Trading is one of Pokemon GO's most social and strategically important features. Whether you're chasing a lucky Legendary, completing your Pokedex, or hunting perfect IVs, understanding how trading works — and how to work the system — can save you millions of Stardust and dramatically improve your roster. This guide covers everything you need to know about Pokemon GO trading in 2026: mechanics, costs, Lucky Pokemon, and tips that experienced players actually use.
What Is Trading in Pokemon GO?
Trading lets two Pokemon GO players exchange Pokemon with each other. Unlike the main series games, trading in Pokemon GO doesn't require a cable or local wireless — but it does require proximity to your trading partner (or a special Lucky Friends status for remote trades). When you trade, both Pokemon undergo a full IV reroll, and the Stardust cost varies dramatically depending on your friendship level and what kind of Pokemon you're trading.
Trading was introduced in June 2018 and has since become a core part of the game's economy. It's tied directly to the friendship system, which means the longer you play with someone, the cheaper and more rewarding your trades become. If you play regularly with a local group or have close in-game friends, trading becomes one of the most powerful tools available to you.
How Pokemon GO Trading Works
Requirements to Start Trading
Before your first trade, you need to meet these baseline requirements:
- Trainer Level 10 or higher — both players must meet this threshold
- Friends in-game — you must have added each other via trainer code, QR code, or nearby discovery
- Physical proximity — standard trades require both players to be within 100 meters of each other
- Enough Stardust — the cost varies widely based on friendship level and what you're trading
There is a daily trade limit of 100 trades per day. In practice, the Stardust costs make hitting that limit unrealistic for most players, but the cap exists. Special Trades — which cover Legendaries, Shinies, and new Pokedex entries — are further capped at 1 per day (occasionally raised to 2 during events).
Distance Requirements
Standard trades require you to be within 100 meters of your trading partner. This means you need to be physically near each other — at a raid, a park, or any nearby location. During special events like Community Days and anniversary celebrations, Niantic has occasionally extended this distance to up to 40 kilometers, which makes it possible to trade with friends across a neighborhood or small city.
Remote trading is available under a specific condition: if you and a friend achieve Lucky Friends status, your guaranteed Lucky Trade can be completed at any distance. This is the only reliable way to trade long-distance without attending a shared event. For more on how Lucky Friends work, see the Lucky Pokemon section below.
Friendship Levels and Stardust Costs
Your friendship level with another player is the single biggest factor in how much Stardust you'll pay to trade. There are four tiers, each unlocked by accumulating friendship points through gifts, raids, battles, and Gym interactions:
- Good Friends — unlocked after adding each other and a short interaction period
- Great Friends — approximately 2–3 days of interactions
- Ultra Friends — approximately 30 days of consistent interaction
- Best Friends — approximately 90 days of daily interaction
The cost difference between Good Friends and Best Friends is enormous. Here's the full breakdown:
| Trade Type | Good Friend | Great Friend | Ultra Friend | Best Friend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Pokemon (both registered) | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Standard Pokemon (new to one player) | 20,000 | 16,000 | 1,600 | 800 |
| Legendary or Shiny (both registered) | 20,000 | 16,000 | 1,600 | 800 |
| Legendary or Shiny (new to one player — Special Trade) | 1,000,000 | 800,000 | 80,000 | 40,000 |
The practical takeaway: never do a Special Trade at Good or Great Friend level if you can possibly avoid it. Reaching Ultra Friends before trading a new Legendary saves you 920,000 Stardust. Reaching Best Friends saves you 960,000. Given that even heavy players accumulate Stardust slowly, these numbers are meaningful.
For regular Pokemon that are already in both players' Pokedexes, the 100 Stardust cost is negligible regardless of friendship level. The friendship system mainly matters for Special Trades and new Pokedex entries.
What Counts as a Special Trade?
A Special Trade is triggered when the trade involves:
- Legendary Pokemon (Mewtwo, Rayquaza, Zacian, etc.)
- Shiny Pokemon
- Pokemon not yet registered in one player's Pokedex
Special Trades are limited to 1 per day by default, with occasional event boosts to 2. Plan these carefully — once you've used your daily Special Trade, that's it until the next reset at midnight local time.
Note that Mythical Pokemon cannot be traded at all. This includes Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Meltan, and others. Similarly, Shadow Pokemon cannot be traded — you must purify a Shadow Pokemon before it becomes eligible for trading. Purified Pokemon cost slightly less Stardust to power up and have a 10/10/10 IV floor, which is something to factor in before trading a Shadow.
What Happens to IVs During a Trade?
This is one of the most misunderstood mechanics in Pokemon GO: all three IVs are completely rerolled when a Pokemon is traded. The original IVs have no bearing on the result. You can trade a 100 IV Mewtwo and receive one with 30/30/30, or trade a weak one and receive near-perfect stats. Moves, gender, height, and weight do not change during a trade.
What does change the IV outcome is your friendship level, which affects the minimum IV floor each value can roll:
- Good / Great / Ultra Friends: IV floor of 0 — any value from 0 to 15 is possible
- Best Friends: IV floor of 5 — each IV rolls between 5 and 15
- Lucky Pokemon: IV floor of 12 — each IV rolls between 12 and 15
The odds of a perfect 15/15/15 (hundo) from a Best Friends trade are 1 in 1,331. From a Lucky Pokemon trade, those odds improve dramatically to 1 in 64. This is why Lucky Trades are so valuable for competitive players chasing perfect IVs.
Because IVs are rerolled, never trade a Pokemon you've spent Stardust powering up based on its IVs — those IVs will be gone after the trade.
Trade Evolutions
In the main series Pokemon games, certain species could only evolve by being traded. Pokemon GO includes this mechanic with a twist: if a trade-eligible Pokemon is traded to you, it can be evolved for free (0 Candy required). The evolution button will appear immediately after a qualifying trade.
Pokemon with trade evolutions in Pokemon GO include:
- Kadabra → Alakazam
- Haunter → Gengar
- Graveler → Golem (and Alolan Graveler → Alolan Golem)
- Machoke → Machamp
- Boldore → Gigalith
- Gurdurr → Conkeldurr
- Karrablast → Escavalier
- Shelmet → Accelgor
If you haven't traded one of these Pokemon, you'll need the standard Candy cost to evolve it. Trading removes that cost entirely, making it a good use of a regular 100 Stardust trade if you can find someone with the same Pokemon to swap.
Trading also earns you bonus Candy based on the distance between where each Pokemon was originally caught. Trades between Pokemon caught far apart (over 100 km) give up to 3 bonus Candies. This stacks with other bonus systems and is worth keeping in mind if you're working on a rare species with a partner in another region. If you're farming Candy for a Legendary you're planning to power up, check out the XL Candy guide for the full picture on Candy management.
Lucky Pokemon and Lucky Trades
Lucky Pokemon are a special category with two distinct advantages: they have a guaranteed minimum IV of 12 in all three stats (attack, defense, HP), and they cost 50% less Stardust to power up. For high-CP Pokemon that require 200,000+ Stardust to max, that discount is enormous. A Lucky Mewtwo or Rayquaza costs roughly half the Stardust of a standard one to power to Level 50.
How to Get Lucky Pokemon
There are three ways to get Lucky Pokemon:
1. Random chance during any trade. Every trade has a base probability of producing a Lucky Pokemon. This probability increases based on how long the traded Pokemon has been in the trainer's storage — older Pokemon have a higher lucky chance. Pokemon caught in 2020 or earlier have a notably higher base rate.
2. Lucky Friends. When two players are Best Friends, each daily interaction has approximately a 3% chance of triggering Lucky Friends status. This status means your next trade between those two players is guaranteed to produce two Lucky Pokemon — one for each player. Lucky Friends trades can be performed remotely (no proximity required), making this the primary way to trade at a distance. After the guaranteed Lucky Trade, Lucky Friends status resets, and you'll need to trigger it again through future interactions.
To maximize your chances of becoming Lucky Friends, open gifts, battle together in Gyms and raids, and participate in party play with your Best Friends daily. Each interaction is another roll of the Lucky Friends dice.
3. Guaranteed Lucky Trades. Niantic has a system where trainers who have used fewer than 45 guaranteed Lucky Trades can trigger one by trading a Pokemon that was caught in 2020 or earlier. In January 2026, the eligibility window was expanded from 2016–2017 Pokemon to include 2020, and the lifetime cap was raised from 35 to 45 trades. If you have old Pokemon sitting in your storage, these are extremely valuable — each one is a potential guaranteed Lucky for you or a trading partner.
To use a guaranteed Lucky Trade: find a Best Friend who has fewer than 45 guaranteed Luckies on their account, and trade them a Pokemon that was caught in 2020 or earlier. The Pokemon selected by the older-Pokemon holder will be guaranteed Lucky for both players in that trade.
Practical Tips for Trading
Build Best Friends before big trades. The Stardust difference between Good Friends and Best Friends on a Special Trade is nearly 1 million Stardust. If you know you want to trade a Legendary or Shiny with someone, spend 3 months building friendship first. Send gifts daily — it's the lowest-friction way to build friendship without needing to meet up.
Save old Pokemon for guaranteed Lucky Trades. If you have Pokemon in your storage from 2016 through 2020, don't transfer them without checking if they qualify for a guaranteed Lucky Trade. These are a depletable resource — once you hit 45, the guarantee is gone. Use them strategically on high-value Pokemon you actually want to power up.
Use the distance candy bonus. When trading with a partner far away — even just across the city — you earn bonus Candy based on the distance between catch locations. For species where Candy is scarce, this small bonus adds up over many trades. It's a free benefit that requires no extra effort.
Trade before evolving, not after. If you're planning to trade a Kadabra, Haunter, Machoke, or other trade-evolution species, trade it before you spend Candy evolving it. The free evolution post-trade saves you the full Candy cost. Trading an already-evolved Alakazam gives you nothing extra.
Coordinate Special Trades in advance. Since you only get one Special Trade per day, plan them with your trading partner ahead of time. Decide which Pokemon you're swapping, confirm both players have enough Stardust, and pick a day when you can both meet (or leverage Lucky Friends status for remote trading).
Keep your daily gift sends consistent. The friendship system rewards daily interaction. Sending a gift takes seconds and adds a friendship point. Over a few months, this gets you to Best Friends with your most-traded partners, which unlocks the best Stardust rates and maximizes your IV floors. For more on managing your in-game relationships, see the best buddy guide — the friendship systems are linked.
Attend Community Days and trading events. Niantic regularly extends the trading distance from 100 meters to several kilometers during Community Days and special events. These windows are ideal for trading with players you'd otherwise need to meet in person. Check the in-game event calendar and the official Pokemon GO blog before these events.
Batch your low-cost trades. Standard trades (100 Stardust each) can be done in bulk with almost no planning. If you and a friend both have a box of commons you're going to transfer anyway, swapping them first gives you a small chance at a lucky result and earns distance candy. There's no reason not to trade junk before transferring.
Common Trading Mistakes to Avoid
Trading powered-up Pokemon. This is the most expensive mistake in the game. If you've invested 100,000 Stardust powering up a Dragonite and then trade it, all of that Stardust is gone. The recipient gets a fresh Pokemon with new IVs at its base CP. Never trade a Pokemon you've powered up — the Stardust investment transfers to nothing.
Doing Special Trades at low friendship levels. Trading a Shiny or Legendary with a Good Friend costs up to 1,000,000 Stardust for an unregistered Pokemon. At Best Friends, that drops to 40,000. There's almost never a reason to rush — if the friendship isn't there yet, wait. The only exception is time-limited Pokemon that won't be available later, and even then, consider whether the Stardust cost is worth it at your current friendship level.
Assuming traded IVs will be similar to original IVs. IVs are fully randomized during a trade. A common misconception is that a high-IV Pokemon will produce a high-IV trade result. It won't. The only way to influence post-trade IVs is through friendship level (Best Friends raises the floor to 5) or Lucky status (floor of 12).
Forgetting to check Lucky Friends status before meeting up. Lucky Friends status can trigger at any time during a daily interaction, and it resets after one trade. Check your friends list before heading to a trade meetup — if you've accidentally become Lucky Friends with someone, you'll want to know so you can use that trade on something valuable rather than a throwaway.
Trading Pokemon marked as Favorites or set as current Buddy. Pokemon set as Favorites cannot be traded. Your current Buddy Pokemon also cannot be traded. If a trade isn't going through, check whether the Pokemon is favorited or currently active as your Buddy — unfavoriting or swapping your Buddy resolves the issue.
Overlooking trade evolution candidates. Many players spend Candy evolving Haunter, Machoke, and Graveler without realizing they could have traded them first for a free evolution. Before spending Candy on any Pokemon, check if it has a trade evolution available. If it does, find a trade partner — it's worth the 100 Stardust to save the Candy.
Not tracking your guaranteed Lucky Trade count. You have a lifetime limit of 45 guaranteed Lucky Trades. Once you hit that cap, no more guarantees are available. Some players burn through these trades on low-value Pokemon without realizing the limit exists. Save your guaranteed Luckies for Pokemon you actually intend to power up to high levels, where the 50% Stardust discount makes the most financial sense.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you trade Pokemon remotely in Pokemon GO?
Standard trades require both players to be within 100 meters of each other. The main exception is the Lucky Friends guaranteed Lucky Trade, which can be completed at any distance. During special events, Niantic extends the trade distance to several kilometers, but this applies only within those event windows. Outside of Lucky Friends and event periods, you need to physically be near your trading partner.
Do traded Pokemon keep their IVs?
No. All three IVs are completely rerolled during a trade. The original IVs of both Pokemon have no influence on the results. The minimum possible IV for each stat depends on your friendship level: 0 at Good through Ultra Friends, 5 at Best Friends, and 12 for Lucky Pokemon. If you want the best post-trade IVs, trade as Best Friends or better yet, use a Lucky Friends trade on a Pokemon you plan to max out.
How do you get a guaranteed Lucky Pokemon in Pokemon GO?
There are two guaranteed paths. First, achieve Lucky Friends status with a Best Friend (roughly a 3% chance per daily interaction) — your next trade with that friend guarantees both Pokemon come out Lucky. Second, if you have a Pokemon caught in 2020 or earlier in your storage and you've used fewer than 45 guaranteed Lucky Trades on your account, trading that old Pokemon triggers a guaranteed Lucky result for both participants. Both methods produce Lucky Pokemon with a 12/12/12 IV floor and 50% Stardust power-up discount.