# E04027 — ContactExternalIdExists

A contact with this external_id already exists in this workspace.

- **HTTP status**: `409`
- **Type**: `conflict_error`
- **Name**: `ContactExternalIdExists`

## What to do

A contact already has this external_id. Find that contact and update it instead of creating a duplicate.

Operations that resolve this:

- [List contacts](/docs/api/reference/list-contacts)
- [Update a contact](/docs/api/reference/update-contact)

## Related

- [Idempotency](/docs/api/idempotency): safe retries and key reuse rules
- [E04xxx — Email sending & delivery](/docs/api/errors/E04xxx): every code in this range
- [Errors](/docs/api/errors): the full wire contract, status mapping, and error catalog
- [Error handling](/docs/guides/errors): branching on `type` and `code`, validation details, and `vendor_code`