Linking Plaid as a source

Alpha release

This source is currently in alpha. The interface and available tables may change.

The Plaid connector syncs the accounts and transactions of a linked Plaid Item into PostHog, 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_at timestamp). 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

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	—

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.