Partners' Capital and Distributions - Income Allocation (Details)	Dec. 31, 2018
Partners' Capital Notes [Abstract]
Net income allocation	100.00%

Partnership Agreement, Net Income Allocation Percent

No definition available.

Name:	paa_PartnershipAgreementNetIncomeAllocationPercent
Namespace Prefix:	paa_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant