Yes, you can import them in Manychat via a CSV file. 

Hey, ​@Baden.fm 

Regarding your first question, yes, they count as a contact of your Manychat account.

As ​@AscendDigital already mentioned, you can import your contacts via CSV file, however, not everyone has this feature available. 

If you can’t import contacts to your Manychat account, you’ll need to have a PRO account and/or contact the Manychat support team for them to enable this feature.

Here’s some extra information: https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/14281110746012-Contacts-tab-Overview#h_01JCK8RJ1TQY5X1DMFK2SVRZG9

Let me know if this helps

Hi ​@rodrigo_silvano, a quick question

I have a list of numbers that I wanted to upload it for WhatsApp and they are the same contact list I currently have on ManyChat just different channel. When I re-upload their numbers, I notice some status are “Updated” while some “Created”. The newly created ones counted a new contact although I already have them in ManyChat as FB or IG. Do you know why does this happen? Why not update all instead?

​@rodrigo_silvano Thank you so much for your answer!

However, I still have one question. Would I have to opt in the imported contacts again, even though I already have their approval to send them messages?

​@Baden.fm after you import a csv file, they will be opted in automatically. 

​@Samantha Wong If a contact in Manychat already has a phone number or WhatsApp, uploading a CSV with that number will update the existing profile. But if the contact only exists on Facebook or Instagram and has no phone number linked, Manychat will create a new contact.

However, you can merge contacts manually. Here’s the step-by-step guide: https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/14281101369116-How-to-merge-duplicate-contacts