Linking Plaid as a source
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Contents
The Plaid connector syncs financial data from a linked Plaid Item into PostHog – including accounts, transactions, investment holdings, liabilities, and institution details – so you can analyze financial data alongside your product data.
Prerequisites
You need a Plaid account with access to the Plaid dashboard and an access token for the Item you want to sync. The access token is obtained when a user completes Plaid Link, and each token identifies one linked Item (institution connection).
Adding a data source
- In PostHog, go to the Sources tab of the data pipeline section.
- Click + New source and click Link next to this source.
- Enter your credentials (see Configuration below) and click Next.
- Select the tables you want to sync, choose a sync method and frequency, then click Import.
Once the syncs are complete, you can start querying this data in PostHog.
When linking Plaid, you'll need:
- Environment – choose Production or Sandbox to match the environment your credentials belong to. Credentials only work against their own environment.
- Client ID – found in the Plaid dashboard.
- Secret – found alongside the client ID in the Plaid dashboard.
- Access token – identifies one linked Item, obtained when a user completes Plaid Link. Add one source per Item.
Sync modes
Each table can be synced in one of several modes, depending on what the source supports:
- Webhook (when available) – the source pushes changes to PostHog in real time. Fastest freshness, lowest ongoing cost, and the only mode that reliably captures updates and deletes.
- Incremental – only new or updated rows are synced on each run, using a cursor field (such as an
updated_attimestamp). Cheaper than a full refresh, but deletes aren't captured. - Append only – new rows are appended using a cursor field; existing rows are never updated. Ideal for immutable, append-only tables like event logs.
- Full refresh – the whole table is reloaded on every sync. Use it when a table has no reliable cursor or when you need deletions reflected.
See sync methods for a full explanation of how each mode works and how to choose between them.
Configuration
| Option | Type | Required |
|---|---|---|
Environment | select | Yes |
Client ID | text | Yes |
Secret | password | Yes |
Access token | password | Yes |
Supported tables
The investment_transactions table is disabled by default. Enabling it starts Plaid's Investments Transactions subscription for the Item if it doesn't already have one, which incurs additional Plaid charges. Only enable this table if you specifically need investment transaction history.
| Table | Description | Sync method | Incremental field | Primary key |
|---|---|---|---|---|
accounts | A financial account (checking, savings, credit card, loan, etc.) belonging to a linked Plaid Item. | Full refresh | — | — |
transactions | A transaction (purchase, transfer, etc.) on an account belonging to a linked Plaid Item. | Incremental, Full refresh | date | — |
investment_transactions | Syncing this table starts Plaid's Investments Transactions subscription for the Item if it does not have one yet. | Incremental, Full refresh | date | — |
investment_holdings | A position in one security held in an investment account belonging to a linked Plaid Item. | Full refresh | — | — |
liabilities | Loan or credit card detail (rates, payments, due dates, origination) for a credit or loan account belonging to a linked Plaid Item. | Full refresh | — | — |
institutions | The financial institution the linked Plaid Item is connected to. | Full refresh | — | — |
recurring_transactions | Syncing this table starts Plaid's Recurring Transactions subscription for the Item if it does not have one yet. | Full refresh | — | — |
balances | Each sync of this table makes one billed Plaid Balance request. | Full refresh | — | — |
identity | Contains the names, emails, phone numbers and addresses of the account owners. | Full refresh | — | — |
items | The linked Plaid Item: the connection to a financial institution, with its products, consent and error state. | Full refresh | — | — |
Troubleshooting
If your sync is failing or data looks wrong, see the Data warehouse troubleshooting guide. If that doesn't help, contact support – we're happy to help.