The moment it happens

Celebrate new PayPal subscribers

Each new subscription is posted with the plan and subscriber email.

Runs: The moment it happens
Apps: PayPal
AI: Not needed
Access: REST app

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: when a PayPal subscription is activated, Slack me the plan name and subscriber email in #customers.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

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First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

When someone subscribes to a plan on PayPal, the seller usually finds out from a line in a monthly statement. That is too late to say thank you, check that access was granted or confirm that the subscriber landed on the right tier. Founders running memberships and newsletters miss the early window when a new subscriber is most likely to ask a question or notice a problem.

When PayPal reports that a subscription was activated, the subscription is fetched along with its plan so the message has real details. A Slack post then states who subscribed, which plan they chose and what it costs, so your team can follow up while the person has just signed up.

It is useful for membership sites, paid communities and software with monthly tiers billed through PayPal.

What you get out of it

Welcome people at the right moment
A short thank-you or setup tip while the subscriber is still on your site makes them feel noticed. That small effort improves early retention more than a later generic email.
Check that access really started
If a new member is not granted access to the community or the product, they notice quickly. The alert lets you verify provisioning for each subscriber and fix a broken step before they ask.
Understand which plan wins
Seeing plan names on each message shows the real split between tiers. You may find the cheaper monthly plan is preferred over the annual one, which changes how you present pricing.
Know your growth without a spreadsheet
A channel full of new-subscriber posts is an easy way to feel recurring revenue growing. Anyone can scroll back and count sign-ups for a given week without asking for a report.
Fewer surprises at billing time
Since each subscription is seen when it begins, there are no unfamiliar names appearing at renewal. Support can tie a later question back to the day the person joined. Context from day one makes every later conversation easier.

How it works

What happens, step by step

When someone starts a PayPal subscription, PayPal tells ClickRuntime straight away.
ClickRuntime looks up the subscription to find the subscriber's email and the plan name.
A message goes to your #customers Slack channel welcoming the new subscriber.

Before it runs live

Connect PayPal
Paste your automation's link into the other app's webhook settings

What you get

RunsThe moment it happens

Celebrate new PayPal subscribersjust nowSucceeded

Slack · #customers🎉 New subscriber: hello@acme.example on *Team annual*

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
Combine it with other PayPal steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

new_subscription_started_alert.pyexample

from clickruntime import on_event, credentials, http, notify

API = "https://api-m.paypal.com"

def paypal_headers():
    resp = http.post(f"{API}/v1/oauth2/token", data={"grant_type": "client_credentials"},
                     auth=(credentials.secret("PAYPAL_CLIENT_ID"), credentials.secret("PAYPAL_CLIENT_SECRET")))
    resp.raise_for_status()
    return {"Authorization": f"Bearer {resp.json()['access_token']}"}

@on_event
def handle(event):
    body = event.json
    if body.get("event_type") != "BILLING.SUBSCRIPTION.ACTIVATED":
        return {"posted": False}
    headers = paypal_headers()
    sub = http.get(f"{API}/v1/billing/subscriptions/{body['resource']['id']}", headers=headers).json()
    plan = http.get(f"{API}/v1/billing/plans/{sub['plan_id']}", headers=headers).json()
    notify.slack(f"🎉 New subscriber: {sub['subscriber']['email_address']} on *{plan['name']}*", channel="#customers")
    return {"subscription": sub["id"]}

FAQ

Common questions

Does a subscription in trial count as started?

PayPal sends an activated event when a subscription becomes active, and the plan details tell you if there is a trial. The message includes the plan so you can see whether the person began with a free period.

What happens when someone resubscribes later?

A new subscription means a new activation event, so a returning subscriber produces a fresh message. It can be a nice signal that a former customer came back, and the plan details show whether they chose the same tier.

Can I send it to a channel only for the sales team?

Yes. The destination channel is a single setting, so you can point it wherever the right people are. Ask your AI assistant to switch channels, and approve the revised setup before it replaces the live one.

What permissions does it need?

REST app. Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run for each event the app sends.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

The moment it happens