What is a VCF file?
VCF (vCard) is the universal standard for storing and exchanging individual contact information electronically. A vCard can contain names, phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, profile photos (base64-encoded), websites, social media handles, job titles, organizations, and custom fields. VCF files are plain text (despite sometimes containing binary photo data encoded as base64) and use a structured key:value format called the MIME Content-Type vCard specification.
The format was originally developed by the Internet Mail Consortium in the 1990s and has been maintained by the IETF ever since. vCard is supported natively by every major operating system, smartphone, email client, and contact management system — it is the closest thing to a universal contact interchange format.
How to open VCF files
- iOS Contacts — Double-tap VCF attachment to import
- Android Contacts — Tap to import directly
- macOS Contacts — Double-click to open and add
- Windows People app — Import via file open
- Microsoft Outlook (Windows, macOS) — Drag into Contacts folder or File → Import
- Google Contacts (Web) — Import → Select file → VCF
- Any text editor — VCF files are plain text and human-readable
Technical specifications
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Standard | RFC 6350 (vCard 4.0, 2011); RFC 2426 (vCard 3.0) |
| Encoding | UTF-8 |
| Photo encoding | Base64 inline or URI reference |
| Properties | FN, N, TEL, EMAIL, ADR, PHOTO, URL, ORG, TITLE, BDAY, NOTE |
| Versions | 2.1 (wide device compatibility), 3.0 (email), 4.0 (current standard) |
| Multi-card | Multiple vCards in one VCF file |
VCF file structure
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:4.0
FN:Alice Johnson
N:Johnson;Alice;;;
ORG:Acme Corp
TITLE:Senior Engineer
TEL;TYPE=CELL:+1-555-123-4567
TEL;TYPE=WORK:+1-555-987-6543
EMAIL;TYPE=WORK:alice@acme.com
ADR;TYPE=WORK:;;123 Main St;Springfield;IL;62701;USA
URL:https://alice.example.com
BDAY:19900315
NOTE:Met at PyCon 2026
END:VCARDA single .vcf file can contain multiple BEGIN:VCARD...END:VCARD blocks, enabling bulk contact export and import.
Common use cases
- Contact sharing: Send your contact info via email or QR code (QR codes can encode a VCF directly)
- Contact backup: Export all phone contacts as a VCF file before switching phones or carriers
- Business cards: Digital business cards for email signatures embed VCF attachments
- CRM systems: Salesforce, HubSpot, and other CRMs support VCF import/export for contact migration
- Address book migration: Moving contacts between services (Gmail ↔ Outlook ↔ iCloud)
Exporting contacts as VCF
| Platform | Export path |
|---|---|
| iPhone | Settings → [your name] → iCloud → Contacts → Export vCard |
| Android | Contacts app → Menu → Import/Export → Export to storage |
| Gmail | Google Contacts → Export → vCard (for iOS) |
| Outlook | File → Open & Export → Import/Export → Export to vCard |
| macOS Contacts | File → Export → Export vCard |
QR code business cards
Modern professional networking tools encode vCard data directly into QR codes. When scanned, the phone reads the VCF and offers to add the contact directly — no app install required. Tools like QR Code Generator and Canva can create QR codes from vCard data. The resulting QR code encodes the BEGIN:VCARD...END:VCARD block as a text payload.
Security considerations
VCF files are generally safe as plain text, but be cautious of VCF files from unknown senders that contain photo data — the base64-encoded image is decoded and processed by the contacts application. Well-known parser vulnerabilities have existed in mobile contact apps in the past. Keep your device OS and contacts apps updated to receive security patches.