What is the process for contract bulk downloading?

The screenshots in this article show the German interface. Where a button or field matters, the German label is given in brackets so you can match text to screenshot.

When you need more than one contract PDF at a time, you do not have to open each contract individually. Select the contracts in the list and ContractHero packs them into a single ZIP file.

What's in it for you

Instead of 30 clicks on 30 PDFs, a bulk download is done in under 30 seconds — and the list keeps the filter you set beforehand. Combined with custom views ("active lease agreements at the Munich site only"), the download becomes a repeatable step: choose the filter, select everything, download.

How it works

1. Prepare the selection

Open the contract overview (left-hand navigation → Contracts, „Verträge"). If needed, apply a filter, change the sorting or switch to a custom view, so that only the contracts you want to download are visible.

2. Select the contracts

Tick the checkbox to the left of each contract you want. As soon as at least one contract is selected, the bulk action bar appears at the bottom of the screen, showing the counter "X contracts selected" („X Verträge ausgewählt") and two shortcuts:

"Select all" („Alle auswählen") — selects every contract in the current view (filters are respected).
"Deselect all" („Alle abwählen") — clears every selection.

3. Trigger the download

In the bulk action bar, click "Download" („Herunterladen"). ContractHero creates a ZIP file containing the PDFs of all selected contracts. With a large number of contracts, creating the file can take anywhere from a few seconds to a minute; your browser then starts the download automatically.

The ZIP file contains the original PDFs exactly as they were uploaded. The file names match the contract titles.

Common questions

Which file do I get from a bulk download?
A ZIP file containing the original PDFs of the selected contracts. Contract data (fields, master data, tags) is not part of the PDF itself — for structured data, use the export („Export"), see Related articles.

Is there a limit on the number of contracts?
Technically the download works for hundreds of contracts too — creating the file simply takes correspondingly longer. For very large volumes it can make more sense to split the selection by category.

What happens to attachments and sub-contracts?
Selecting a main contract does not automatically download its sub-contracts — they have to be selected separately. Tree view shows you the hierarchy, but you still have to tick each contract individually.

What other bulk actions are there?
Alongside Download („Herunterladen"), three further actions become available once contracts are selected:

Analyse („Analysieren") — restarts the AI contract analysis for the selected contracts.
Edit („Bearbeiten") — opens bulk editing (change fields across several contracts at once).
Delete („Löschen") — moves the selected contracts to the recycle bin.

Are contract fields and master data included in the download?
No — the download contains only the original PDFs. For structured data (all fields per contract as a table), use the export under Settings → Import & Export → Export („Einstellungen → Import & Export → Export").

Are my permissions respected in a bulk download?
Yes. You can only download contracts that your team and role permissions already allow you to see. "Select all" („Alle auswählen") only selects the contracts visible in the current view.

Good to know

Work with custom views: if you often need a particular selection (e.g. "NDAs 2025, active"), save it as a custom view. The next download then takes two clicks: load the view → select all → download.
The ZIP is delivered through the browser: make sure your browser does not block pop-ups or downloads from app.contracthero.com — otherwise the ZIP download will not start.
Split large volumes by category: with several hundred contracts it pays to filter per category and pull separate ZIPs — smaller files are easier to transfer and to archive.
The PDFs are not editable: what you get is the original upload, not a generated version with the current field data. If you need up-to-date contract data in PDF form, export the Excel data first and combine the two outside the system.
There is no "move" bulk action: there is no direct bulk action for moving contracts between teams. You can achieve the same through bulk editing („Massenbearbeitung") and the ContractHero team field („ContractHero Team"), provided your permissions allow it — with one exception: if the team field is locked for bulk editing, the assignment has to be done contract by contract.

Updated on: 08/26/2026

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