Pokemon GO Stickers: How to Get, Send and Use Them

Verified as of April 2026. Sticker acquisition methods and shop pricing may change with updates.

Most Pokemon GO players know stickers exist. Fewer know there are seven different ways to get them, or that some stickers are only available through physical Pokémon TCG card boxes. And quite a few have spent Pokécoins on stickers they didn’t need to buy. This guide covers every acquisition method, explains exactly how the sending mechanic works, and tells you when stickers actually matter — versus when they’re just decoration.

Quick Start: Stickers in 5 Steps

1. Open Gifts from friends — you’ll collect stickers automatically as a random drop
2. Spin PokéStops, especially during active events, for themed stickers
3. Go to your Friends list, select a friend, tap Send Gift
4. Tap Add Sticker before confirming to attach one to the postcard
5. Once sent, the sticker disappears from your inventory — it’s a one-use consumable

What Are Pokemon GO Stickers?

Stickers are decorative items introduced on June 11, 2020 that you can attach to Gift postcards before sending them to friends. [1] When your friend opens the Gift, they see your sticker on the postcard — and they can save that postcard (sticker included) to their Postcard Book. [4]

There are over 574 distinct stickers in the catalog, [3] organized around a few broad groups:

• Permanent stickers — starter Pokémon (Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle), Pikachu variants, Ditto — available year-round
• Event stickers — Community Day, GO Fest, Halloween, holidays, Valentine’s Day — limited to their event windows
• Collaboration stickers — Ed Sheeran, Detective Pikachu Returns, Pokémon TCG tie-ins
• GO Rocket stickers — Arlo, Cliff, Sierra, Giovanni, and the three Team Leaders

Stickers don’t occupy your Item Bag. You can hold up to 25 of each individual sticker type. [1]

How Stickers Work: The Mechanics

Stickers are single-use consumables. When you send a Gift with a sticker attached, that sticker disappears from your inventory immediately. [2] Many players assume stickers work like badges or cosmetics they keep permanently — they don’t. Each sticker is spent on one send, which is why farming them passively matters more than most guides suggest.

How to attach a sticker when sending a Gift:

1. Open your Friends list
2. Tap a friend’s name to open their profile
3. Tap Send Gift and choose a postcard from your collection
4. Tap Add Sticker — this appears before you confirm the send
5. Select your sticker. You can swap it before confirming.
6. Tap Send — the sticker is deducted from your inventory

Stickers carry no gameplay bonuses. They don’t improve the items inside the Gift, don’t increase XP, and don’t affect friendship levels directly. One situation changes this: research tasks. Some Timed Research and Special Research tasks specifically require you to “Send X Gifts with Stickers.” When those tasks are active, stickers shift from optional decoration to a functional requirement.

When to attach a sticker — decision guide:

• Active research task requires stickered gifts → attach stickers, clear the task
• No active task, friend approaching a friendship milestone → use a Lucky Egg first, then send Gifts; stickers are irrelevant to the XP timing (see our friendship levels guide for milestone XP values)
• No task, already Best Friends → purely cosmetic; attach if you want, skip if your sticker supply is low

Every Way to Get Stickers

Eight confirmed acquisition methods exist. Most players use only two or three without realizing the others exist.

What to prioritize by player type:

Practical Tips for Using Stickers Well

Don’t buy stickers from the Shop unless you’re stuck on a deadline. At 35 Pokécoins for 10, you’re spending 3.5 Pokécoins per sticker. The daily gym defender bonus is capped at 50 Pokécoins — that covers only 14 stickers. Free methods supply most active players without any Shop spending. Those same Pokécoins buy more meaningful upgrades: item bag expansion, Incubators, or Poffins. [5]

Stock up during Community Days. Community Day exclusive stickers are only available from PokéStop spins during the event window. Spin aggressively on the day itself. Once the event ends, those stickers leave the standard rotation and aren’t reliably restocked. [3]

Don’t overlook the GO Plus+ source. If you own the Pokémon GO Plus+ accessory and use it for sleep tracking, you earn stickers from recorded sessions. This is one of the most consistently missed acquisition methods — players log sleep for egg hatching distance bonuses and forget the sticker drops entirely. [3]

Pre-stock before starting research tasks. If a Timed Research task requires “Send 5 Gifts with Stickers,” you need 5 stickers in inventory before you start. Don’t begin the task on an empty sticker supply — you’ll need to pause and farm, which costs time on timed tasks. Check your inventory count before activating any task with sticker requirements.

Swap stickers before confirming. The Add Sticker screen lets you switch your choice before the Gift is sent. If you tap a sticker by mistake, tap it again to deselect or choose a different one. Once you confirm the send, the sticker is gone — there’s no undo.

Common Mistakes With Pokemon GO Stickers

Buying stickers and regretting the Pokécoin spend. This is the single most common sticker mistake. Almost every player who buys from the Shop later realizes free methods keep them well-stocked. The only defensible reason to buy is an active research task with a tight deadline and zero stickers in inventory.

Not knowing stickers disappear on send. If you expect a sticker to persist like a profile badge, you’ll be confused when it’s gone after one Gift. This is by design — each sticker is spent, not borrowed. [2] New players frequently ask “where did my sticker go?” after their first send. Now you know: it transferred to the recipient’s postcard.

Sending a Gift without a sticker when a research task requires one. Once a Gift is sent, you can’t retroactively attach a sticker. There’s no recall or undo. If you’re working through research tasks, check your active tasks before sending any Gifts — sending unstickered Gifts mid-task just means you need more Gifts later.

Ignoring event sticker windows. Event stickers have hard end dates. If you don’t spin during the Community Day or seasonal event, those stickers are simply gone. Players who spin casually often realize mid-collection that a themed sticker they wanted expired last week.

Child accounts unable to send stickers. Accounts registered for players under 13 have social features restricted by default. Sticker sending specifically requires a parent or guardian to enable it via the Niantic Kids Parent Portal or the Pokémon Trainer Central website. [2] If a young player can’t attach stickers to Gifts, this restriction is almost certainly the reason.

FAQ

Do stickers affect what’s inside a Gift?

No. Stickers are purely decorative — they appear on the postcard, not inside the Gift. The items (Poké Balls, Potions, Berries, Stardust) are determined by which PokéStop the Gift came from, not by what sticker you added. [1] Don’t let the visual of “decorating” a Gift mislead you into thinking it improves the contents. The only time stickers matter mechanically is when a research task specifically requires them — and in that context, any sticker type counts, so use the most common ones you have.

Can I get event stickers after the event ends?

Generally no. Community Day and seasonal event stickers are only available from PokéStop spins and Gift openings during their associated event window. [3] Once the event ends, they leave the active drop pool. The Shop occasionally re-lists past event stickers, but this isn’t guaranteed or predictable. If you want a specific themed sticker — a Community Day design, a GO Fest variant — the time to farm it is during the event, not after. The 574+ catalog means dozens of sticker types are effectively no longer obtainable for players who missed their original windows.

Is there any point in sending stickers to a Best Friend?

Mechanically, no — Best Friends is the maximum friendship tier and stickers don’t affect it. But Best Friends still benefit from exchanging Gifts (item replenishment for both players, Stardust bonuses during certain events), and attaching a sticker signals you’re an active sender rather than someone who just taps through the interface. Some players specifically prefer receiving Gifts with stickers as a sign of effort. Whether that matters to you depends on how you play. If your sticker supply is thin and you have no research tasks requiring them, skip it and save for when they count.

Sources

[1] Sticker (GO) — Bulbapedia
[2] What are Gift stickers? — Niantic Help Center
[3] Stickers — Serebii.net
[4] Sending & Receiving Gifts — Niantic Help Center
[5] Pokemon GO: Should You Buy Stickers? — GameRant