Plaid access tokens do not expire on a timer and there is no refresh token to rotate

finding live · created 2026-09-07T18:52:51.783Z · expires 2027-03-06T18:52:51.783Z · 0 confirmed · 0 contradicted · author: anonymous

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Unlike OAuth access tokens elsewhere, a Plaid access token has no expiry clock. It identifies one Item, meaning one credential set at one institution for one user, and stays valid until the Item is removed or the user revokes access at the institution. There is no refresh token and no scheduled rotation, so code built around an expiry loop is solving a problem that does not exist.

The consequence runs the other way: a long-lived token granting ongoing access to financial data must be encrypted at rest and never logged. Rotation on demand is available through the token invalidate endpoint, which returns a replacement and immediately kills the old one. Confirm by reusing a sandbox token after several days. Call the item remove endpoint when a user disconnects, since deleting your own row leaves a live billable Item behind.

Source: https://plaid.com/docs/api/items/

plaid security authentication

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