Bulk User Import Schema and Examples

Learn how to perform bulk user imports with the Management API.

The users file must have an array with the users’ information in JSON format.

The file size limit for a bulk import is 500KB. You will need to start multiple imports if your data exceeds this size.

User JSON schema

The following JSON schema describes valid users:

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "email": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The user's email address.",
      "format": "email"
    },
    "email_verified": {
      "type": "boolean",
      "default": false,
      "description": "Indicates whether the user has verified their email address."
    },
    "user_id": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The user's unique identifier. This will be prepended by the connection strategy."
    },
    "username": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The user's username."
    },
    "given_name": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The user's given name."
    },
    "family_name": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The user's family name."
    },
    "name": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The user's full name."
    },
    "nickname": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The user's nickname."
    },
    "picture": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "URL pointing to the user's profile picture."
    },
    "blocked": {
      "type": "boolean",
      "description": "Indicates whether the user has been blocked."
    },
    "password_hash": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Hashed password for the user. Passwords should be hashed using bcrypt $2a$ or $2b$ and have 10 saltRounds."
    },
    "custom_password_hash": {
      "type": "object",
      "description": "A more generic way to provide the users password hash. This can be used in lieu of the password_hash field when the users password hash was created with an alternate algorithm. Note that this field and password_hash are mutually exclusive.",
      "properties": {
        "algorithm": {
          "type": "string",
          "enum": [
            "argon2",
            "bcrypt",
            "hmac",
            "ldap",
            "md4",
            "md5",
            "sha1",
            "sha256",
            "sha512",
            "pbkdf2",
            "scrypt"
          ],
          "description": "The algorithm that was used to hash the password."
        },
        "hash": {
          "type": "object",
          "properties": {
            "value": {
              "type": "string",
              "description": "The password hash."
            },
            "encoding": {
              "type": "string",
              "enum": [
                "base64",
                "hex",
                "utf8"
              ],
              "description": "The encoding of the provided hash. Note that both upper and lower case hex variants are supported, as well as url-encoded base64."
            },
            "digest": {
              "type": "string",
              "description": "The algorithm that was used to generate the HMAC hash",
              "enum": [
                "md4",
                "md5",
                "ripemd160",
                "sha1",
                "sha224",
                "sha256",
                "sha384",
                "sha512",
                "whirlpool"
              ]
            },
            "key": {
              "type": "object",
              "description": "The key that was used to generate the HMAC hash",
              "required": [
                "value"
              ],
              "properties": {
                "value": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "description": "The key value"
                },
                "encoding": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "enum": [
                    "base64",
                    "hex",
                    "utf8"
                  ],
                  "default": "utf8",
                  "description": "The key encoding"
                }
              }
            }
          }
        },
        "salt": {
          "type": "object",
          "properties": {
            "value": {
              "type": "string",
              "description": "The salt value used to generate the hash."
            },
            "encoding": {
              "type": "string",
              "enum": [
                "base64",
                "hex",
                "utf8"
              ],
              "default": "utf8",
              "description": "The encoding of the provided salt. Note that both upper and lower case hex variants are supported, as well as url-encoded base64."
            },
            "position": {
              "type": "string",
              "enum": [
                "prefix",
                "suffix"
              ],
              "default": "prefix",
              "description": "The position of the salt when the hash was calculated. For example; MD5('salt' + 'password') = '67A1E09BB1F83F5007DC119C14D663AA' would have \"position\":\"prefix\"."
            }
          },
          "required": [
            "value"
          ]
        },
        "password": {
          "type": "object",
          "properties": {
            "encoding": {
              "type": "string",
              "enum": [
                "ascii",
                "utf8",
                "utf16le",
                "ucs2",
                "latin1",
                "binary"
              ],
              "default": "utf8",
              "description": "The encoding of the password used to generate the hash. On login, the user-provided password will be transcoded from utf8 before being checked against the provided hash. For example; if your hash was generated from a ucs2 encoded string, then you would supply \"encoding\":\"ucs2\"."
            }
          }
        },
        "keylen": {
          "type": "integer",
          "description": "Desired key length in bytes for the scrypt hash. Must be an integer greater than zero. Required when algorithm is set to scrypt."
        },
        "cost": {
          "type": "integer",
          "default": 16384,
          "description": "CPU/memory cost parameter used for the scrypt hash. Must be a power of two greater than one. Only used when algorithm is set to scrypt."
        },
        "blockSize": {
          "type": "integer",
          "default": 8,
          "description": "Block size parameter used for the scrypt hash. Must be a positive integer. Only used when algorithm is set to scrypt."
        },
        "parallelization": {
          "type": "integer",
          "default": 1,
          "description": "Parallelization parameter used for the scrypt hash. Must be a positive integer. Only used when algorithm is set to scrypt."
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "algorithm",
        "hash"
      ],
      "additionalProperties": false
    },
    "app_metadata": {
      "type": "object",
      "description": "Data related to the user that does affect the application's core functionality."
    },
    "user_metadata": {
      "type": "object",
      "description": "Data related to the user that does not affect the application's core functionality."
    },
    "mfa_factors": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "totp": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
              "secret": {
                "type": "string",
                "pattern": "^[A-Z2-7]+$",
                "description": "The OTP secret is used with authenticator apps (Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Authy, 1Password, LastPass). It must be supplied in un-padded Base32 encoding, such as: JBTWY3DPEHPK3PNP"
              }
            },
            "additionalProperties": false,
            "required": [
              "secret"
            ]
          },
          "phone": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
              "value": {
                "type": "string",
                "pattern": "^\\+[0-9]{1,15}$",
                "description": "The phone number for SMS MFA. The phone number should include a country code and begin with +, such as: [phone]"
              }
            },
            "additionalProperties": false,
            "required": [
              "value"
            ]
          },
          "email": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
              "value": {
                "type": "string",
                "format": "email",
                "description": "The email address for MFA"
              }
            },
            "additionalProperties": false,
            "required": [
              "value"
            ]
          }
        },
        "maxProperties": 1,
        "additionalProperties": false
      },
      "minItems": 1,
      "maxItems": 10
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "email"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}

To learn more about JSON schema, read jsonschema.org.

Properties

You can import users with the following properties:

Property	Type	Description	Upsert During Import?
app_metadata	object	Data that can affect the application’s core functionality or what the user can access. Data stored in app_metadata cannot be edited by users. This may include things such as support plans, roles or access groups.	Yes
blocked	boolean	Indicates whether the user has been blocked.	No
email	string	The user’s email address.	No
email_verified	boolean	Indicates whether the user has verified their email address. Set to false by default if email is updated by upsert but not email_verified.	Yes
family_name	string	The user’s family name.	Yes
given_name	string	The user’s given name.	Yes
name	string	The user’s full name.	Yes
nickname	string	The user’s nickname.	Yes
picture	string	URL pointing to the user’s profile picture.	Yes
user_id	string	The user’s unique identifier. This will be prepended by the connection strategy.	No
user_metadata	object	Data that does not impact what users can or cannot access, such as work address, home address, or user preferences.	Yes
username	string	The user’s username.	No
password_hash	string	Hashed password for the user’s connection. When users are created, Auth0 uses bcrypt to secure the password. Importing hashed passwords lets users keep their passwords for a smoother experience. Compatible passwords should be hashed using bcrypt $2a$ or $2b$ and have 10 saltRounds. This property can only be provided when the user is first imported and cannot be updated later.	No
custom_password_hash	object	A more generic way to provide the user’s password hash. This can be used instead of the password_hash field when the user’s password hash was created with an alternate algorithm. During the bulk import process, you can update the custom_password_hash if the user did not login using the initially imported custom_password_hash.	Yes
mfa_factors	array	The MFA factors that can be used to authenticate this user	No

To learn more about app_metadata and user_metadata, read Understand How Metadata Works in User Profiles.

App metadata

The user.app_metadata object must not contain any of these properties:

• __tenant
• _id
• blocked
• clientID
• created_at
• email_verified
• email
• globalClientID
• global_client_id
• identities
• lastIP
• lastLogin
• loginsCount
• metadata
• multifactor_last_modified
• multifactor
• updated_at
• user_id

Custom password hash

The user.custom_password_hash object can be used instead of the user.password_hash property when the user’s password hash was created with an alternate algorithm. Note this field and password_hash are mutually exclusive.

The user.custom_password_hash object has the following properties:

Property	Type	Description
algorithm	string	The algorithm used to hash the password. Must be one of: argon2 bcrypt hmac ldap md4 md5 sha1 sha256 sha512 pbkdf2 scrypt
hash	object
hash.value	string	The password hash.
hash.encoding	string	The encoding of the provided hash. Must be one of: base64 hex utf8 Upper and lower case hex variants are supported, as well as url-encoded base64.
hash.digest	string	The algorithm used to generate the HMAC hash. Must be one of: md4 md5 ripemd160 sha1 sha224 sha256 sha384 sha512 whirlpool
hash.key	object	The key used to generate the HMAC hash.
hash.key.value	string	The key value.
hash.key.encoding	string	The key encoding. Must be one of: base64 hex utf8 By default, hash.key.encoding is utf8.
salt	object
salt.value	string	The salt value used to generate the hash.
salt.encoding	string	The encoding of the provided salt. Must be one of: base64 hex utf8 Upper and lower case hex variants are supported, as well as url-encoded base64. By default, salt.encoding is utf8.
salt.position	string	The position of the salt when the hash was calculated. By default, salt.position is prefix.
password.encoding	string	The encoding of the password used to generate the hash. Must be one of: ascii utf8 utf16le ucs2 latin1 binary On login, the user-provided password will be transcoded from password.encoding before being checked against the provided hash. For example, if your hash was generated from a ucs2 encoded string, then you would set: "encoding": "ucs2"
keylen	integer	Desired key length in bytes for the scrypt hash. Must be an integer greater than zero. This parameter is required when algorithm is set to scrypt.
cost	integer	CPU/memory cost parameter used for the scrypt hash. Must be a power of two greater than one. By default, cost is 16384. This parameter is only used when algorithm is set to scrypt.
blockSize	integer	Block size parameter used for the scrypt hash. Must be a positive integer. By default, blockSize is 8. This parameter is only used when algorithm is set to scrypt.
parallelization	integer	Parallelization parameter used for the scrypt hash. Must be a positive integer. By default, parallelization is 1. This parameter is only used when algorithm is set to scrypt.

Update custom password hash

During the bulk import process, you can update the custom_password_hash if the user did not login using the initially imported custom_password_hash. For example, you can submit the below JSON twice to the/api/v2/jobs/users-imports endpoint with different values for custom_password_hash. On the second submit, send the upsert flag to true.

[
    {
    	"user_id": "2000",
        "email": "[e-mail]",
        "given_name": "ExampleCo User",
        "name" : "ExampleCoUser20",
        "custom_password_hash": {
            "algorithm": "bcrypt",
            "hash": {
                "value": "$2a$10$aHF7mbpWT6tZ7PJVtwtjNelaKbszikcYBCB2jibvbFcGFmOsu/s4K"
            }
        }
    }
]

You can use the Bcrypt Password Generator at browserling.com to generate bcrypt password hashes.

Supported hash algorithms

Auth0 currently supports imports of user passwords hashed by:

• Argon2
• bcrypt
• LDAP (RFC-2307 "userPassword")
• HMAC
• MD4
• MD5
• SHA1
• SHA256 and SHA512
• PBKDF2
• scrypt

Please consider the following sections when providing a custom_password_hash.

Argon2

When the algorithm is set to argon2:

• hash.encoding must be utf8.
• hash.salt is not allowed.
• hash.value must be in PHC string format, specified in P-H-C / phc-string-format on GitHub. It also must conform to the requirements specified in Auth0 / magic on GitHub.
• hash.value must include the base64 encoded salt (as specified in the PHC documentation).

bcrypt

When the algorithm is set to bcrypt:

• hash.encoding must be utf8.

• hash.salt is allowed in conjunction with with salt encoding and position.

• hash.value must include one of these prefixes:

  • $2a$
  • $2b$
  • $2y$

  Other prefixes, such as $2$, $sha1$, and $2x$, are not supported at this time.

For example, this was generated from the string hello using a cost parameter of 10:

$2b$10$nFguVi9LsCAcvTZFKQlRKeLVydo8ETv483lkNsSFI/Wl1Rz1Ypo1K

The bcrypt algorithm processes a maximum of 72 bytes of input when computing password hashes or performing comparisons and the length of salt.value counts towards the 72-byte input limit. Any input beyond the 72 byte limit is truncated; for example, if the salt consumes 10 bytes, the maximum password length for hashing or comparison is 62 bytes.

Passwords longer than the reduced limit are truncated, potentially weakening password strength or introducing hash collisions. Always validate password lengths before hashing.

HMAC

When the algorithm is set to hmac:

• hash.encoding must be either hex or base64.

• hash.digest is required and must be one of these:

  • md4
  • md5
  • ripemd160
  • sha1
  • sha224
  • sha256
  • sha384
  • sha512
  • whirlpool

• hash.key.value is required.

• hash.key.encoding must be either base64 or hex or utf8.

LDAP

When the algorithm is set to ldap:

• hash.encoding must be utf8.
• salt is not allowed.
• hash.value must adhere to the format outlined in RFC-2307 section-5.3 on IETF Datatracker.
• The scheme should be one of md5|smd5|sha*|ssha* see here for more info.
• Note that the crypt scheme is not supported due to system/implementation dependent behavior. To learn more, read Open LDAP Admin Guide - 14.4.2. CRYPT password storage scheme.

MD or SHA

When the algorithm is set to md4, md5, sha1, sha256, or sha512:

• hash.encoding must be either hex or base64.

PBKDF2

When the algorithm is set to pbkdf2:

• hash.encoding must be utf8.

• hash.salt is not allowed.

• hash.value should be in PHC string format, specified in P-H-C / phc-string-format on GitHub.

• hash.value must include the B64 encoded salt (base64 omitting padding characters =, as specified in the PHC documentation).

• hash.value should include i (iterations) and l (keylen) parameters. If these parameters are omitted, they will default to i=100000 and l=64.

• The id should be in a pbkdf2-<digest> format (pbkdf2-sha512, pbkdf2-md5, etc). The supported digests are:

  • RSA-MD4
  • RSA-MD5
  • RSA-MDC2
  • RSA-RIPEMD160
  • RSA-SHA1
  • RSA-SHA1-2
  • RSA-SHA224
  • RSA-SHA256
  • RSA-SHA384
  • RSA-SHA512
  • md4
  • md4WithRSAEncryption
  • md5
  • md5WithRSAEncryption
  • mdc2
  • mdc2WithRSA
  • ripemd
  • ripemd160
  • ripemd160WithRSA
  • rmd160
  • sha1
  • sha1WithRSAEncryption
  • sha224
  • sha224WithRSAEncryption
  • sha256
  • sha256WithRSAEncryption
  • sha384
  • sha384WithRSAEncryption
  • sha512
  • sha512WithRSAEncryption
  • ssl3-md5
  • ssl3-sha1
  • whirlpool

scrypt

When the algorithm is set to scrypt:

• hash.encoding must be either hex or base64.
• keylen parameter is required.
• cost parameter can be specified; if not, it will default to 16384.
• blockSize parameter can be specified; if not, it will default to 8.
• parallelization parameter can be specified; if not, it will default to 1.

MFA factors

The user.mfa_factors array contains MFA enrollments for the user. To learn more, read Multi-Factor Authentication in Auth0. Importing enrollments prevents the need for users to re-enroll in MFA after they’re imported. The supported enrollment types are:

Property	Type	Description
email	object
email.value	string	The email address for MFA.
phone	object
phone.value	string	The phone number for SMS MFA. Must have a country code and begin with +, such as: "[phone]"
totp	object
totp.secret	string	The OTP secret for MFA authentication with authenticator apps (Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Authy, 1Password, LastPass). Must be in un-padded Base32 encoding, for example: "JBTWY3DPEHPK3PNP"

Examples

Basic example

A file with the following contents is valid:

[
  {
    "email": "[e-mail]",
    "email_verified": false,
    "app_metadata": {
        "roles": ["admin"],
        "plan": "premium"
    },
    "user_metadata": {
        "theme": "light"
    }
  }
]

Custom password hash examples

Some example users with hashes provided:

[
    {
        "email": "[e-mail]",
        "email_verified": false,
        "custom_password_hash": {
            "algorithm": "md4",
            "hash": {
                "value": "AbuUujgF0pPPkJPSFRTpmA==",
                "encoding": "base64"
            }
        }
    },
    {
        "email": "[e-mail]",
        "email_verified": false,
        "custom_password_hash": {
            "algorithm": "sha256",
            "hash": {
                "value": "d24e794fce503c3ddb1cd1ba1dd5d9b250cf9917336a0316fefd87fecf79200f",
                "encoding": "hex"
            },
            "salt": {
                "value": "abc123",
                "position": "prefix"
            }
        }
    },
    {
        "email": "[e-mail]",
        "email_verified": false,
        "custom_password_hash": {
            "algorithm": "bcrypt",
            "hash": {
                "value": "$2b$10$C9hB01.YxRSTcn/ZOOo4j.TW7xCKKFKBSF.C7E0xiUwumqIDqWUXG"
            }
        }
    },
    {
        "email": "[e-mail]",
        "email_verified": false,
        "custom_password_hash": {
            "algorithm": "argon2",
            "hash": {
                "value": "$argon2id$v=19$m=65536,t=2,p=1$J6Q/82PCyaNpYKRELJyTZg$m04qUAB8rexWDR4+/0f+SFB+4XMFxt7YAvAq2UycYos"
            }
        }
    },
    {
        "email": "[e-mail]",
        "email_verified": false,
        "custom_password_hash": {
            "algorithm": "pbkdf2",
            "hash": {
                "value": "$pbkdf2-md4$i=100000,l=64$+N375B8q0Fw$fp2R9KAM4hK/votGHC5Fu+jhqbxUD8+Nic/EMSGvNC3UP/k7wSHI0uXluHRSkZfl/BOheYqNOemayG90ZaSSQw",
                "encoding": "utf8"
            }
        }
    },
    {
        "email": "[e-mail]",
        "email_verified": false,
        "custom_password_hash": {
            "algorithm": "pbkdf2",
            "hash": {
                "value": "$pbkdf2-sha512$i=100000,l=64$KNyFsA2rWoE$I2CQGI9H0JxdDf3kERRI97kPCGxh0KWBIV3MxyaS191gDGfzVBGyS4BibhgqWQ0/ails8mHuU9ckASxHOOq58w"
            }
        }
    },
    {
        "email": "[e-mail]",
        "email_verified": false,
        "custom_password_hash": {
            "algorithm": "ldap",
            "hash": {
                "value": "{SSHA384}/cgEjdoZh85DhurDeOQEMO1rMlAur93SVPbYe5XSD4lF7nNuvrBju5hUeg9A6agRemgSXGl5YuE=",
                "encoding": "utf8"
            }
        }
    },
    {
        "email": "[e-mail]",
        "email_verified": false,
        "custom_password_hash": {
            "algorithm": "hmac",
            "hash": {
                "value": "cg7f42jH39/2EaAU4wNd4s2lKIk=",
                "encoding": "base64",
                "digest": "sha1",
                "key": {
                    "value": "736868",
                    "encoding": "hex"
                }
            }
        }
    },
    {
        "email": "[e-mail]",
        "email_verified": false,
        "custom_password_hash": {
            "algorithm": "scrypt",
            "hash": {
                "value": "097f6197e1b41538f723e32aa7a68e8d76227d8e432ce5faa4882a913032db29",
                "encoding": "hex"
            },
            "salt": {
                "value": "abc123",
                "encoding": "utf8"
            },
            "keylen": 32,
            "cost": 4096
        }
    }
]

MFA factors examples

As you might expect, the user.mfa_factors array allows you to provide the user’s MFA enrollments. The supported enrollment types are:

• Phone: Used for sms-based verification.
• TOTP: OTP secret for use with MFA type apps (Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Authy, 1Password, LastPass).
• Email: Used for email-based verification.

Some examples of users with MFA factors:

[
    {
        "email": "[e-mail]",
        "mfa_factors": [
            {
                "totp": {
                    "secret": "2PRXZWZAYYDAWCD"
                }
            },
            {
                "phone": {
                    "value": "[phone]"
                }
            },
            {
                "email": {
                    "value": "[e-mail]"
                }
            }
        ]
    },
    {
        "email": "[e-mail]",
        "mfa_factors": [
            {
                "totp": {
                    "secret": "JBTWY3DPEHPK3PNP"
                }
            }
        ]
    },
    {
        "email": "[e-mail]",
        "mfa_factors": [
            {
                "phone": {
                    "value": "[phone]"
                }
            },
        ]
    },
    {
        "email": "[e-mail]",
        "mfa_factors": [
            {
                "email": {
                    "value": "[e-mail]"
                }
            }
        ]
    }
]

Learn more

• Bulk User Imports
• Bulk User Exports
• Configure Automatic Migration from Your Database