You can receive notifications regarding transactions from Plaid via webhooks when the following occurs:

• an initial transaction pull has completed
• new transactions are associated with an Item
• transactions have been removed from an Item
• an historical transaction pull has completed

INITIAL_UPDATE

Plaid fires the INITIAL_UPDATE webhook when an Item's initial transaction pull has finished. 

Example INITIAL_UPDATE webhook:

{
  "webhook_type": "TRANSACTIONS",
  "webhook_code": "INITIAL_UPDATE",
  "item_id": "wz666MBjYWTp2PDzzggYhM6oWWmBb",
  "error": null,
  "new_transactions": 19
}

The initial transaction pull occurs when creating an Item with Transactions – specifically, when Plaid Link's product array is initialized with 'transactions'. If an Item was not initialized with 'transactions' as a product and is later used to make a /transactions/get request, you will be returned a PRODUCT_NOT_READY error, but the INITIAL_UPDATE and HISTORICAL_UPDATE webhooks will fire shortly thereafter.

HISTORICAL_UPDATE

After the initial transaction pull is finished, Plaid will begin the historical transaction pull. Plaid fires the HISTORICAL_UPDATE webhook when the historical transaction pull for an Item is finished.

Example HISTORICAL_UPDATE webhook:

{
  "webhook_type": "TRANSACTIONS",
  "webhook_code": "HISTORICAL_UPDATE",
  "item_id": "wz666MBjYWTp2PDzzggYhM6oWWmBb",
  "error": null,
  "new_transactions": 231
}

The length of time required for a historical pull is determined by the volume of an Item's accounts and transactions. An Item with a large number of accounts – such as a business bank account with many credit cards, each of which has many transactions per day – will take longer than an account with one or two accounts with few transactions per day.

The historical transaction pull retrieves as much historical data as is available for the Item at the financial institution.

DEFAULT_UPDATE

The DEFAULT_UPDATE webhook is fired when Plaid fetches new pending or posted transactions for an Item. 

Example DEFAULT_UPDATE webhook: 

{
  "webhook_type": "TRANSACTIONS",
  "webhook_code": "DEFAULT_UPDATE",
  "item_id": "wz666MBjYWTp2PDzzggYhM6oWWmBb",
  "error": null,
  "new_transactions": 3
}

Plaid routinely checks for transaction updates, but a DEFAULT_UPDATE will only fire when new transaction data is available. When a DEFAULT_UPDATE webhook is triggered, you may make a /transactions/get request to retrieve the latest transaction data. Please note that the regularity of transaction data updates can vary across financial institutions. 

TRANSACTIONS_REMOVED

Plaid sends a TRANSACTIONS_REMOVED webhook when pending or posted transactions have been removed from our system.

Example TRANSACTIONS_REMOVED webhook:

{
   "webhook_type": "TRANSACTIONS",
   "webhook_code": "TRANSACTIONS_REMOVED",
   "item_id": "wz666MBjYWTp2PDzzggYhM6oWWmBb",
   "removed_transactions": ["yBVBEwrPyJs8GvR77N7QTxnGg6wG74H7dEDN6", "kgygNvAVPzSX9KkddNdWHaVGRVex1MHm3k9no"],
   "error": null
 }

Pending transactions can be removed for the following reasons:

1. They were matched to a posted transaction.
2. They no longer appear in the data we get from the institution, which may occur when transactions are cancelled by the bank or payment processor.

To learn more about pending transactions, see the Pending transaction overview.

Posted transactions are removed from Plaid's system when the transaction was removed by the institution.

You will receive a TRANSACTIONS_REMOVED webhook with the transaction_ids for each removed transaction. Future /transactions/get requests will not return previously removed transactions.