Subscriptions on Android with RevenueCat

Google Play exposes subscriptions through a three tier hierarchy: Subscription, Base Plan, and Offer. RevenueCat wraps that hierarchy in a flatter model you configure from the dashboard: Offerings, Packages, and SubscriptionOptions. You fetch an Offering, pick a Package, and in most flows let the SDK choose the right SubscriptionOption for you.

Phase 1: Understand

The mapping from Google Play to RevenueCat:

Key types you will touch:

• Offering: a dashboard configured group of Package objects. offerings.current is the one you show by default.
• Package: a purchasable slot (monthly, annual, weekly, custom). Exposes a product: StoreProduct.
• StoreProduct: the Google Play subscription product. Has subscriptionOptions: List<SubscriptionOption>? and a defaultOption.
• SubscriptionOption: either a base plan or an offer. Has pricingPhases, tags, and an id.
• PricingPhase: one billing segment (intro trial, intro price, or recurring). Has billingPeriod, price, offerPaymentMode, and recurrenceMode.

See the Subscriptions chapter on revenuecat.com for the object model diagram showing the full Offerings hierarchy alongside the CustomerInfo hierarchy used for entitlement checks.

Phase 2: Plan

Before you write code, map your paywall to the object model. Answer these three questions.

2.1 Which Offering drives the paywall?

• Default paywall: use offerings.current. This is the Offering marked current in the dashboard and is the standard choice.
• Experiment or segment specific paywall: fetch offerings.all["experiment-a"]. You keep the dashboard in charge of which products appear, so no app update ships when the catalog changes.

2.2 Which Packages do you show?

Two access patterns, pick the one that matches your layout:

Standard PackageType values: MONTHLY, ANNUAL, WEEKLY, TWO_MONTH, THREE_MONTH, SIX_MONTH, LIFETIME. Anything else is PackageType.CUSTOM.

2.3 Does the paywall need a specific offer, or is the default fine?

The SDK's defaultOption logic:

1. Filters out options tagged "rc-ignore-offer" or "rc-customer-center".
2. Picks the option with the longest free trial or the cheapest first phase.
3. Falls back to the base plan if no offer qualifies.

Trial eligibility is not filtered by the SDK. Google Play only returns offers the user is eligible for, so if a user already consumed a free trial, that option simply will not appear in subscriptionOptions and the base plan becomes the default.

Phase 3: Execute

3.1 Pull Offerings and pick a Package

val offerings = Purchases.sharedInstance.awaitOfferings()
val offering = offerings.current ?: return
val monthly = offering.monthly ?: return
val product = monthly.product
val price = product.price.formatted
val period = product.period?.iso8601 // "P1M", "P1Y", null for one time

For a dynamic list:

for (pkg in offering.availablePackages) {
    render(pkg.product.title, pkg.product.price.formatted, pkg.packageType)
}

3.2 Purchase with the default option

When the paywall shows a Package and you want the SDK to pick the best offer, pass the Package directly.

val params = PurchaseParams.Builder(activity, monthly).build()
val result = Purchases.sharedInstance.awaitPurchase(params)

3.3 Drill into subscriptionOptions for a specific offer

Use this when the paywall targets an offer by tag or offer ID, for example a win back offer.

val product = offering.monthly?.product ?: return
val winBack = product.subscriptionOptions
    ?.firstOrNull { it.tags.contains("win-back") }
val option = winBack ?: product.defaultOption ?: return
val params = PurchaseParams.Builder(activity, option).build()

Always fall back to defaultOption so the paywall still works when the targeted offer is absent (for example, the user is not eligible).

3.4 Render trial and intro pricing from pricingPhases

The first PricingPhase is the trial or intro price when present. Use offerPaymentMode for trial detection.

val option = pkg.product.defaultOption ?: return
val first = option.pricingPhases.first()
val isTrial = first.offerPaymentMode == OfferPaymentMode.FREE_TRIAL

billingPeriod.value is the count in the period's unit, not days. A P1W period gives value = 1, unit = WEEK. Build labels off both fields:

val p = first.billingPeriod
val label = when (p.unit) {
    Period.Unit.DAY -> "${p.value} day"
    Period.Unit.WEEK -> "${p.value} week"
    Period.Unit.MONTH -> "${p.value} month"
    Period.Unit.YEAR -> "${p.value} year"
    else -> p.iso8601
}

3.5 Prepaid plans

Prepaid base plans use the same SubscriptionOption API. Their pricingPhases report RecurrenceMode.NON_RECURRING. To accept pending purchases for prepaid plans, enable the flag at configuration time.

PurchasesConfiguration.Builder(context, apiKey)
    .pendingTransactionsForPrepaidPlansEnabled(true)
    .build()

3.6 Check access after purchase

Prefer entitlements. They reflect server computed access state including grace period, account hold, and cancellation with remaining time.

val info = result.customerInfo
val isPro = info.entitlements["pro"]?.isActive == true

If you need the raw product ID, use customerInfo.activeSubscriptions. It returns a Set<String> of "subscriptionId:basePlanId" entries.

Decision summary

References

• Full chapter