026-10-24 21:03:00, which spreadsheets read as a date. - Custom fields: one column for each custom field your account has, named by its label, with a blank where a contact has no value. A value saved under a custom field that has since been deleted still gets a column, named by its key.
The first columns use the headers the import wizard recognizes, so you can edit the file and import it again. The wizard doesn't map the tags, sending status, engagement or date columns, so changing them in the file changes nothing in SEMAOS. Tags are separated by ; , and a tag that itself contains a semicolon is written as it is, so split the column by hand if you need the tags one by one.
The file is UTF-8, so names with accents open correctly in Excel. A cell that starts with =, +, - or @, even after spaces, gets a leading apostrophe, so a spreadsheet shows it as text rather than running it as a formula. A phone number with spaces or brackets between its digit groups, such as +1 555 123 4567 or +44 (20) 7946-0958, is the exception and is written as it is. One written as a single run of digits, such as +15551234567, or with a space beside a hyphen, still gets the apostrophe, because Excel would otherwise turn it into a different number. The file name carries the date in your account's timezone, for example semaos-contacts-2026-10-24.csv.
Is there a size limit?
Yes. A direct download holds up to 10,000 contacts. When the list you are looking at is larger, the button is greyed out and a line under the header gives the count. Narrow the list with search, a tier or a filter and export it in parts, for example one engagement tier at a time.