Purchase Verification for Google Play

Use this skill when you need to verify in-app purchases or subscriptions from your backend server.

Why Verify Purchases Server-Side?

Client-side verification can be bypassed. Always verify purchases on your server:

• Prevent fraud and piracy
• Ensure user actually paid
• Check subscription status
• Handle refunds and cancellations

Authentication Setup

Your backend needs a service account with permissions to verify purchases.

Create service account

1. Go to Google Cloud Console
2. Create service account
3. Grant "Service Account User" role
4. Download JSON key

Grant API access

1. Go to Play Console
2. Users & Permissions → Service Accounts
3. Grant service account access to your apps

Verify In-App Product Purchase

Get purchase details

gplay purchases products get \
  --package com.example.app \
  --product-id premium_upgrade \
  --token <PURCHASE_TOKEN>

Response

{
  "kind": "androidpublisher#productPurchase",
  "purchaseTimeMillis": "1706400000000",
  "purchaseState": 0,
  "consumptionState": 0,
  "developerPayload": "user_123",
  "orderId": "GPA.1234-5678-9012-34567",
  "purchaseType": 0
}

Purchase states

• 0 = Purchased
• 1 = Canceled
• 2 = Pending

Consumption states

• 0 = Yet to be consumed
• 1 = Consumed

Acknowledge Purchase

After verifying, acknowledge the purchase:

gplay purchases products acknowledge \
  --package com.example.app \
  --product-id premium_upgrade \
  --token <PURCHASE_TOKEN>

Important: Unacknowledged purchases will be refunded after 3 days.

Consume Purchase (for consumables)

For consumable items (coins, gems, etc.):

gplay purchases products consume \
  --package com.example.app \
  --product-id coins_100 \
  --token <PURCHASE_TOKEN>

Verify Subscription

Get subscription details

gplay purchases subscriptions get \
  --package com.example.app \
  --token <SUBSCRIPTION_TOKEN>

Response

{
  "kind": "androidpublisher#subscriptionPurchase",
  "startTimeMillis": "1706400000000",
  "expiryTimeMillis": "1709000000000",
  "autoRenewing": true,
  "priceCurrencyCode": "USD",
  "priceAmountMicros": "4990000",
  "paymentState": 1,
  "cancelReason": null,
  "userCancellationTimeMillis": null,
  "orderId": "GPA.1234-5678-9012-34567",
  "linkedPurchaseToken": null,
  "subscriptionState": 0
}

Subscription states

• 0 = Active
• 1 = Canceled (still valid until expiry)
• 2 = In grace period
• 3 = On hold (payment failed, retrying)
• 4 = Paused
• 5 = Expired

Payment states

• 0 = Payment pending
• 1 = Payment received
• 2 = Free trial
• 3 = Pending deferred upgrade/downgrade

Backend Implementation Example

Node.js/Express

const { google } = require('googleapis');

async function verifyPurchase(packageName, productId, token) {
  const auth = new google.auth.GoogleAuth({
    keyFile: '/path/to/service-account.json',
    scopes: ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/androidpublisher'],
  });

  const androidpublisher = google.androidpublisher({
    version: 'v3',
    auth: await auth.getClient(),
  });

  const result = await androidpublisher.purchases.products.get({
    packageName: packageName,
    productId: productId,
    token: token,
  });

  return result.data;
}

// Endpoint
app.post('/verify-purchase', async (req, res) => {
  const { packageName, productId, token } = req.body;

  try {
    const purchase = await verifyPurchase(packageName, productId, token);

    if (purchase.purchaseState === 0) {
      // Purchase is valid
      // Grant access to user
      // Acknowledge purchase
      res.json({ valid: true, purchase });
    } else {
      res.json({ valid: false });
    }
  } catch (error) {
    res.status(400).json({ error: error.message });
  }
});

Python/Flask

from google.oauth2 import service_account
from googleapiclient.discovery import build

SCOPES = ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/androidpublisher']
SERVICE_ACCOUNT_FILE = '/path/to/service-account.json'

credentials = service_account.Credentials.from_service_account_file(
    SERVICE_ACCOUNT_FILE, scopes=SCOPES)

androidpublisher = build('androidpublisher', 'v3', credentials=credentials)

@app.route('/verify-purchase', methods=['POST'])
def verify_purchase():
    data = request.json
    package_name = data['packageName']
    product_id = data['productId']
    token = data['token']

    try:
        result = androidpublisher.purchases().products().get(
            packageName=package_name,
            productId=product_id,
            token=token
        ).execute()

        if result['purchaseState'] == 0:
            # Purchase is valid
            return jsonify({'valid': True, 'purchase': result})
        else:
            return jsonify({'valid': False})

    except Exception as e:
        return jsonify({'error': str(e)}), 400

Handle Subscription Events

Real-time Developer Notifications (RTDN)

Set up Pub/Sub to receive subscription events:

1. Create Pub/Sub topic in Google Cloud Console

2. Configure in Play Console:

   • Monetization Setup → Real-time developer notifications
   • Enter topic name

3. Subscribe to events:

from google.cloud import pubsub_v1

subscriber = pubsub_v1.SubscriberClient()
subscription_path = subscriber.subscription_path(project_id, subscription_id)

def callback(message):
    data = json.loads(message.data)

    if 'subscriptionNotification' in data:
        notification = data['subscriptionNotification']
        notification_type = notification['notificationType']
        purchase_token = notification['purchaseToken']

        # Handle different events
        if notification_type == 1:  # SUBSCRIPTION_RECOVERED
            # Subscription was recovered from account hold
            pass
        elif notification_type == 2:  # SUBSCRIPTION_RENEWED
            # Subscription renewed successfully
            pass
        elif notification_type == 3:  # SUBSCRIPTION_CANCELED
            # User canceled subscription
            pass
        elif notification_type == 4:  # SUBSCRIPTION_PURCHASED
            # New subscription purchase
            pass
        elif notification_type == 7:  # SUBSCRIPTION_EXPIRED
            # Subscription expired
            pass
        elif notification_type == 10:  # SUBSCRIPTION_PAUSED
            # Subscription paused
            pass
        elif notification_type == 12:  # SUBSCRIPTION_REVOKED
            # Subscription revoked (refunded)
            pass

    message.ack()

subscriber.subscribe(subscription_path, callback=callback)

Subscription Management

Cancel subscription

gplay purchases subscriptions cancel \
  --package com.example.app \
  --token <SUBSCRIPTION_TOKEN>

Defer subscription

gplay purchases subscriptions defer \
  --package com.example.app \
  --token <SUBSCRIPTION_TOKEN> \
  --json @defer.json

defer.json

{
  "deferralInfo": {
    "expectedExpiryTimeMillis": "1709000000000"
  }
}

Revoke subscription (refund)

gplay purchases subscriptions revoke \
  --package com.example.app \
  --token <SUBSCRIPTION_TOKEN>

Check Voided Purchases

Get list of refunded/canceled purchases:

gplay purchases voided list \
  --package com.example.app \
  --start-time 1706400000000 \
  --end-time 1709000000000

Remove entitlements for these purchases on your backend.

Order Information

Get order details

gplay orders get \
  --package com.example.app \
  --order-id GPA.1234-5678-9012-34567

Batch get orders

gplay orders batch-get \
  --package com.example.app \
  --order-ids "GPA.1234,GPA.5678,GPA.9012"

Refund order

gplay orders refund \
  --package com.example.app \
  --order-id GPA.1234-5678-9012-34567 \
  --revoke  # Also revoke access

Security Best Practices

DO:

• ✅ Always verify on server, never trust client
• ✅ Store purchase tokens securely
• ✅ Acknowledge purchases within 3 days
• ✅ Handle refunds and cancellations
• ✅ Use HTTPS for all API calls
• ✅ Rate limit your verification endpoint
• ✅ Log all verification attempts

DON'T:

• ❌ Verify purchases only on client
• ❌ Expose service account credentials
• ❌ Skip acknowledging purchases
• ❌ Grant access before verification
• ❌ Ignore voided purchases
• ❌ Store credit card info (PCI compliance)

Common Verification Flow

1. User makes purchase in app
2. App sends purchase token to your server
3. Server verifies with Google Play API
4. Server acknowledges purchase (if valid)
5. Server grants access/content to user
6. Server stores purchase token for future checks
7. Server listens for RTDN events (cancellations, renewals)

Error Handling

Common errors

• 401 Unauthorized - Service account not authorized
• 404 Not Found - Purchase token invalid or expired
• 410 Gone - Purchase was refunded/canceled

Retry logic

async function verifyWithRetry(packageName, productId, token, retries = 3) {
  for (let i = 0; i < retries; i++) {
    try {
      return await verifyPurchase(packageName, productId, token);
    } catch (error) {
      if (error.code === 404 || error.code === 410) {
        throw error; // Don't retry if purchase is invalid
      }
      if (i === retries - 1) throw error;
      await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 1000 * (i + 1)));
    }
  }
}

Testing

Test purchases

Use Google Play's test accounts to make test purchases without charging real money.

Test verification

# Verify test purchase
gplay purchases products get \
  --package com.example.app \
  --product-id android.test.purchased \
  --token <TEST_TOKEN>

Monitoring

Track these metrics:

• Purchase verification success rate
• Acknowledgment rate
• Refund rate
• Subscription churn rate
• Failed payment rate

Use this data to improve your monetization strategy.