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Import contacts into Zoho CRM without overwriting data

The Zoho CRM AI Assistant maps your CSV or XLSX of contacts, matches existing contacts by email, and shows a plan with counts. Once you approve, it creates the new contacts and fills only the empty fields on existing ones.

Zoho CRM AI Assistant is a Chrome extension that opens beside Zoho CRM. Tell it what you want to do in plain language, and it works with your CRM for you. Try Plus free for 14 days, then stay on Free forever.

the problem

The import would overwrite the phone numbers you fixed

You have a list from an event or a partner. Some people are new, some are already in Contacts with better data than the spreadsheet has. Import them as new and you get duplicates; import as updates and the old, wrong values in the file replace the good ones.

the solution

Map, match, then fill only the gaps

Attach the file and say how to treat existing contacts. For example:

Import the attached contacts. Match existing contacts by email. Create the new ones, and for existing ones fill only fields that are empty in the CRM.

It reads the file and maps each column to a Contacts field, showing you the mapping so you can correct it. Then it searches Contacts for each row’s email and sorts the rows into a plan:

  • Create: no contact has this email.
  • Fill in: a contact exists; only fields empty in the CRM get the file’s value.
  • Check: no email, an email that matches several contacts, or a value it cannot map. These rows are not written.

You approve the plan with its counts. It then creates up to 100 contacts and updates up to 200 per request; updating more than 20 contacts at once asks for a final confirmation. It does not overwrite a value already in the CRM unless you say so, for a field you name.

  • Reads the attached file and existing contacts.
  • Creates and updates contacts only after you approve the plan.
  • Workflow rules on Contacts run for every record created or updated.

This is an example CRM.Connect your own Zoho.

What would you like to do?

Ask about your CRM or describe a change you want to make.

pricing

Start with 14 days of Plus. Stay on Free after that.

Every new account gets 14 days of Plus free — no card, nothing to claim — and then settles onto Free, which is permanent. In the side panel every plan has the same safety controls and supported actions, and they differ in how much you can ask for each week. The MCP connector is included in every paid plan (Plus, Pro and Max) and in the 14-day Plus trial, with the same 10,000 tool calls a month on each.

Plus

For reps who use the assistant every day.

5x the Free usage

$23/ month
Try Plus

14-day free trial, then billed monthly

  • 5x the Free usage
  • All supported CRM actions
  • Approval controls
  • Includes the MCP connector

Pro

For heavy daily CRM work.

25x the Free usage

$94/ month
Get Pro

Billed at signup, then monthly

  • 25x the Free usage
  • 5x the usage of Plus
  • All supported CRM actions
  • Approval controls
  • Includes the MCP connector

Max

For the heaviest CRM workloads.

125x the Free usage

$500/ month
Get Max

Billed at signup, then monthly

  • 125x the Free usage
  • 5x the usage of Pro
  • All supported CRM actions
  • Approval controls
  • Includes the MCP connector

Free

$0No card, and permanent

Limited weekly usage, with the same supported CRM actions and approval controls. It is where your account settles after the 14-day Plus trial.

By hand

Without the assistant

Not ready to install? Here is how to do the same thing in Zoho CRM yourself, step by step.

Need more than Max? Contact sales

without the assistant

How to do it by hand in Zoho CRM

You can do this in Zoho CRM yourself. Here are the steps.

  1. Clean the spreadsheet so the column names match your Contacts fields.
  2. Run Zoho CRM’s import for Contacts and map the columns.
  3. Choose how to handle existing records, matching on Email.
  4. Check the imported records afterwards for overwritten values and duplicates.

It gets slow when you want new rows created but only empty fields filled on existing contacts, because the file has to be split and cleaned by hand first.

questions

Frequently Asked Questions

No, not by default. For a contact that already exists it writes only to fields that are empty in the CRM. If you want the file to win for a field, say which field, and the plan shows those changes.