Gifted pledges neither trigger a webhook nor are they exposed properly in the API

API Feedback
1

Hey there,
it seems like Patreon decided to add gifted subscriptions, which is great! However, they again dropped the ball when it comes to their API. Getting a gifted subscription will neither trigger a pledge create / update webhook, nor will the gift expiration be included anywhere on the API level.
I can retrieve whether a member is currently an active Patreon and whether they have used a gifted sub, however there is NO data anywhere in the API as to how long their gifted subscription lasts.
For example, someone with a 2 month gifted sub looks like this in the API:

       "attributes": {
                "email": "x@y.com",
                "full_name": "First Last",
                "is_gifted": true,
                "next_charge_date": null,
                "patron_status": "active_patron",
                "pledge_cadence": null,
                "pledge_relationship_start": "2024-12-22T18:15:36.698+00:00",
                "will_pay_amount_cents": 0
            }

As you can see, next_charge_date is NULL and so is pledge_cadence - meaning I have literally no idea how to figure out when their access expires. For a company that rakes in hundreds of thousands of USD every month from their creators, this is beyond embarrassing.

2

Try getting the currently_entitled_amount_cents and currently_entitled_tiers of that patron.

3

currently_entitled_amount_cents

That value is zero for gifted subscriptions.

currently_entitled_tiers

That only returns the current tier that the subscriber has, but not for how long or since when.

4

currently_entitled_amount_cents should be a bug, you can put a support ticket at Patreon help desk to tell them that you want it implemented.

That only returns the current tier that the subscriber has, but not for how long or since when.

That shouldnt be a problem - if you just keep checking that field whenever the user will access his reward, then you can withhold the reward when the user’s entitlement no longer shows in that field.

5

I have tried opening tickets for bugs in their API before and have been redirected here. Their support is unable to help with issues with their API.

This is not a realistic solution, as I can’t be expected to query the Patreon API every time the user does something on our end - we’re providing an online game with thousands of users and I can’t realistically query the Patreon API every single time someone uses their pledge tier reward.
What a sad affair this whole Patreon API is…

6

Glad to find this. I’m experiencing exactly the same issue - a subscriber bought a subscription as a gift for his son, and it’s not showing up in the API. It’s pretty clearly a bug.