How to transfer from Pokémon GO to Pokémon Home

After being announced earlier this year, Pokémon GO’s integration with storage service Pokémon Home is officially being rolled out. 

Pokémon Home launched earlier this year and allows players to move monsters between certain Pokémon titles, namely Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee and Sword and Shield. 

For a while Pokémon GO was the only major Pokémon title which wasn’t compatible, although that has all changed following a new update. 

So how can you transfer Pokémon between the platforms? And is there any caveats? Here’s what you need to know. 

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How to transfer between Pokémon GO and Pokémon Home

Here's how to transfer your monsters (Picture: Pokemon)

Before you transfer, you need to have linked your mobile version of Pokémon Home to your Nintendo Account. 

If you want to transfer these Pokémon to your Nintendo Switch version of Pokémon Home, you’ll also need to make sure your mobile version and Switch version are linked to the same Nintendo Account. 

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You can find out more information about linking to the same Pokémon Boxes across mobile and Nintendo Switch on the official support page here. 

Connect Pokémon GO to your Pokémon Home account

You’ll then need to link your Pokémon GO account to the same Nintendo Account you’ve used to connect to your mobile Pokémon Home account. You can do this by following the steps below. 

1. On Pokémon Go, tap the Poke Ball icon and select ‘Settings’
2. In ‘Settings’, select ‘Pokémon Home’ and sign in
3. Log into your Nintendo Account and make sure the Player Name and Support ID match those for your Pokémon Home account

How to transfer

Before you transfer, it’s important to note Pokémon can only be transferred from Pokémon GO to Pokémon Home and cannot be returned to Pokémon GO. 

This feature will also only be initially available to trainers who have hit level 40, although Niantic is set to roll it out to other players in the near future. 

Here's the Go Transporter (Picture: Niantic)

Now your device is connected to Pokémon Home, follow the below steps to transfer Pokémon. 

1. In Pokémon GO, tap the Poke Ball icon and select ‘Settings’
2. In ‘Settings’, select Pokémon Home and sign in to your Nintendo Account
3. Select ‘Send Pokémon’ 
4. On the GO Transporter Energy page, select “Continue” (noting how long it’ll take to recharge)
5. Select the Pokémon you want to transfer and hit ‘Next’
6. You’ll then be shown how much energy the transfer will cost. If you’re happy select ‘Transport’
7. To complete the process, boot up Pokémon Home and when prompted, select to receive the Pokémon you’ve just sent
8. Congratulations, you’ve transferred from Pokémon GO to Pokémon Home!

What are the transfer costs between Pokémon Go and Pokémon Home?

There are some significant caveats to moving Pokemon from Go to Home (Picture: Niantic)

There’s varying transfer costs dependent on what type of Pokémon you’re sending, whether they're Shiny, and their CP number.  

The Go Transporter has a 10,000 energy capacity, which gains 60 energy an hour. Each Pokémon you send will deplete this energy, so you’ll have to wait for it to recharge once it’s used up. 

You can check out a full breakdown of the energy costs for Pokémon below. 

Standard Pokémon

• Base: 10
• Shiny: +1990
• CP 1001-2000: +100
• CP 2001+: +300

Legendary Pokémon

• Base: 1000
• Shiny: +9000
• CP 1001-2000: +300
• CP 2001+: +500

Mythical Pokémon

• Base: 2000
• Shiny: +8000
• CP 1001-2000: +500
• CP 2001+: +700

If you fully deplete the transfer energy in one go, it will take 6 days and 23 hours to fully restore.

If you don’t mind buckling to payment, you can also restore energy using 1 coin for every 10 energy - therefore requiring 1,000 coins for a full recharge. 

Considering you can only send over five Shiny Pokemon in one batch per week, it's a very limited system likely to receive some blowback from the community.