Intercom API - Can not create lead with custom external_id AND can not update lead to have custom external_id | Community
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Intercom API - Can not create lead with custom external_id AND can not update lead to have custom external_id

  • November 19, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 82 views
K

https://developers.intercom.com/docs/references/rest-api/api.intercom.io/contacts/createcontact

https://developers.intercom.com/docs/references/rest-api/api.intercom.io/contacts/updatecontact

 

I am unable to figure out why this is happening and on the API documentation says it should be able to update the value.

Best answer by Jacques Reynolds

Hey ​@Krish Patel 👋 Jacques here from support engineering.

I can confirm this is actually expected behaviour, and it's currently not possible to manually set an external_id for a lead, it only works for users. The only identifier you can update for a lead is their email address.

I know that we don't make this clear in our docs, so I'll make sure to flag this to our team so we can improve our documentation.

Thanks for flagging this to us!

2 replies

Jacques Reynolds
Intercom Team
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  • Jacques ReynoldsIntercom Team
  • Intercom Team
  • 216 replies
  • Answer
  • November 28, 2024

Hey ​@Krish Patel 👋 Jacques here from support engineering.

I can confirm this is actually expected behaviour, and it's currently not possible to manually set an external_id for a lead, it only works for users. The only identifier you can update for a lead is their email address.

I know that we don't make this clear in our docs, so I'll make sure to flag this to our team so we can improve our documentation.

Thanks for flagging this to us!

Jacques Reynolds
G
  • gregrobson
  • New Participant
  • 1 reply
  • October 21, 2025

Hey ​@Jacques Reynolds - just to say I had to come to this page to find out why external_id wasn’t working as expected. If it has been done, it’s not obvious enough!


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