---
title: "What does the Google Play notification SUBSCRIPTION_CANCELED mean?"
description: "SUBSCRIPTION_CANCELED (3) means a subscription was cancelled by the customer, you or the system. Access continues to the expiry time; do not remove it early."
url: https://revenuedot.app/docs/notifications/google-subscription-canceled
---

# What does the Google Play notification SUBSCRIPTION_CANCELED mean?

The Google Play notification SUBSCRIPTION_CANCELED means a subscription was cancelled, but the customer keeps access until the paid period ends.

## Quick facts

| | |
|---|---|
| Notification | `subscriptionNotification.notificationType` 3, `SUBSCRIPTION_CANCELED` |
| Where | Google Play real-time developer notifications (Pub/Sub, `DeveloperNotification`) |
| Sent by | Google Play, as a Cloud Pub/Sub push to your endpoint |
| What Google says | A subscription was cancelled, voluntarily or involuntarily. For a voluntary cancellation, it is sent when the user cancels. |

## What triggers it

- The customer cancelled in the Play subscriptions center, you cancelled with `purchases.subscriptionsv2.cancel`, or the subscription was cancelled after account hold ran out.
- The subscription resource then has `subscriptionState` `SUBSCRIPTION_STATE_CANCELED`, and `expiryTime` says when access ends. If that time is already past, for example after a cancel during account hold, access ends now.
- `canceledStateContext` says who cancelled and `userInitiatedCancellation` can say why.

## What your server should do

1. Do not trust the message for the state. Google says a notification only tells you the purchase state changed; call the Google Play Developer API (`purchases.subscriptionsv2.get`) with the purchase token to get the full state.
2. Keep access until `expiryTime`. Google warns that removing access a customer is still entitled to violates its subscriptions policy.
3. Show a message with the end date and a way to resubscribe.
4. Read `canceledStateContext` to choose your win-back message.
5. Answer 2xx once you have handled the message, and skip a `messageId` you have seen: Google recommends checking the uniqueness of message IDs so a redelivery does not make a second API call.

## Example

```javascript
// A Pub/Sub push body: the notification is base64 JSON in message.data.
const body = { message: { messageId: "136969346945", data: Buffer.from(JSON.stringify({"version":"1.0","packageName":"com.example.app","eventTimeMillis":"1790800914000","subscriptionNotification":{"version":"1.0","notificationType":3,"purchaseToken":"PURCHASE_TOKEN"}})).toString("base64") } };

function decide(body) {
  const n = JSON.parse(Buffer.from(body.message.data, "base64").toString("utf8"));
  if (!(n.subscriptionNotification?.notificationType === 3)) return "ignore";
  return "keep access until expiryTime, show the end date";
}

console.log(decide(body));
```

*Run-checked: `npm run check:snippets` runs this snippet with Node and compares its output with `keep access until expiryTime` (checked 2026-10-03).*

## How RevenueDot handles it

RevenueDot answers every handled message with 2xx and every temporary failure with 5xx so Pub/Sub redelivers it. For subscription types it re-reads the subscription from Google with `purchases.subscriptionsv2.get` and applies that state, and it acknowledges a new purchase if the app has not. 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 stores the purchase as unsubscribed and sends `CANCELLATION`. The `cancel_reason` is `DEVELOPER_INITIATED` when Google says you cancelled it, `BILLING_ERROR` or `PRICE_INCREASE` when the system did, and `UNSUBSCRIBE` otherwise. A cancellation caused by an upgrade or downgrade is not a customer cancellation and is skipped. The `EXPIRATION` event comes later.

## Related

- [What does the Google Play notification SUBSCRIPTION_RESTARTED mean?](https://revenuedot.app/docs/notifications/google-subscription-restarted.md)
- [What does the Google Play notification SUBSCRIPTION_EXPIRED mean?](https://revenuedot.app/docs/notifications/google-subscription-expired.md)
- [What does the Google Play notification SUBSCRIPTION_REVOKED mean?](https://revenuedot.app/docs/notifications/google-subscription-revoked.md)
- [Which webhook events does RevenueDot send?](https://revenuedot.app/docs/api/webhook-events.md)
- [Set up Google Play notifications in RevenueDot](https://revenuedot.app/docs/guides/google-play.md)

## Source

- [Google: Real-time developer notifications reference guide](https://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/rtdn-reference)
- [Google: Subscription lifecycle](https://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/lifecycle/subscriptions)
- [RevenueDot server: stores/google/notifications.ts (how the message is received)](https://github.com/revenuedot/revenuedot/blob/main/apps/server/src/stores/google/notifications.ts)
- [RevenueDot server: stores/google/sync.ts (how the purchase is re-read and applied)](https://github.com/revenuedot/revenuedot/blob/main/apps/server/src/stores/google/sync.ts)
- [RevenueDot server: stores/google/map.ts (how Google's state becomes a stored purchase)](https://github.com/revenuedot/revenuedot/blob/main/apps/server/src/stores/google/map.ts)
- [RevenueDot core: events.ts (how a change becomes a webhook event)](https://github.com/revenuedot/revenuedot/blob/main/packages/core/src/events.ts)

Checked: 2026-10-03