Events & Actions
Events & Actions (E&A) is a serverless platform. It lets you manage events in your app and send real-time data to third‑party systems for storage, analytics, or AI. You configure it in the UI—no code required.
How it works
Events are small pieces of information that PubNub generates from your usage. PubNub creates events during the app lifecycle, for example when a client connects, disconnects, publishes, or subscribes to a channel. You react to events with a listener and one or more actions.
| Scenario | PubNub event | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Device publishes a message via an API call | PubNub generates a Message Publish event | A device Publish API call triggers a Message Publish event. This is an explicit event. |
| User’s phone loses Internet connection | PubNub generates a User Disconnect event | PubNub detects that the connection is gone without an API call. This is an implicit event. |
After you configure a listener (1) for an event, add actions (2) such as sending data by webhook or queue. You can also create actions first and attach them to listeners later.
Open Events & Actions in the Admin Portal.
Public Admin Portal demo
Want to browse through the Admin Portal without creating an account? Explore it through the Public Demo that shows examples of most PubNub features for transport and logistics use case.
Availability
Events & Actions is available to PubNub customers on Free, Starter, and Pro plans in eight tiers.
| Item | Free | Intro | Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | Tier 4 | Tier 5 | Tier 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max events ingested | 10K | 2M | 4M | 25M | 66M | 200M | 500M | Unlimited |
| Listeners | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Actions per listener | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | Unlimited |
| Action Types per Listener | Webhook only | All Available Actions | All Available Actions | All Available Actions | All Available Actions | All Available Actions | All Available Actions | All Available Actions |
| Retry | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Events & Actions includes a two‑week free trial. After the trial, contact sales to upgrade your plan.
Event listeners
Event listeners wait for PubNub events. When an event occurs, the listener runs. For example:
- A message is published to a specific channel.
- A user with a particular Sender ID publishes a message.
- The message metadata matches a pattern you define.
- A file was sent by a particular user.
Each listener can trigger several actions. For example, when a client with User ID thomas_anderson publishes a message, PubNub runs all actions attached to that listener.
For all events, see the Event/Action list.
Actions
Actions send data when a listener is triggered.
Actions per listener
Your Events & Actions tier sets how many actions a listener can trigger.
Available actions include:
Events & Actions vs. Functions
PubNub supports two distinct approaches to event-driven processing.
- Use Events & Actions to forward real‑time data to third‑party systems with low code.
- Use Functions to transform messages, run custom logic, or handle on‑the‑fly processing.
Configure Events & Actions
Configure Events & Actions in the Admin Portal UI. It includes webhook retry (paid tiers) and custom headers for authentication and validation.
To create and configure E&A, see Configure Events & Actions.