Importing issues from CSV (FREE)

Issues can be imported to a project by uploading a CSV file with the columns title and description. Other columns are not imported. If you want to retain columns such as labels and milestones, consider the Move Issue feature.

The user uploading the CSV file is set as the author of the imported issues.

You must have at least the Developer role for a project to import issues.

Prepare for the import

Consider importing a test file containing only a few issues. There is no way to undo a large import without using the GitLab API.
Ensure your CSV file meets the file format requirements.

Import the file

To import issues:

Go to your project's Issues list page.
Open the import feature, depending if the project has issues:
- Existing issues are present: Select the import icon at the top right, next to Edit issues.
- Project has no issues: Select Import CSV in the middle of the page.
Select the file you want to import, and then select Import issues.

The file is processed in the background, and a notification email is sent to you after the import is complete.

CSV file format

To import issues, GitLab requires CSV files have a specific format:

Element	Format
header row	CSV files must include the following headers: `title` and `description`. The case of the headers does not matter.
columns	Data from columns beyond `title` and `description` are not imported.
separators	The column separator is detected from the header row. Supported separator characters are commas (`,`), semicolons (`;`), and tabs (`\t`). The row separator can be either `CRLF` or `LF`.
double-quote character	The double-quote (`"`) character is used to quote fields, enabling the use of the column separator in a field (see the third line in the sample CSV data below). To insert a double-quote (`"`) in a quoted field use two double-quote characters in succession (`""`).
data rows	After the header row, following rows must use the same column order. The issue title is required, but the description is optional.

If you have special characters in a field, (such as \n or ,), surround the characters with double quotes (").

Sample CSV data:

title,description
My Issue Title,My Issue Description
Another Title,"A description, with a comma"
"One More Title","One More Description"

File size

The limit depends on how your GitLab instance is hosted:

Self-managed: Set by the configuration value of Max Attachment Size for the GitLab instance.
GitLab SaaS: On GitLab.com, it's set to 10 MB.