Recurring Transfers

Recurring transfers allow you to automatically originate fixed amount ACH transactions with a regular interval according to a schedule you define. Plaid currently supports intervals with an arbitrary number of weeks or months.

Once you set up the recurring transfer, Plaid automatically originates the ACH transaction on the planned date, defined by the recurring schedule. You can look up and cancel recurring transfers. You may also receive updates about the recurring transfer itself, as well as each individual transfer originated by the recurring transfer.

Before creating a recurring transfer, you should be familiar with creating one-time transfers. See Creating Transfers.

Use /transfer/recurring/create to create a new recurring transfer. The request body is very similar to /transfer/authorization/create, except that you will provide an additional schedule parameter.

The schedule defines the start date and the recurring interval. Optionally, you may provide an end date, which is the last day, inclusively, that an ACH transaction can be originated. If the end date is not set, the recurring transfer remains active until it is canceled.

The recurrence interval is calculated by multiplying interval_unit by interval_count. For example, to set up a recurring transfer that's originated once every 2 weeks, set interval_unit = "week" and interval_count = 2.

The interval_execution_day parameter indicates which day in the week or month that you expect a new ACH transaction to be originated.

For a weekly recurring schedule, interval_execution_day should be an integer ranging from 1 to 5, representing Monday through Friday.

For a monthly recurring schedule, interval_execution_day should be either a positive integer ranging from 1 to 28, indicating the 1st through 28th day of the month; or a negative integer ranging from -1 to -5, where -1 is the last day of the month, -2 is the second-to-last day of the month, and so on.

For example, a transfer with interval_execution_day of -1 in 2025 would be executed on January 31, February 28, March 31, April 30, June 2 (because the last day of May 2025 is a Saturday; see Weekend and bank holiday adjustment), June 30, etc.

To cancel a recurring transfer, use /transfer/recurring/cancel and provide the recurring_transfer_id of the recurring transfer you wish to cancel.

If you cancel a recurring transfer on the same day that a new ACH transaction is supposed to be originated, it is not guaranteed that this transaction can be canceled.

Once a recurring transfer has been cancelled, the status field associated with the recurring_transfer_id will be cancelled.

Before each instance of a recurring transfer is executed, Plaid will automatically perform the same authorization check performed by /transfer/authorization/create. If the check succeeds, the transfer will proceed, and Plaid will notify you via a RECURRING_NEW_TRANSFER webhook. If the check fails, the transfer will not be executed, and Plaid will notify you via a RECURRING_TRANSFER_SKIPPED webhook.

If a recurring transfer instance is skipped due to a failed authorization check, it will not be retried. Subsequent transfers will be attempted as normal.

Once the last scheduled instance of a recurring transfer has been executed (or attempted to be executed), the status field associated with the recurring_transfer_id will move from active to expired.

If the planned origination date falls on a weekend or a bank holiday, Plaid automatically adjusts it to the next available banking day, provided that the adjusted date is on or before the schedule's end_date.

This means if the origination date after adjustment falls after the recurring schedule's end_date, it will not be originated. We recommend you always choose a banking day as the end_date in the schedule if it's needed.

Plaid sends following webhook events regarding a recurring transfer:

• RECURRING_NEW_TRANSFER when a new ACH transaction is originated on the planned date.
• RECURRING_TRANSFER_SKIPPED when Plaid is unable to originate a new ACH transaction on the planned date due to a failed authorization, such the account having insufficient funds.
• RECURRING_CANCELLED when the recurring transfer is cancelled by Plaid.
• For all transfers created through recurring transfer, TRANSFER_EVENTS_UPDATE webhook events are also sent so that you can receive updates on each individual ACH transaction.

The transfers created through recurring transfer appear in the response of /transfer/list and can be queried by /transfer/get given a transfer_id. The recurring_transfer object also has a transfer_ids field, containing the ids of the transfers originated by this recurring transfer. To get details of transfer instances created from a recurring transfer, you can call /transfer/recurring/get on a schedule and store the new transfer_ids, then call /transfer/get on those id(s) to retrieve the transfer details.

If you have a recurring transfer that lasts for over a year and where the end user's account is held at PNC Bank, you may need to send the Item through update mode at least once a year to avoid disruption of the transfer schedule. For more details, see PNC TAN expiration.

See Simulating recurring transfers.