What does the App Store notification CONSUMPTION_REQUEST mean?

The App Store notification CONSUMPTION_REQUEST means a customer asked for a refund and Apple wants you to report how much of the purchase they used.

Quick facts#


Notification	`notificationType` `CONSUMPTION_REQUEST`
Where	App Store Server Notifications v2 (`responseBodyV2DecodedPayload`)
Sent by	The App Store server, to your notification URL
What Apple says	The customer started a refund request for a consumable or an auto-renewable subscription, and the App Store asks you for consumption data.

What triggers it#

The customer asked for a refund through Apple. Apple then asks the developer for facts about the purchase before it decides.
It applies to consumable in-app purchases and auto-renewable subscriptions.
Apple makes the final decision, and tells you with REFUND or REFUND_DECLINED.

What your server should do#

Verify the signedPayload with Apple's App Store Server Library (SignedDataVerifier.verifyAndDecodeNotification) before you act on anything in it.
Answer with the Send Consumption Information endpoint of the App Store Server API, and only when you have the customer's consent to share the data.
Base your answer on facts: how much they used, whether they were a paying customer, and your refund preference.
Wait for REFUND or REFUND_DECLINED for the result.
Answer HTTP 200 (any code from 200 to 206) once you have stored the notification. Apple retries other answers five times, at 1, 12, 24, 48 and 72 hours after the previous attempt, so make your handler safe to run twice (the payload carries a notificationUUID).

Example#

JavaScript

// Run on the decoded payload, after you verified Apple's signature.
const notification = {"notificationType":"CONSUMPTION_REQUEST","data":{"environment":"Sandbox","bundleId":"com.example.app"}};

function decide(n) {
  if (n.notificationType !== "CONSUMPTION_REQUEST") return "ignore";
  const consented = true;
  return consented ? "send consumption information to Apple" : "skip, no customer consent";
}

console.log(decide(notification));

Run-checked: npm run check:snippets runs this snippet with Node and compares its output with send consumption information (checked 2026-10-03).

How RevenueDot handles it#

RevenueDot verifies Apple's signature, checks the bundle ID, stores the notification and answers 200. A purchase RevenueDot has not seen is applied only when the app's Track new purchases from server-to-server notifications setting is on. RevenueDot's Refund Control records the request, picks a policy and, when the customer consent setting is on and the policy says to respond, sends the consumption information to Apple at once. Without consent, or when the policy is not to respond, it skips the answer and records why. It changes no purchase and sends no webhook event.

Source#

Checked: 2026-10-03

Edit this page on GitHub ↗ View as Markdown Last updated October 3, 2026