---
title: "List contacts"
method: GET
path: "/v1/contacts"
tags: ["email-contacts"]
---

# List contacts

`GET /v1/contacts`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://us1.platform.bird.com`
- URL: `https://us1.platform.bird.com/v1/contacts`
- Auth: one of:
  - HTTP bearer
  - API key in cookie `bird_session`

Returns a paginated list of contacts in the workspace, newest first. Look up a single contact by its exact `email`, `phone_number`, or `external_id`, or search by email, first name, last name, or phone substring with `q`. Repeat `phone_number` to resolve up to 50 numbers to their contacts in one request, raising `limit` to at least the number of values you pass. Pass `include_total=true` to add the total number of matching contacts to the response.

## Query parameters

- `email` string
- `phone_number` string[]
- `external_id` string
- `q` string
- `identifier` 'email' | 'phone_number': Which identifier a contact has on file, `email` for an email address or `phone_number` for a phone number.
- `limit` integer
- `starting_after` string
- `ending_before` string
- `include_total` boolean

## Headers

- `X-Workspace-Id` string
- `X-Organization-Id` string

## Response `200`

A page of contacts.

- ContactList
  - `data` Contact[], required: Page of contact objects.
    - `id` string, required
    - `email` string, email, nullable, required: The contact's email address, in its stored form, trimmed and lowercased before uniqueness is checked. Unique within the workspace. `null` when the contact has no email address.
    - `phone_number` string, nullable, required: The contact's phone number in normalized international form: a leading `+` and four to 15 digits. We normalize formatting but do not verify the number against numbering-plan metadata. The number is unique within the workspace. Because carriers recycle disconnected numbers, use `external_id` as the durable key for your own records. `null` when the contact has no phone number.
    - `first_name` string, nullable: The contact's first name. Available in broadcast templates as `bird.contact.first_name`.
    - `last_name` string, nullable: The contact's last name. Available in broadcast templates as `bird.contact.last_name`.
    - `external_id` string, nullable: Your own identifier for this contact, such as a user ID in your system. Unique within the workspace when set.
    - `data` object: Custom property values for this contact, available in broadcast templates as `bird.contact.<key>`. Each key is a property created via the contact properties API, and each value is a string, number, boolean, or RFC 3339 datetime matching the property's declared type (strings up to `500` characters). Total size is capped at 2 KB serialized. Values stored under a property that was later archived remain readable here.
    - `audiences` AudienceRef[]: The audiences this contact belongs to, most-recently-joined first. Only present when listing contacts; omitted from every other contact operation.
      - `id` string, required
      - `name` string, required: The audience's display name.
    - `created_at` string, date-time, required
    - `updated_at` string, date-time, required
  - `next_cursor` string, nullable, required: Cursor for the next page. Pass back as `starting_after` to advance forward. `null` when no next page exists.
  - `prev_cursor` string, nullable, required: Cursor for the previous page. Pass back as `ending_before` to step backward. `null` when no previous page exists.
  - `refresh_cursor` string, nullable, required: Refresh anchor, the first row of this response. Pass back as `ending_before` to fetch what precedes it in the current sort order. On a newest-first sort those are the items that have appeared since; on any other sort they are the items that sort earlier, so refreshing such a list means re-fetching it instead. Non-`null` whenever `data` is non-empty; `null` only on an empty page. Distinct from `prev_cursor`.
  - `total` integer, nullable: Total number of items matching the request's filters across all pages. Present only when `include_total=true` was passed; otherwise `null`.

## Other responses

- `400`: Bad request
- `401`: Authentication required
- `403`: Insufficient permissions
- `404`: Resource not found
- `422`: The request has invalid field values, violates a business rule, or carries a query parameter the endpoint does not declare. Field validation errors use `type: validation_error` and include the affected fields in `details`. Business-rule errors identify the failed rule in `type`.
- `429`: Rate limit exceeded
- `500`: Internal server error

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/messagebird/apis/bird-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/messagebird/apis/bird-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/messagebird/apis/bird-api/revisions/3e2a50466454?raw)