MongoDB provides the mongoimport tool to import JSON and CSV
files into your main dataset. This guide explains how to effectively use
mongoimport to move your data into your MongoDB database.
Before You Begin
Follow the Database Tools Installation Guide to install
mongoimport.Create the example files.
2Create
.jsonExample Files@' { "tripduration": 602, "starttime": "2019-12-01 00:00:05.5640", "stoptime": "2019-12-01 00:10:07.8180", "start station id": 3382, "start station name": "Carroll St & Smith St", "start station latitude": 40.680611, "start station longitude": -73.99475825, "end station id": 3304, "end station name": "6 Ave & 9 St", "end station latitude": 40.668127, "end station longitude": -73.98377641, "bikeid": 41932, "usertype": "Subscriber", "birth year": 1970, "gender": "male" } '@ | Set-Content -Path ride_01.json @' { "tripduration": 1206, "starttime": "2019-12-01 00:00:10.9630", "stoptime": "2019-12-01 00:20:17.8820", "start station id": 362, "start station name": "Broadway & W 37 St", "start station latitude": 40.75172632, "start station longitude": -73.98753523, "end station id": 500, "end station name": "Broadway & W 51 St", "end station latitude": 40.76228826, "end station longitude": -73.98336183, "bikeid": 18869, "usertype": "Customer", "birth year": 1999, "gender": "male" } '@ | Set-Content -Path ride_02.json @' { "tripduration": 723, "starttime": "2019-12-01 00:00:11.8180", "stoptime": "2019-12-01 00:12:14.8310", "start station id": 146, "start station name": "Hudson St & Reade St", "start station latitude": 40.71625008, "start station longitude": -74.0091059, "end station id": 238, "end station name": "Bank St & Washington St", "end station latitude": 40.7361967, "end station longitude": -74.00859207, "bikeid": 15334, "usertype": "Subscriber", "birth year": 1997, "gender": "male" } '@ | Set-Content -Path ride_03.json @' [ { "tripduration": 602, "starttime": "2019-12-01 00:00:05.5640", "stoptime": "2019-12-01 00:10:07.8180", "start station id": 3382, "start station name": "Carroll St & Smith St", "start station latitude": 40.680611, "start station longitude": -73.99475825, "end station id": 3304, "end station name": "6 Ave & 9 St", "end station latitude": 40.668127, "end station longitude": -73.98377641, "bikeid": 41932, "usertype": "Subscriber", "birth year": 1970, "gender": "male" }, { "tripduration": 1206, "starttime": "2019-12-01 00:00:10.9630", "stoptime": "2019-12-01 00:20:17.8820", "start station id": 362, "start station name": "Broadway & W 37 St", "start station latitude": 40.75172632, "start station longitude": -73.98753523, "end station id": 500, "end station name": "Broadway & W 51 St", "end station latitude": 40.76228826, "end station longitude": -73.98336183, "bikeid": 18869, "usertype": "Customer", "birth year": 1999, "gender": "male" }, { "tripduration": 723, "starttime": "2019-12-01 00:00:11.8180", "stoptime": "2019-12-01 00:12:14.8310", "start station id": 146, "start station name": "Hudson St & Reade St", "start station latitude": 40.71625008, "start station longitude": -74.0091059, "end station id": 238, "end station name": "Bank St & Washington St", "end station latitude": 40.7361967, "end station longitude": -74.00859207, "bikeid": 15334, "usertype": "Subscriber", "birth year": 1997, "gender": "male" } ] '@ | Set-Content -Path rides.json @' 602,"2019-12-01 00:00:05.5640","2019-12-01 00:10:07.8180",3382,"Carroll St & Smith St",40.680611,-73.99475825,3304,"6 Ave & 9 St",40.668127,-73.98377641,41932,"Subscriber",1970,1 1206,"2019-12-01 00:00:10.9630","2019-12-01 00:20:17.8820",362,"Broadway & W 37 St",40.75172632,-73.98753523,500,"Broadway & W 51 St",40.76228826,-73.98336183,18869,"Customer",1999,1 723,"2019-12-01 00:00:11.8180","2019-12-01 00:12:14.8310",146,"Hudson St & Reade St",40.71625008,-74.0091059,238,"Bank St & Washington St",40.7361967,-74.00859207,15334,"Subscriber",1997,1 '@ | Set-Content -Path rides_no_header.json 2Create
.jsonExample Filesecho '{ "tripduration": 602, "starttime": "2019-12-01 00:00:05.5640", "stoptime": "2019-12-01 00:10:07.8180", "start station id": 3382, "start station name": "Carroll St & Smith St", "start station latitude": 40.680611, "start station longitude": -73.99475825, "end station id": 3304, "end station name": "6 Ave & 9 St", "end station latitude": 40.668127, "end station longitude": -73.98377641, "bikeid": 41932, "usertype": "Subscriber", "birth year": 1970, "gender": "male" }' > ride_01.json echo '{ "tripduration": 1206, "starttime": "2019-12-01 00:00:10.9630", "stoptime": "2019-12-01 00:20:17.8820", "start station id": 362, "start station name": "Broadway & W 37 St", "start station latitude": 40.75172632, "start station longitude": -73.98753523, "end station id": 500, "end station name": "Broadway & W 51 St", "end station latitude": 40.76228826, "end station longitude": -73.98336183, "bikeid": 18869, "usertype": "Customer", "birth year": 1999, "gender": "male" }' > ride_02.json echo '{ "tripduration": 723, "starttime": "2019-12-01 00:00:11.8180", "stoptime": "2019-12-01 00:12:14.8310", "start station id": 146, "start station name": "Hudson St & Reade St", "start station latitude": 40.71625008, "start station longitude": -74.0091059, "end station id": 238, "end station name": "Bank St & Washington St", "end station latitude": 40.7361967, "end station longitude": -74.00859207, "bikeid": 15334, "usertype": "Subscriber", "birth year": 1997, "gender": "male" }' > ride_03.json echo '[ { "tripduration": 602, "starttime": "2019-12-01 00:00:05.5640", "stoptime": "2019-12-01 00:10:07.8180", "start station id": 3382, "start station name": "Carroll St & Smith St", "start station latitude": 40.680611, "start station longitude": -73.99475825, "end station id": 3304, "end station name": "6 Ave & 9 St", "end station latitude": 40.668127, "end station longitude": -73.98377641, "bikeid": 41932, "usertype": "Subscriber", "birth year": 1970, "gender": "male" }, { "tripduration": 1206, "starttime": "2019-12-01 00:00:10.9630", "stoptime": "2019-12-01 00:20:17.8820", "start station id": 362, "start station name": "Broadway & W 37 St", "start station latitude": 40.75172632, "start station longitude": -73.98753523, "end station id": 500, "end station name": "Broadway & W 51 St", "end station latitude": 40.76228826, "end station longitude": -73.98336183, "bikeid": 18869, "usertype": "Customer", "birth year": 1999, "gender": "male" }, { "tripduration": 723, "starttime": "2019-12-01 00:00:11.8180", "stoptime": "2019-12-01 00:12:14.8310", "start station id": 146, "start station name": "Hudson St & Reade St", "start station latitude": 40.71625008, "start station longitude": -74.0091059, "end station id": 238, "end station name": "Bank St & Washington St", "end station latitude": 40.7361967, "end station longitude": -74.00859207, "bikeid": 15334, "usertype": "Subscriber", "birth year": 1997, "gender": "male" } ]' > rides.json echo '602,"2019-12-01 00:00:05.5640","2019-12-01 00:10:07.8180",3382,"Carroll St & Smith St",40.680611,-73.99475825,3304,"6 Ave & 9 St",40.668127,-73.98377641,41932,"Subscriber",1970,1 1206,"2019-12-01 00:00:10.9630","2019-12-01 00:20:17.8820",362,"Broadway & W 37 St",40.75172632,-73.98753523,500,"Broadway & W 51 St",40.76228826,-73.98336183,18869,"Customer",1999,1 723,"2019-12-01 00:00:11.8180","2019-12-01 00:12:14.8310",146,"Hudson St & Reade St",40.71625008,-74.0091059,238,"Bank St & Washington St",40.7361967,-74.00859207,15334,"Subscriber",1997,1 ' > rides_no_header.json 2Create
.jsonExample Filescat << 'EOF' > ride_01.json { "tripduration": 602, "starttime": "2019-12-01 00:00:05.5640", "stoptime": "2019-12-01 00:10:07.8180", "start station id": 3382, "start station name": "Carroll St & Smith St", "start station latitude": 40.680611, "start station longitude": -73.99475825, "end station id": 3304, "end station name": "6 Ave & 9 St", "end station latitude": 40.668127, "end station longitude": -73.98377641, "bikeid": 41932, "usertype": "Subscriber", "birth year": 1970, "gender": "male" } EOF cat << 'EOF' > ride_02.json { "tripduration": 1206, "starttime": "2019-12-01 00:00:10.9630", "stoptime": "2019-12-01 00:20:17.8820", "start station id": 362, "start station name": "Broadway & W 37 St", "start station latitude": 40.75172632, "start station longitude": -73.98753523, "end station id": 500, "end station name": "Broadway & W 51 St", "end station latitude": 40.76228826, "end station longitude": -73.98336183, "bikeid": 18869, "usertype": "Customer", "birth year": 1999, "gender": "male" } EOF cat << 'EOF' > ride_03.json { "tripduration": 723, "starttime": "2019-12-01 00:00:11.8180", "stoptime": "2019-12-01 00:12:14.8310", "start station id": 146, "start station name": "Hudson St & Reade St", "start station latitude": 40.71625008, "start station longitude": -74.0091059, "end station id": 238, "end station name": "Bank St & Washington St", "end station latitude": 40.7361967, "end station longitude": -74.00859207, "bikeid": 15334, "usertype": "Subscriber", "birth year": 1997, "gender": "male" } EOF cat << 'EOF' > rides.json [ { "tripduration": 602, "starttime": "2019-12-01 00:00:05.5640", "stoptime": "2019-12-01 00:10:07.8180", "start station id": 3382, "start station name": "Carroll St & Smith St", "start station latitude": 40.680611, "start station longitude": -73.99475825, "end station id": 3304, "end station name": "6 Ave & 9 St", "end station latitude": 40.668127, "end station longitude": -73.98377641, "bikeid": 41932, "usertype": "Subscriber", "birth year": 1970, "gender": "male" }, { "tripduration": 1206, "starttime": "2019-12-01 00:00:10.9630", "stoptime": "2019-12-01 00:20:17.8820", "start station id": 362, "start station name": "Broadway & W 37 St", "start station latitude": 40.75172632, "start station longitude": -73.98753523, "end station id": 500, "end station name": "Broadway & W 51 St", "end station latitude": 40.76228826, "end station longitude": -73.98336183, "bikeid": 18869, "usertype": "Customer", "birth year": 1999, "gender": "male" }, { "tripduration": 723, "starttime": "2019-12-01 00:00:11.8180", "stoptime": "2019-12-01 00:12:14.8310", "start station id": 146, "start station name": "Hudson St & Reade St", "start station latitude": 40.71625008, "start station longitude": -74.0091059, "end station id": 238, "end station name": "Bank St & Washington St", "end station latitude": 40.7361967, "end station longitude": -74.00859207, "bikeid": 15334, "usertype": "Subscriber", "birth year": 1997, "gender": "male" } ] EOF cat << 'EOF' > rides_no_header.json 602,"2019-12-01 00:00:05.5640","2019-12-01 00:10:07.8180",3382,"Carroll St & Smith St",40.680611,-73.99475825,3304,"6 Ave & 9 St",40.668127,-73.98377641,41932,"Subscriber",1970,1 1206,"2019-12-01 00:00:10.9630","2019-12-01 00:20:17.8820",362,"Broadway & W 37 St",40.75172632,-73.98753523,500,"Broadway & W 51 St",40.76228826,-73.98336183,18869,"Customer",1999,1 723,"2019-12-01 00:00:11.8180","2019-12-01 00:12:14.8310",146,"Hudson St & Reade St",40.71625008,-74.0091059,238,"Bank St & Washington St",40.7361967,-74.00859207,15334,"Subscriber",1997,1 EOF Find Your MongoDB Connection String.
Important
Your MongoDB Atlas connection string resembles the following example:
mongodb+srv://myDatabaseUser:D1fficultP%40ssw0rd@cluster0.example.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority
Get Started with mongoimport
mongoimport is a command-line tool for importing data from JSON,
CSV, and TSV files into MongoDB collections. mongoimport can be
combined with other command-line tools such as JQ for
JSON manipulation, CSVKit for CSV manipulation, or
curl for dynamically downloading data files from servers on the internet.
Choose a Source Data Format
JSON is both a hierarchical data format, like MongoDB documents, and is also explicit about the types of data it encodes.
CSV (and TSV) data is tabular, and each row will be imported into MongoDB as a
separate document. This means that these formats cannot support hierarchical
data in the same way as a MongoDB document can. When importing CSV data into
MongoDB, mongoimport attempts to make sensible choices when
identifying the type of specific field. This behavior can be overridden with
flags or type specification.
Connect mongoimport to Your Database
Use your MongoDB Atlas connection string to connect mongoimport to the
test database and test-collection collection.
mongoimport --uri 'mongodb+srv://myDatabaseUser:D1fficultP%40ssw0rd@cluster0.example.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority' \ --db=test \ --collection=test-collection
Successful connection to your database collection resembles the following:
2025-07-14T10:22:58.317-0400 connected to: mongodb+srv://cluster0.zoikgns.mongodb.net/ 2025-07-14T10:23:01.318-0400 test.test-collection 0B 2025-07-14T10:23:04.318-0400 test.test-collection 0B ...
After you successfully connect to your database collection, follow the examples
to learn how to use mongoimport to import data into MongoDB.
Steps
The following examples show you how to:
Import CSV or TSV Into a Collection with Specified Field Types
Import CSV or TSV Into a Collection with Specified Field and Data Types
Import Documents with --file
Use the --file option to specify the location and name of the file
containing the data to import into a MongoDB collection.
The following example imports the ride_01.json file into the new collection,
test-collection, in the test database by providing the file's path
--file=ride_01.json.
mongoimport --uri 'mongodb+srv://myDatabaseUser:D1fficultP%40ssw0rd@cluster0.example.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority' \ --db=test \ --collection=test-collection \ --file=ride_01.json
Successful import resembles the following:
2025-07-14T11:47:01.303-0400 connected to: mongodb+srv://[**REDACTED**]@cluster0.zoikgns.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority&appName=Cluster0 2025-07-14T11:47:01.391-0400 1 document(s) imported successfully. 0 document(s) failed to import.
To view the successful data import, you can use the Atlas UI.
Note
For each imported document, MongoDB generates a required unique _id value.
If you do not specify a file, mongoimport reads data from
standard input (e.g. stdin). The following example demonstrates how to
import multiple documents by piping them to mongoimport, which
then reads the data from stdin.
echo "{\"bikeid\":\"1234\"}\n{\"bikeid\":\"5678\"}" | mongoimport --uri 'mongodb+srv://myDatabaseUser:D1fficultP%40ssw0rd@cluster0.example.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority' \ --db=test \ --collection=test-collection-stdin
Successful import resembles the following:
2025-07-14T11:08:08.884-0600 connected to: mongodb+srv://[**REDACTED**]@cluster0.zoikgns.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority&appName=Cluster0 2025-07-14T11:08:09.095-0600 2 document(s) imported successfully. 0 document(s) failed to import.
Import Documents with Piping
You can pipe multiple JSON documents from another tool, such as cat, to
import multiple files with mongoimport. From the directory that
contains the JSON files for import, you can run the following command to import
the documents.
cat *_*.json | mongoimport --uri 'mongodb+srv://myDatabaseUser:D1fficultP%40ssw0rd@cluster0.example.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority' \ --db=test \ --collection=test-collection-many
Successful import resembles the following:
2025-07-21T16:48:23.519-0400 connected to: mongodb+srv://[**REDACTED**]@cluster0.zoikgns.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority&appName=Cluster0 2025-07-21T16:48:23.627-0400 3 document(s) imported successfully. 0 document(s) failed to import.
Import a JSON Array
To import a JSON array of documents, you can use the --jsonArray option to specify the format of the data. You specify
the data source, which can be a file or standard input, separately. The
following example imports the rides.json file containing a single JSON
array.
mongoimport --uri 'mongodb+srv://myDatabaseUser:D1fficultP%40ssw0rd@cluster0.example.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority' \ --db=test \ --collection=test-collection-array \ --file=rides.json \ --jsonArray
Successful import resembles the following:
2025-07-14T11:48:10.829-0400 connected to: mongodb+srv://[**REDACTED**]@cluster0.zoikgns.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority&appName=Cluster0 2025-07-14T11:48:10.899-0400 3 document(s) imported successfully. 0 document(s) failed to import.
If you do not add the --jsonArray option, mongoimport
will fail with the error cannot decode array into a Document because MongoDB
documents are comparable to JSON objects, not arrays.
Note
You can store an array as a value in a document, but a document cannot be an array.
Import MongoDB-Specific Types with JSON
Since MongoDB stores data as BSON, you must use
Extended JSON to recognize fields imported as
JSON as specific BSON types. This means you can provide a field MongoDB
originally recognizes as a string in the following nested structure to have
MongoDB recognize it as a date type.
"starttime": { "$date": "2019-12-01T00:00:05.5640Z" }
To transform your existing data, see the section on JQ.
Import CSV or TSV Into a Collection with Specified Field Types
If you have CSV or TSV files to import, use the --type=csv or --type=tsv, respectively, to tell
mongoimport the format to expect.
If your CSV or TSV file has a header row, use the --headerline option to tell mongoimport the first
line should not be imported as a document.
Since CSV and TSV data does not include type information, you can solve this by
specifying field types when you call mongoimport. The first way
to provide mongoimport with type information is if you list the
field names on the command line with the --fields option.
mongoimport --uri 'mongodb+srv://myDatabaseUser:D1fficultP%40ssw0rd@cluster0.example.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority' \ --db=test \ --collection=test-field-file \ --file=rides_no_header.csv \ --type=csv \ --fields="tripduration","starttime","stoptime","start station id","start station name","start station latitude","start station longitude","end station id","end station name","end station latitude","end station longitude","bikeid","usertype","birth year","gender"
Another way to provide mongoimport with type information is if
you put the field names in a file, such as field_file.txt, and point to it with the --fieldFile option.
@" tripduration starttime stoptime start station id start station name start station latitude start station longitude end station id end station name end station latitude end station longitude bikeid usertype birth year gender "@ | Set-Content -Path field_file.txt
echo 'tripduration starttime stoptime start station id start station name start station latitude start station longitude end station id end station name end station latitude end station longitude bikeid usertype birth year gender' > field_file.txt
cat << 'EOF' > field_file.txt tripduration starttime stoptime start station id start station name start station latitude start station longitude end station id end station name end station latitude end station longitude bikeid usertype birth year gender EOF
mongoimport --uri 'mongodb+srv://myDatabaseUser:D1fficultP%40ssw0rd@cluster0.example.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority' \ --db=test \ --collection=test-field-file \ --file=rides_no_header.csv \ --type=csv \ --fieldFile=field_file.txt
Successful import for the --fields and
--fieldFile options resemble the following:
2025-07-14T11:48:10.829-0400 connected to: mongodb+srv://[**REDACTED**]@cluster0.zoikgns.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority&appName=Cluster0 2025-07-14T11:48:10.899-0400 3 document(s) imported successfully. 0 document(s) failed to import.
To view the successful data import, you can use the Atlas UI.
Import CSV or TSV Into a Collection with Specified Field and Data Types
Above, you can see that mongoimport automatically makes decisions
on data types. To instead specify the type of some or all of your fields, you
can use the --columnsHaveTypes
option, or add types to the file you use with the --fieldFile option.
@" tripduration.auto() starttime.date(2006-01-02 15:04:05) stoptime.date(2006-01-02 15:04:05) start station id.auto() start station name.auto() start station latitude.auto() start station longitude.auto() end station id.auto() end station name.auto() end station latitude.auto() end station longitude.auto() bikeid.auto() usertype.auto() birth year.auto() gender.auto() "@ | Set-Content -Path field_file_with_types.txt
echo 'tripduration.auto() starttime.date(2006-01-02 15:04:05) stoptime.date(2006-01-02 15:04:05) start station id.auto() start station name.auto() start station latitude.auto() start station longitude.auto() end station id.auto() end station name.auto() end station latitude.auto() end station longitude.auto() bikeid.auto() usertype.auto() birth year.auto() gender.auto()' > field_file_with_types.txt
cat << 'EOF' > field_file_with_types.txt tripduration.auto() starttime.date(2006-01-02 15:04:05) stoptime.date(2006-01-02 15:04:05) start station id.auto() start station name.auto() start station latitude.auto() start station longitude.auto() end station id.auto() end station name.auto() end station latitude.auto() end station longitude.auto() bikeid.auto() usertype.auto() birth year.auto() gender.auto() EOF
mongoimport --uri 'mongodb+srv://myDatabaseUser:D1fficultP%40ssw0rd@cluster0.example.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority' \ --db=test \ --collection=test-field-file \ --file=test-datasets/rides_no_header.csv \ --type=csv \ --fieldFile=field_file_with_types.txt
Successful import resembles the following:
2025-07-14T11:48:10.829-0400 connected to: mongodb+srv://[**REDACTED**]@cluster0.zoikgns.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority&appName=Cluster0 2025-07-14T11:48:10.899-0400 3 document(s) imported successfully. 0 document(s) failed to import.
To view the successful data import, you can use the Atlas UI.
Now, you can see that mongoimport uses the data types you provide
to store the imported file.
Useful Command-line Tools
You can use other command-line programs alongside mongoimport to
further streamline your data import.
JQ
JQ is a processor for JSON data. It incorporates a powerful filtering and
scripting language for filtering, manipulating, and generating JSON data. You
can use a multi-stage pipe to pipe data into mongoimport via JQ.
To learn more about how to use JQ, see the JQ Manual.
CSVKit
CSVKit is a collection of tools for filtering and manipulating CSV data. CSVKit
tools such as csvgrep, which filters rows based on expressions, and
csvcut, which removes whole columns from CSV input, are useful tools for
slicing data before providing it to mongoimport. To learn
more about how to use CSVKit, see the
CSVKit Documentation.
Learn More
See our
mongoimportdocumentation for more details on possible options.