Lucky trades in Pokémon GO

Last updated 2026-08-09

A Lucky Pokémon can only be created by trading. Since the New Year's 2026 event, which began on 31 December 2025, any Pokémon that has sat in a Trainer's storage since 2020 is guaranteed to become Lucky when traded, up to a limit of 45 guaranteed Lucky Pokémon per Trainer. Both figures changed at the end of December 2025, which is why most guides still online are wrong.

What is a Lucky Pokémon in Pokémon GO?

A Lucky Pokémon is a Pokémon that turned Lucky during a trade. It gets a sparkling background, costs less Stardust to power up, and has a raised minimum IV floor. Lucky status can only be obtained by trading, never by catching, hatching or raiding, and the Pokedex keeps a record of it.

Niantic's original announcement, Lucky Pokémon Are Ready for a New Adventure (23 July 2018), describes the mechanic in three lines: "Pokémon, when traded, can become sparkly Lucky Pokémon", "The longer the Pokémon spends inside a Trainer's Pokémon storage, the higher the chance of them becoming Lucky Pokémon when they are traded", and "A Lucky Pokémon can be detected by the Pokedex, so you can keep track of them!" That Pokedex record is worth checking before you spend a trade, so you know which species you already hold a Lucky of.

What does being Lucky actually change?

Two things: the Stardust cost to power the Pokémon up drops by half, and the traded Pokémon's IVs are re-rolled with a floor of 12/12/12, meaning at least 80 percent. Species, moveset and level are untouched by Lucky status, and the Pokémon still cannot be traded a second time.

Niantic's own published wording is only that Lucky Pokémon "require less Stardust to power up, which means they can reach a higher CP much faster than other Pokémon." The specific 50 percent figure and the 12/12/12 IV floor are not stated in any Niantic news post we could read; they are documented on Bulbapedia and attributed to the Pokémon GO Help Center by secondary sources, and the Help Center blocks automated retrieval. Treat them as reported rather than first-party quoted. The halved cost is visible on the power-up screen in game, and matters most for a Pokémon you intend to take to level 50. Note that every trade re-rolls IVs, not just a Lucky one, so CP will usually shift on any trade; Lucky only raises the floor of that re-roll.

What are the odds of a normal trade going Lucky?

Niantic has never published the odds. The only official statement is qualitative: the longer a Pokémon has been in a Trainer's storage, the higher the chance it becomes Lucky when traded. Any specific percentage you see quoted is a community estimate, not a Niantic figure.

The percentage tables that circulate, broken down by catch year, all trace back to sampling done by The Silph Road, which shut down in 2023. Nothing authoritative has replaced that work, and the numbers were never confirmed by Niantic in the first place, so we do not repeat them here. Events sometimes add an "increased chance of Lucky trades" bonus; Niantic states the bonus exists but does not publish a base rate or a multiplier, so the effective odds during an event are also unknown.

Which Pokémon are guaranteed to become Lucky when traded?

Any Pokémon that has been in a Trainer's Pokémon storage since 2020, in other words caught in 2020 or earlier, is guaranteed to become Lucky when traded, until the guaranteed Lucky limit is reached. This took effect with the New Year's 2026 event on 31 December 2025 and Niantic states the change is permanent.

The exact wording from Niantic: "if you trade a Pokémon that has been in a Trainer's Pokémon storage since 2020, it is guaranteed to become a Lucky Pokémon until the limit is reached." That sentence is singular, describing one qualifying Pokémon in one Trainer's storage. Catch date is what matters, not species, CP or IVs. This is a separate mechanic from Lucky Friends, which ignores catch date entirely.

What is the guaranteed Lucky trade limit?

45 guaranteed Lucky Pokémon per Trainer. Niantic raised it from 35 to 45 with the New Year's 2026 event, effective 31 December 2025, and called the change permanent. Niantic has never announced a reset, so treat it as a running total.

Niantic's phrasing is "The number of guaranteed Lucky Pokémon a Trainer can receive in a trade has been increased from 35 to 45." The 2018 announcement that introduced the mechanic framed the limit against both trainers in the trade: "If you and your friend have received 10 or more Lucky Pokémon, the guarantee won't be in effect." Later announcements dropped that framing and describe the number as what a Trainer can receive. Once you pass the limit, old Pokémon are no longer guaranteed; they can still turn Lucky at the normal unpublished rate, and Lucky Friends trades still work.

How has the guaranteed Lucky window changed over the years?

The catch-date window and the cap have both moved four times since the mechanic launched in September 2018, from "in storage since July to August 2016, limit 10" to "in storage since 2020, limit 45". Every change was announced as permanent, which is why older guides quoting a 2018 or 2019 cutoff, or a limit of 25 or 35, are simply out of date.

What are Lucky Friends and how is that different?

Lucky Friends is a status two Best Friends can reach. When you are Lucky Friends, the next trade you complete makes both Pokémon Lucky regardless of catch date, and it does not depend on the guaranteed-lucky catch window. After that trade the status drops back to Best Friends.

Niantic's wording, from the March 2019 update that introduced it: "Once you become Best Friends, you will have a chance to become Lucky Friends! You will have this chance once per day when you and your Best Friend trade Pokémon, open a Gift from each other, team up in raids and Gym battles, or challenge each other to a Trainer Battle." The chance itself is not published. Because the status is consumed by a single trade, most players hold it until both sides have picked something worth the Stardust.

What is the Lucky Trinket?

The Lucky Trinket is a one-time-use item that turns one friend on your list into a Lucky Friend without waiting for the daily roll. You must be at least Great Friends with that Trainer, and you cannot use it on someone you are already Lucky Friends with. Niantic also states that using one does not change the distance at which you can complete a trade.

It is currently the final reward in GO Pass Deluxe: August, the paid tier of the GO Pass running from 4 August 2026 at 10:00 a.m. to 8 September 2026 at 10:00 a.m. local time. That Trinket expires on 13 September 2026 at 11:59 p.m. local time regardless of when it is claimed. Trinkets have appeared in earlier GO Passes too, including GO Pass: June 2025 and GO Pass: November 2025, so the item recurs rather than being a one-off, but each one is tied to its own pass and its own expiry date.

Do both trainers get a Lucky Pokémon?

Yes. Lucky applies to the trade rather than to one side of it, so each Trainer walks away with a Lucky Pokémon. For Lucky Friends this is explicit in Niantic's announcement: "the next time you trade with each other, both Pokémon will become Lucky Pokémon."

For the catch-date guarantee, Niantic's phrasing is singular, describing the traded Pokémon that meets the date requirement rather than both Pokémon in the trade. We are not going to assert more than Niantic has said about which side must supply the old Pokémon, or about whose counter the guarantee draws from.

Can you get a Lucky Pokémon from a Remote Trade?

Yes, at least through Lucky Friends. Niantic states plainly that if you are Lucky Friends, your next trade will be Lucky even if it is remote, and that once the trade completes you are no longer Lucky Friends. Remote Trades still never count as Special Trades.

Remote trading unlocks at Forever Friends, the friendship tier reached at 180 friendship points, and each subsequent Remote Trade with the same friend needs another 90 friendship points. The mechanics are covered in full in our guide to remote trading. What Niantic has not addressed is whether the catch-date guarantee, or a random Lucky roll, applies to Remote Trades the same way it applies in person, so we do not assert either.

Which Pokémon should you spend a guaranteed Lucky on?

Something you intend to power up to a high level, since the only mechanical benefits are the Stardust discount and the 12/12/12 IV floor. Legendaries and long-term raid or Master League attackers are the usual targets. Shadow Pokémon cannot be traded at all, and a Pokémon can only be traded once.

Two rules constrain the choice. First, Legendary, Shiny and Purified Pokémon, and any Pokémon not already registered in the receiving Trainer's Pokedex, make a trade a Special Trade, capped at one per day and costing far more Stardust than a standard trade; the full cost table is in our Stardust cost guide, and the tradability matrix covers what is off-limits entirely. Second, a guaranteed Lucky is spent from a pool of 45, so it is worth using an old Pokémon you no longer need as the vehicle rather than one you would keep. Finding someone who still holds 2020-or-earlier Pokémon is the harder half of the problem, which is what PoGo Alley and our guide to finding trading partners are for.