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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Customer experience | Sales, Customer Insights,... / Is there a Web API to ...
Customer experience | Sales, Customer Insights,...
Suggested Answer

Is there a Web API to trigger Import/Export jobs in Dynamics 365 CRM for bulk data operations?

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Posted on by Sparsh Smith Singh

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for guidance on performing bulk create, retrieve, and update operations in Dynamics 365 CRM for entities such as Contacts and Leads using Web APIs.

I’m aware that Dynamics CRM supports bulk data import via CSV file uploads through the UI (Import Wizard). However, my use case is to export data from an external application and import it into Dynamics CRM programmatically, without manual intervention.

 

Specifically, I’d like to know:

  • Is there a Web API or SDK capability to trigger Import or Export jobs in Dynamics 365 CRM?
  • Can CSV-based imports be initiated programmatically via APIs?
  • What are the recommended approaches for bulk data integration (create/update) from an external system?
  • Are there alternatives such as Bulk Import API, Data Import entities, ExecuteMultiple, or Data Export Service that would be suitable for this scenario?

Any pointers to official documentation, best practices, or real-world approaches would be very helpful.

Thanks in advance!

Categories:
Dynamics 365 Sales
I have the same question (0)
  • Suggested answer
    Tom_Gioielli Profile Picture
    Tom_Gioielli 2,865 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at
    Depending on your volume and frequency of updates, you can do this a few ways.
     
    1.  If low-ish volumes, Power Automate can read from OneDrive or SharePoint and perform the update actions
    2.  If you are doing larger bulk updates, there is a Bulk Upsert action available through the Dataverse API that can process records quickly [Use bulk operation messages - Power Apps | Microsoft Learn]
    3. If you are doing some manipulation, then I would highly recommend using Data Flows. These work on the Power Query framework, can be scheduled, and allow for upserting directly into Dataverse tables. They process records very quickly, and I have found success using them. [Create and use dataflows in Microsoft Power Platform - Power Query | Microsoft Learn]
     
    I would recommend going for Dataflows if you are doing this regularly, especially if counts are high. I've had Dataflows upsert 30,000 basic records in about 10 minutes of processing.
     
     
    If this response helped, please consider marking as verified so future users can see the resolution. If you have additional questions or problems, please tag me in the response so I receive a notification.
  • EI-09010515-0 Profile Picture
    EI-09010515-0 2 on at
    Hi @Tom_Gioielli, Thank you for the information provided. I have few follow-ups on Pointer 2.
    • Using CreateMultiple endpoint, can we get more information apart from ids in the response.
    • Which api is preferred way for doing bulk export, using CreateMultiple/UpsertMultiple or using $batch
    • Is there any async way of data import/export within MS Dynamics using web API.
  • Tom_Gioielli Profile Picture
    Tom_Gioielli 2,865 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at
    I'm not a developer per se, so I'm not exactly sure.
     
    • The response to the HTTP Request action that does the bulk upsert when I do this does not contain any additional record information. 
    • The Upsert Multiple action needs to be run in batches, otherwise you'll hit limits and issues. I have a child process that will create batches of around 100-200 for my own purposes. This is really dependent a bit on the payload size rather than record count I believe
    • For import, I think Data Flows are definitely the way to go.

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