want to transfer contacts from one iphoe to antoher

You don't need to transfer.

If you turn On iCloud, you get 5 GB of free iCloud storage. Information such as contacts, calendars, bookmarks, notes, reminders, voice memos are stored in iCloud.

You must use the same Apple ID.

See this Apple article: What does iCloud back up? -> What does iCloud back up? - Apple Support

Hello, Needtoknow99

My sister had this same issue. When iCloud wasn't working it was trial and error. What we had to do was go to the iCloud website and then copy them manually from there. If you transferred your data from one phone to another when you set it up it would have been easier.

If you would like to transfer to a new phone you can follow this article:

Transfer data from your previous iOS or iPadOS device to your new iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

Best regards,

KevTechSupport

KevTechSupport wrote:

If you would like to transfer to a new phone you can follow this article:

Transfer data from your previous iOS or iPadOS device to your new iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

Which will NOT transfer contacts, because contacts sync to email accounts, not phone to phone.

Contacts sync to mail accounts, not between devices. So if you have the same email accounts on both devices the contacts will appear on both devices.