What is the free way to export iPhone contacts to Excel?

Sign in to iCloud Contacts on a computer, select all and export a vCard, then convert that .vcf to CSV or xlsx. It costs nothing but requires a computer, and it exports everything with no way to choose people or fields.

Why are all the phone numbers in one cell after exporting?

Because the export flattened a contact that has several numbers into a single field. Each number should get its own column with its own label column beside it, and each part of an address its own column, otherwise the file cannot be sorted or mail merged.

Will an export include contacts from a work or Google account?

Only if that account syncs to the service being exported from. An iPhone commonly carries iCloud, Google and Exchange accounts at once, and each export route sees only its own, so the row count should be compared against the total the phone shows.

How to export iPhone contacts to Excel: every route, honestly

Q: Can I export all my iPhone contacts to Excel without a computer?

Not with what comes on the phone. iOS shares one contact at a time, and exporting the whole address book goes through iCloud Contacts in a browser on a computer or tablet. Doing it on the phone in one pass requires a third-party app.

Route	Where you do it	What you get	The catch
iCloud	A computer or a tablet, in a browser	One `.vcf` holding every contact	Not possible on the phone. All or nothing, no choosing people or fields, and a `.vcf` is not a spreadsheet yet.
Google Contacts	A browser, any device	A CSV directly, no converting	Only holds the contacts that actually sync to the Google account. Anything living only in iCloud is not there.
Share one contact	The phone itself	One `.vcf` per person	One person at a time. Fine for three, hopeless for four hundred.
This app	The phone itself	A real `.xlsx` or CSV, picked and filtered	Free for 25 contacts, $6.99 once past that.

Route 1: iCloud, on a computer

This is the route Apple documents, and the one every other guide describes. It works, and the reason it is first here is that it is free.

On the phone, check the contacts are actually in iCloud: Settings, your name, iCloud, and Contacts turned on. Anything stored only on the device or in another account will not appear on the web.
On a computer or a tablet, sign in at iCloud Contacts.
Select everything, then use the Share control and choose to export a vCard. A single .vcf lands in your downloads.
That file is not a spreadsheet. It is one text block per person, so a four hundred contact file is unreadable as a list. Convert it to CSV or Excel here, in your browser, without uploading it anywhere.

What it costs you. A computer, which is the part people trip over: Apple's own instruction for exporting the whole address book does not run on the phone. And it is all or nothing. There is no picking a group, no leaving out the fields you do not want, and no way to export just the ninety people you actually email.

Route 2: Google Contacts

If your contacts sync to a Google account, this is the shortest path to a spreadsheet, because Google exports CSV itself and no conversion step is needed.

Go to contacts.google.com.
Tick any contact, then use Selection actions and choose All.
Top right, More actions, then Export.
Pick a format. Google CSV is the one Google's own help names for a backup you intend to put back into Google. Outlook CSV suits a move to Microsoft. The third option, labelled for iOS Contacts, gives you a .vcf instead.

What it costs you. Only the contacts that really live in the Google account come out. On an iPhone that is usually a subset, sometimes a small one, and the file gives you no warning about who is missing. Worth counting the rows against the number your phone shows before you trust it.

Route 3: sharing one contact from the phone

Open Contacts, tap a person, then Share Contact. You get a .vcf for that one person, which you can mail to yourself and convert like any other.

What it costs you. Nothing, and it is genuinely the right answer when you need to move two or three people. It does not scale, and there is no multi-select hiding anywhere: the address book cannot be shared as a whole from the phone.

Route 4: on the phone, in one pass

This is our app, so treat the description as interested rather than neutral. It exists because of the gap the three routes above leave: every one of them either needs a computer or gives you one person at a time.

It runs on the iPhone. No computer, no account, no sign in.
You choose who goes in, by search or by group, and which fields go in.
It writes a real .xlsx, or a CSV, or a vCard back out, with the exact column names Google Contacts and Outlook import so nothing needs renaming.
Nothing is uploaded. The app has no networking code at all, so it works in airplane mode. A 20,000 contact address book came out in 0.95 seconds in our own test.
Free for 25 contacts. One payment of $6.99 removes the limit, and there is no subscription.

Why exports come out wrong

Whichever route you take, the file can still be useless, and it usually fails the same four ways. Worth checking your result against these before you build anything on it.

Several numbers in one cell. A contact with a mobile, a work line and a home line should occupy three columns with three label columns beside them, not one cell reading +1 415 555 0142, +1 415 555 0187. No mail merge can use the second version.
The address as one string. Street, city, state, ZIP and country belong in five columns. Merged into one, you cannot sort by city or post anything.
Numbers eaten by the spreadsheet. Open a CSV carelessly and Excel reads 02906 as the number 2906 and +1 415… as arithmetic. The fix is for every cell to be written as text in the first place.
Custom labels thrown away. An iPhone stores your own label for a number separately from the number. Exports that do not know this drop the label, or worse, print _$!<Mobile>!$_ into the cell.

Questions

Can I export all my iPhone contacts to Excel without a computer?

Not with what comes on the phone. Sharing works one contact at a time, and the whole address book goes through iCloud in a browser. Doing it on the phone in one pass is what our app is for.

Is there a free way?

Yes, and it is route 1: export the .vcf from iCloud on a computer and convert it here for nothing. It costs you a computer and the loss of any choice about what goes in the file.

Will the export include contacts from my work account?

Only if that account syncs to whichever service you are exporting from. An iPhone commonly carries several accounts at once, iCloud, Google and an Exchange work account, and each route sees only its own. Compare the row count against the total your phone shows.

What about photos and notes?

Photos cannot go in a spreadsheet and are dropped by every route. Notes come through on the web routes; our app deliberately leaves them out, because reading the notes field needs a permission Apple grants only on written request.

How to export iPhone contacts to Excel