GitHub Sponsors sponsorship webhook payload example

GitHub · event: sponsorship (created) · content type: application/json

This is a representative sample — fake IDs, real structure. To see a payload with your data, point the provider at a capture URL (button below).

See it live, not frozen

One click creates a free capture bin with this exact payload already in it — pretty-printed, headers inspectable, replayable to your own endpoint:

Then paste the bin's URL into GitHub's webhook settings to capture a real delivery. No signup.

Headers

content-type: application/json
user-agent: GitHub-Hookshot/2f91c4a
x-github-event: sponsorship
x-github-delivery: c7e84c20-85c4-11f1-8a3b-5d2f9e1c7b46
x-github-hook-id: 512407911
x-hub-signature: sha1=ac3edd0983da36660b53cc972475d5efc5277b9b
x-hub-signature-256: sha256=c71fa59f8ad78bd7414124745ecc098ee469c5eb3691d4be565c9c466a97d9e5

Body

{
  "action": "created",
  "sponsorship": {
    "node_id": "MDExOlNwb25zb3JzaGlwOTIxNDQ3",
    "created_at": "2026-08-30T10:37:54+00:00",
    "sponsorable": {
      "login": "octocat",
      "id": 583231,
      "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjU4MzIzMQ==",
      "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/583231?v=4",
      "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat",
      "type": "User",
      "site_admin": false
    },
    "sponsor": {
      "login": "monalisa",
      "id": 92732,
      "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjkyNzMy",
      "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/92732?v=4",
      "html_url": "https://github.com/monalisa",
      "type": "User",
      "site_admin": false
    },
    "privacy_level": "public",
    "tier": {
      "node_id": "MDEyOlNwb25zb3JzVGllcjMzNzc0",
      "created_at": "2026-01-12T19:17:05Z",
      "description": "Early access to new tools + a monthly office-hours call.",
      "monthly_price_in_cents": 500,
      "monthly_price_in_dollars": 5,
      "name": "$5 a month",
      "is_one_time": false,
      "is_custom_amount": false
    }
  },
  "sender": {
    "login": "monalisa",
    "id": 92732,
    "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjkyNzMy",
    "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/92732?v=4",
    "html_url": "https://github.com/monalisa",
    "type": "User",
    "site_admin": false
  }
}

Things that bite people

This example's signature actually verifies: paste the body, the X-Hub-Signature-256 value and the secret hookden-github-sample-webhook-secret into the signature debugger (GitHub scheme), or set the GitHub scheme on a capture bin. Same wire format as every other GitHub webhook: sha256= + hex HMAC-SHA256 over the raw body.
Six actions (schema as of 2026-08-30): created, cancelled, edited, pending_cancellation, pending_tier_change, tier_changed. The pending_* pair adds a top-level effective_date — the change lands at the sponsor's next billing cycle, and the definitive cancelled / tier_changed event fires then, not when the sponsor clicks.
cancelled only ever fires for recurring (monthly) sponsorships, and only when the last paid cycle actually ends. A one-time sponsorship never gets a terminal event: you receive created with tier.is_one_time: true and then nothing, ever. If you grant perks off created alone, one-time sponsors keep them forever — expire them yourself using sponsorship.created_at.
Privacy: privacy_level can be private — the sponsor paid but doesn't want to be displayed. Auto-publishing a "thanks @sponsor!" from the webhook leaks private sponsors; edited fires with changes.privacy_level.from when they flip it. tier_changed / pending_tier_change carry changes.tier.from — the old tier, so you can tell upgrades from downgrades without a lookup. Custom amounts arrive with is_custom_amount: true and a synthesized tier.
Where to configure: sponsorship webhooks live on the sponsored user/org's Sponsors dashboard (GitHub.com only — not Enterprise Server), separate from repo/org webhooks. The delivery log there keeps 3 days of history — and like all GitHub webhooks there are no automatic retries, so a down endpoint during those 3 days means manual redelivery or a lost event. Capture to a durable bin and relay to localhost while building.

Send it yourself

Reproduce this delivery against any endpoint (your handler, a bin, staging):

$ curl -X POST https://your-endpoint.example/hook \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -H 'user-agent: GitHub-Hookshot/2f91c4a' \
  -H 'x-github-event: sponsorship' \
  -H 'x-github-delivery: c7e84c20-85c4-11f1-8a3b-5d2f9e1c7b46' \
  -H 'x-github-hook-id: 512407911' \
  -H 'x-hub-signature: sha1=ac3edd0983da36660b53cc972475d5efc5277b9b' \
  -H 'x-hub-signature-256: sha256=c71fa59f8ad78bd7414124745ecc098ee469c5eb3691d4be565c9c466a97d9e5' \
 -d '{
  "action": "created",
  "sponsorship": {
    "node_id": "MDExOlNwb25zb3JzaGlwOTIxNDQ3",
    "created_at": "2026-08-30T10:37:54+00:00",
    "sponsorable": {
      "login": "octocat",
      "id": 583231,
      "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjU4MzIzMQ==",
      "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/583231?v=4",
      "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat",
      "type": "User",
      "site_admin": false
    },
    "sponsor": {
      "login": "monalisa",
      "id": 92732,
      "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjkyNzMy",
      "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/92732?v=4",
      "html_url": "https://github.com/monalisa",
      "type": "User",
      "site_admin": false
    },
    "privacy_level": "public",
    "tier": {
      "node_id": "MDEyOlNwb25zb3JzVGllcjMzNzc0",
      "created_at": "2026-01-12T19:17:05Z",
      "description": "Early access to new tools + a monthly office-hours call.",
      "monthly_price_in_cents": 500,
      "monthly_price_in_dollars": 5,
      "name": "$5 a month",
      "is_one_time": false,
      "is_custom_amount": false
    }
  },
  "sender": {
    "login": "monalisa",
    "id": 92732,
    "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjkyNzMy",
    "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/92732?v=4",
    "html_url": "https://github.com/monalisa",
    "type": "User",
    "site_admin": false
  }
}'

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