---
"@context": https://schema.org
"@type": TechArticle
"@id": https://www.twilio.com/docs/api/errors/19020#article
headline: "19020: Contact with the provided channel value already exists"
url: https://www.twilio.com/docs/api/errors/19020
inLanguage: en
dateModified: 2026-06-09T11:00:42.000Z
author:
  "@type": Organization
  name: Twilio Developer Education Team
publisher:
  "@type": Organization
  name: Twilio
---

# 19020: Contact with the provided channel value already exists

Log Type: APPLICATION

Log Level: ERROR

## Description

You tried to create or update a contact with a channel value that is already assigned to another contact. A channel value must be unique for each contact, so Twilio rejects the request when the same identifier is already in use.

### Possible causes

* The request includes a phone number, email address, or other channel value that already belongs to an existing contact.
* Your application is retrying a create request and is sending the same channel value again.
* Your contact matching or deduplication logic did not check whether the channel value already exists before creating a new contact.
* You are trying to add a channel value to a new contact when that value should be updated on the existing contact instead.

### Possible solutions

* Search for an existing contact that already uses the channel value before you create a new contact.
* If the channel value belongs to the same person, update the existing contact instead of creating another one.
* If your application retries failed requests, make sure your retry logic does not create duplicate contacts with the same channel value.
* Validate incoming channel values in your application and enforce uniqueness before you send the request.
* If the channel value is incorrect, correct it and submit the request again.

#### Additional resources

* [Twilio Segment](/docs/segment)