How to Export Contacts from Google (Calendar, Gmail, and Contacts)

If you’ve tried to export contacts from Google before, you know it’s more fragmented than it should be. Google stores your professional network across at least three places such as Contacts, Gmail, and Calendar. Each one has a different export process, a different file format, and a different set of limitations.

This guide walks through all three methods, step by step. Whether you want a CSV for a CRM, a spreadsheet for outreach, or just a clean backup of who you know, here’s how to get it done.

What Counts as a “Google Contact”

Before walking through the steps, it helps to understand where Google actually stores contact data. Most people assume their contacts live in one place. They don’t.

Your network is spread across three sources:

• Google Contacts (contacts.google.com) — people you’ve manually added or who synced from your phone
• Gmail — anyone you’ve exchanged emails with, automatically stored as “Other contacts”
• Google Calendar — meeting attendees who may never appear in either of the above

Many professionals are surprised to find that the people they meet with most frequently have no entry in Google Contacts at all. Your calendar often holds the most valuable, and most overlooked, contact data you have. When you export contacts from Google, most tools only pull from one of these sources not all three.

Method 1: Export Contacts from Google Contacts

Google Contacts has the most straightforward export process. Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to contacts.google.com
2. In the left sidebar, click Export
3. Choose which contacts to export: all contacts, a specific label, or just your primary contacts (excluding “Other contacts”)
4. Select your format: Google CSV, Outlook CSV, or vCard
5. Click Export and the file downloads immediately

For most uses, Google CSV works well for importing into other tools. If you want to open the file in Excel or Google Sheets right away, either CSV format will work.

What the export includes: Name, email, phone number, and any other fields you’ve manually filled in. If you haven’t kept your contacts tidy, expect a fair number of gaps.

If you’re looking to turn this export into a living, enriched contact list rather than a one-time file, Who I Met connects directly to your calendar and builds that list automatically. No manual exports needed, and the free plan requires no credit card.

Method 2: How to Pull Contacts from Gmail

Gmail stores two types of contacts: the ones you’ve manually created (which appear in Google Contacts) and “Other contacts” — people you’ve emailed but never explicitly added. Here’s how to pull contacts from Gmail:

1. Go to contacts.google.com
2. In the left sidebar, scroll down to Other contacts
3. You can browse this list, but Google doesn’t allow a direct export of only “Other contacts” as a separate file
4. Use the main Export function and select All contacts — this includes Other contacts alongside your primary ones

If you need to filter by a specific sender or thread, tools from the Google Workspace Marketplace can help you export more selectively.

The limitation: Gmail contacts are email-only. There’s no meeting context, no relationship history, and no calendar data attached to these records. For a raw email list, it works. For understanding your real network, it falls short.

Method 3: Export Contacts from Google Calendar

This is the step most people skip — and it often surfaces the most useful data. Your calendar holds a record of who you’ve met with, how often, and in what context. That’s more actionable than a list of people you added to your phone three years ago.

Google Calendar doesn’t have a native “export contacts” feature. What it does have is a full calendar export:

1. Go to calendar.google.com
2. Click the gear icon, then select Settings
3. In the left sidebar, find Import & export
4. Click Export and you’ll download a ZIP file containing an ICS file for each calendar

The ICS file includes event data, including attendee email addresses. Extracting those addresses requires either parsing the raw file manually or using a tool built for it. For a full walkthrough, see: How to Extract Contacts from Google Calendar.

A faster way to export calendar contacts: Who I Met connects directly to Google Calendar and surfaces every person you’ve met with, organized by recency and frequency. No file downloads, no parsing. It takes about two minutes to set up, and the free plan covers most use cases.

How to Open Your Google Export in Excel

Once you export contacts from Google and save the CSV, opening it in Excel is straightforward.

1. Open Excel and go to File > Open
2. Select your CSV file
3. Excel will usually auto-format the columns; if not, use Data > From Text/CSV for cleaner column mapping
4. Save as .xlsx to preserve any formatting

One common snag: special characters in names (accents, non-Latin scripts) can display incorrectly if Excel doesn’t detect UTF-8 encoding. Fix this by using Data > From Text/CSV and selecting UTF-8 in the import dialog.

The Problem with Manual Exports

Exporting contacts from Google gives you a snapshot in time. What it doesn’t give you:

• Who you’ve actually been in contact with recently
• How warm a relationship is based on meeting frequency
• Context from calendar meetings that never made it into your address book

Most professionals who export their contacts to a spreadsheet use it once. Then it goes stale, and updating it manually doesn’t scale. That’s not a willpower problem — it’s a design problem. Static lists don’t capture a living, changing network.

Who I Met was built around that insight. Instead of a one-time export, it keeps your contact list current by syncing directly with your calendar. Every meeting you take adds to your network automatically, with no maintenance required.

If you want to understand the broader case for calendar-based contact management, this post on building a contact list from calendar meetings goes deeper on why your real network is often hiding in plain sight.