---
title: "Create a contact"
method: POST
path: "/v1/contacts"
tags: ["email-contacts"]
---

# Create a contact

`POST /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`

Creates a contact in the workspace, identified by an email address, a phone number, or both; at least one is required. Email is stored trimmed and lowercased, and phone in its canonical international form. Creating a second contact with the same email or phone number, or reusing another contact's `external_id`, returns a conflict error.

To create or update many contacts in one request, or to write a contact without knowing whether the address already exists, use [Create or update contacts in bulk](/docs/api/reference/create-contact-batch) instead.

## Headers

- `Idempotency-Key` string
- `X-Workspace-Id` string
- `X-Organization-Id` string

## Request body

- ContactCreateRequest
  - `email` string, email: The contact's email address. Trimmed and lowercased before it is stored and checked for uniqueness. Unique within the workspace. Supply an email address, a phone number, or both.
  - `phone_number` string: The contact's phone number in E.164 format, including the leading `+` and country code. Spaces and punctuation are accepted and stripped; the number is stored in its canonical form, which may differ from what you send, and is unique within the workspace. An empty string is treated as if the field were omitted. Supply an email address, a phone number, or both.
  - `first_name` string: The contact's first name.
  - `last_name` string: The contact's last name.
  - `external_id` string: 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. Each key must be a registered contact property, including an archived one. Each value must match the property's declared type: string, number, boolean, or RFC 3339 datetime. Strings can contain up to `500` characters, and a `null` value is ignored. An unregistered key returns a validation error. The serialized data is limited to 2 KB.

## Response `201`

Contact created.

- Contact
  - `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

## Other responses

- `400`: Bad request
- `401`: Authentication required
- `403`: Insufficient permissions
- `404`: Resource not found
- `409`: Resource conflict
- `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
- `503`: The service is temporarily unavailable. If `Retry-After` is present, wait for that delay before retrying; otherwise, retry with exponential backoff. Reuse the same idempotency key and request when retrying a mutation.

---

[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/6dfce1179799?raw)