---
title: "What does the Google Play notification SUBSCRIPTION_PAUSED mean?"
description: "SUBSCRIPTION_PAUSED (10) means a subscription's pause took effect. Remove access until it resumes; the resume time is in the paused state context."
url: https://revenuedot.app/docs/notifications/google-subscription-paused
---

# What does the Google Play notification SUBSCRIPTION_PAUSED mean?

The Google Play notification SUBSCRIPTION_PAUSED means a subscription's pause has started, so the customer should have no access until it resumes.

## Quick facts

| | |
|---|---|
| Notification | `subscriptionNotification.notificationType` 10, `SUBSCRIPTION_PAUSED` |
| 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 has been paused. |

## What triggers it

- The pause the customer scheduled has reached the end of the paid period and now takes effect.
- The subscription resource has state `SUBSCRIPTION_STATE_PAUSED`, with `autoRenewEnabled` true. The `pausedStateContext` says when it renews again.
- While paused the customer has no access and pays nothing.

## 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. Remove access until the subscription resumes.
3. Show the expected resume date from `pausedStateContext`.
4. Wait for `SUBSCRIPTION_RECOVERED` when it resumes, or `SUBSCRIPTION_ON_HOLD` if the payment fails on resume.
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":10,"purchaseToken":"PURCHASE_TOKEN"}})).toString("base64") } };

function decide(body) {
  const n = JSON.parse(Buffer.from(body.message.data, "base64").toString("utf8"));
  if (!(n.subscriptionNotification?.notificationType === 10)) return "ignore";
  return "remove access until it resumes, show the resume date";
}

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

*Run-checked: `npm run check:snippets` runs this snippet with Node and compares its output with `remove access until it resumes` (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 ends access now, stores the auto-resume date from the paused state and keeps the scheduled date. The scheduler then sends `EXPIRATION` with `expiration_reason: SUBSCRIPTION_PAUSED`.

## Related

- [What does the Google Play notification SUBSCRIPTION_PAUSE_SCHEDULE_CHANGED mean?](https://revenuedot.app/docs/notifications/google-subscription-pause-schedule-changed.md)
- [What does the Google Play notification SUBSCRIPTION_RECOVERED mean?](https://revenuedot.app/docs/notifications/google-subscription-recovered.md)
- [What does the Google Play notification SUBSCRIPTION_ON_HOLD mean?](https://revenuedot.app/docs/notifications/google-subscription-on-hold.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)
- [RevenueDot server: services/tick.ts (the scheduled EXPIRATION)](https://github.com/revenuedot/revenuedot/blob/main/apps/server/src/services/tick.ts)

Checked: 2026-10-03