---
title: "What does the RevenueDot webhook event CANCELLATION mean?"
description: "CANCELLATION is sent when auto-renew is turned off or a purchase is refunded. Access continues to the expiry time unless it was a refund. Check cancel_reason."
url: https://revenuedot.app/docs/webhooks/webhook-cancellation
---

# What does the RevenueDot webhook event CANCELLATION mean?

The RevenueDot webhook event CANCELLATION means a subscription will not renew, or a purchase was refunded.

## Quick facts

| | |
|---|---|
| Event | `CANCELLATION` |
| Where | RevenueDot webhook (`event.type`), RevenueCat's webhook format |
| Sent to | Every enabled webhook whose filters match |
| Fields that are specific to it | `cancel_reason` |
| What it means | Auto-renew was turned off, or the purchase was refunded. Access continues to `expiration_at_ms` unless it was a refund. A refund has `cancel_reason: CUSTOMER_SUPPORT` and a negative price. |

## When it is sent

- The customer turned auto-renew off (`cancel_reason: UNSUBSCRIBE`), the store gave a reason such as `DEVELOPER_INITIATED` or `PRICE_INCREASE`, or a billing failure counted as a cancellation (`BILLING_ERROR`).
- A refund gives `cancel_reason: CUSTOMER_SUPPORT` and a negative `price`.
- It is not the end of access. `EXPIRATION` follows when the paid period ends.

## What your server should do

1. For an unsubscribe, keep access until `expiration_at_ms` and start your win-back flow.
2. For `CUSTOMER_SUPPORT` with a negative price, revoke access now.
3. Use `cancel_reason` to separate voluntary from billing-related churn.
4. Deduplicate on `event.id`: deliveries can repeat, because anything but HTTP 200 is retried after 5, 10, 20, 40 and 80 minutes.

## Example

```javascript
import { createHmac, timingSafeEqual } from "node:crypto";

// X-RevenueCat-Webhook-Signature: t=<unix seconds>,v1=<hex HMAC-SHA256 of "<t>.<raw body>">
function verify(rawBody, header, secret, toleranceSeconds = 300) {
  const m = /^t=(\d+),v1=([0-9a-f]{64})$/.exec(header ?? "");
  if (!m || Math.abs(Date.now() / 1000 - Number(m[1])) > toleranceSeconds) return false;
  const expected = createHmac("sha256", secret).update(`${m[1]}.${rawBody}`).digest();
  return timingSafeEqual(expected, Buffer.from(m[2], "hex"));
}

// Sign a sample delivery the way RevenueDot does, then handle it.
const secret = "whsec_test_secret";
const rawBody = JSON.stringify({ api_version: "1.0", event: {"id":"66339910-3BFF-49F4-B873-D1283D673DE2","type":"CANCELLATION","app_user_id":"user_1","product_id":"pro_monthly","cancel_reason":"UNSUBSCRIBE"} });
const t = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000);
const header = `t=${t},v1=${createHmac("sha256", secret).update(`${t}.${rawBody}`).digest("hex")}`;

const seen = new Set(); // use a database table in production

function handle(rawBody, header) {
  if (!verify(rawBody, header, secret)) return "401 bad signature";
  const { event } = JSON.parse(rawBody);
  if (seen.has(event.id)) return "200 duplicate";
  seen.add(event.id);
  if (event.type !== "CANCELLATION") return "200 ignored";
  if (event.cancel_reason === "CUSTOMER_SUPPORT") return "revoke access now, book the refund";
  return "keep access until expiration_at_ms, start win-back";
}

console.log(handle(rawBody, header));
```

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

## How RevenueDot produces it

`diffSubscription` returns `CANCELLATION` when auto-renew goes off (with the reason from the store, or `BILLING_ERROR` when a billing issue is stored, else `UNSUBSCRIBE`) and, with `isRefund`, when a refund time appears (reason `CUSTOMER_SUPPORT`). One-time purchases get the refund form too.

## Related

- [What does the RevenueDot webhook event UNCANCELLATION mean?](https://revenuedot.app/docs/webhooks/webhook-uncancellation.md)
- [What does the RevenueDot webhook event EXPIRATION mean?](https://revenuedot.app/docs/webhooks/webhook-expiration.md)
- [What does the RevenueDot webhook event REFUND_REVERSED mean?](https://revenuedot.app/docs/webhooks/webhook-refund-reversed.md)
- [CANCELLATION fields and a recorded example payload](https://revenuedot.app/docs/api/webhook-events.md#cancellation)
- [Webhooks guide: set up, verify and test](https://revenuedot.app/docs/guides/webhooks.md)

## Source

- [RevenueDot docs: which webhook events RevenueDot sends](https://revenuedot.app/docs/api/webhook-events)
- [RevenueCat: webhook event types and fields (the format RevenueDot follows)](https://www.revenuecat.com/docs/integrations/webhooks/event-types-and-fields)
- [RevenueDot core: events.ts (the event types and the rules that derive them)](https://github.com/revenuedot/revenuedot/blob/main/packages/core/src/events.ts)
- [RevenueDot server: services/events.ts (how an event is recorded and delivered)](https://github.com/revenuedot/revenuedot/blob/main/apps/server/src/services/events.ts)
- [RevenueDot server: services/purchases.ts (where store changes become events)](https://github.com/revenuedot/revenuedot/blob/main/apps/server/src/services/purchases.ts)

Checked: 2026-10-03