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How do I connect Google Play to RevenueDot?

Three steps: create a Google Play app in RevenueDot with your package name, upload a service account key that Play Console lets read your orders, and point a Pub/Sub push subscription for real-time developer notifications at RevenueDot's notification URL. The dashboard's app page shows the same steps and checks each one.

1. Create the app#

Shell
curl -s -X POST "$REVENUEDOT_URL/v2/projects/$PROJECT_ID/apps" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SECRET_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name":"Scanner (Android)","type":"play_store","play_store":{"package_name":"com.example.scanner"}}'

The app's public SDK key starts with goog_. Create its products with store_identifier set to subscriptionId:basePlanId for subscriptions (for example pro:monthly) and the product ID for one-time products. See Products and entitlements.

2. Add a service account#

RevenueDot uses the service account to read each purchase from the Google Play Developer API, acknowledge it (Google refunds purchases left unacknowledged for 3 days), look up refunds, and run store actions such as refund, cancel and defer.

  1. In Google Cloud, enable the Google Play Android Developer API for your project.
  2. Under IAM → Service accounts, create a service account. Open it, choose Keys → Add key → JSON, and download the file.
  3. In Play Console → Users and permissions, invite the service account's email with View app information, View financial data and Manage orders and subscriptions. View app information also lets RevenueDot import your products.
  4. In the dashboard, open the app → Service account credentials, drop the JSON file and click Check credentials. New Play Console permissions can take up to 36 hours to apply; until then the check says the account "works but cannot see this app yet".

With the API, send the file's contents as play_service_account_credentials_json:

Shell
curl -s -X POST "$REVENUEDOT_URL/v2/projects/$PROJECT_ID/apps/$APP_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SECRET_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "$(jq -n --rawfile sa service-account.json '{play_store: {play_service_account_credentials_json: $sa}}')"
curl -s -X POST "$REVENUEDOT_URL/v2/projects/$PROJECT_ID/apps/$APP_ID/actions/verify_credentials" -H "Authorization: Bearer $SECRET_KEY"

Without a service account, Google Play receipts cannot be verified and RevenueDot answers 503 (code 7101), so the SDK keeps the purchase and retries once you add it.

3. Push real-time developer notifications to RevenueDot#

Google Play publishes notifications to a Pub/Sub topic. A push subscription delivers them to RevenueDot.

  1. Copy the app's notification URL, https://revenuedot.example.com/v1/notifications/google/{app_id}, from the dashboard or from GET /v2/projects/{project_id}/apps/{app_id}/store_settings (notification_url).
  2. In Google Cloud → Pub/Sub, create a topic. Give google-play-developer-notifications@system.gserviceaccount.com the Pub/Sub Publisher role on it.
  3. Add a subscription to the topic with delivery type Push and the notification URL as the endpoint.
  4. In Play Console → Monetize with Play → Monetization setup, paste the full topic name (projects/<project>/topics/<topic>) and turn on subscriptions, voided purchases and one-time products.
  5. Click Send test notification. The app's notification status turns Ready when it arrives.

For each notification RevenueDot stores the raw message once (by message ID), copies it to notification_forward_url when set, and reads the purchase again from the Play Developer API. Voided-purchase notifications record refunds. How it answers Pub/Sub:

  • 200 when the message is handled, a duplicate, for another package name, or about an invalid purchase token. These never succeed on a retry, so Pub/Sub should stop.
  • 500 or 503 for temporary failures, such as Google's API not answering. Pub/Sub delivers the message again.

Once a day RevenueDot also asks Google for voided purchases of the last 30 days, as a backup for missed refund notifications. This needs the service account.

Optional: authenticate Pub/Sub pushes#

By default anyone who knows the URL can post to it, but RevenueDot only trusts what Google's API returns for a purchase token, so a fake message cannot unlock anything. To also reject unsigned pushes:

  1. Edit the push subscription, turn on Enable authentication, choose a service account, and set an audience (for example the notification URL).
  2. Save the same values on the app. The dashboard has no field for this yet, so use the API:
    Shell
    curl -s -X POST "$REVENUEDOT_URL/v2/projects/$PROJECT_ID/apps/$APP_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SECRET_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"play_store":{"pubsub_audience":"https://revenuedot.example.com/v1/notifications/google/'$APP_ID'","pubsub_service_account":"pubsub-push@your-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com"}}'

From then on, a push without a valid Google-signed token for that audience (and that service account) gets 401.

Google Play service fee#

Proceeds use Google's service fees with nothing to set up:

  • Subscriptions: 15%.
  • One-time purchases: 15% on the app's first $1M of Google Play sales in a calendar year, then 30% for the rest of that year. Under Google's 2026 fees, a purchase above $1M by a customer who first opened the app after the fees started in their country is 25%.

RevenueDot counts the $1M from the purchases it has recorded for the app, so purchases made before you moved to RevenueDot count only if you imported them.

What you can do from the server afterwards#

  • Refund and revoke a subscription: POST /v2/projects/{project_id}/subscriptions/{subscription_id}/actions/refund.
  • Cancel (turn auto-renew off): .../actions/cancel.
  • Defer the next renewal by up to 365 days: .../actions/extend with extend_by_days, or v1 .../subscriptions/{product_id}/defer.
  • Refund a one-time purchase: POST /v2/projects/{project_id}/purchases/{purchase_id}/actions/refund.
  • Restore a purchase from its order id (GPA.1234-5678-9012-34567, from the customer's Google receipt email): POST /v2/projects/{project_id}/customers/{customer_id}/actions/restore_purchase_by_order_id. RevenueDot finds the purchase token with Google's Orders API (the service account needs View financial data), verifies it, and gives the purchase to the customer under the project's transfer behaviour.
  • Create a subscription in Play Console from your catalog: POST /v2/projects/{project_id}/products/{product_id}/create_in_store. Google gets the subscription id and a listing in your app's default language; add base plans and prices in Play Console. One-time products need a price, so create them in Play Console.

These call Google's API with the service account. They are tested against a mocked Google API only; run one in a sandbox before you rely on it.

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