Pokemon Home: Price, Features and Everything You Need to Know – CNET

If you’re a longtime Pokemon fan, you’ve likely captured hundreds of pocket monsters over the years. That makes Pokemon Home an essential resource.

This cloud service for Nintendo Switch and mobile devices offers a convenient way to organize all the Pokemon you’ve caught in different games and bring them into more recent titles, including the upcoming Pokemon Scarlet and Violet versions. 

Here’s a full rundown on the service, from how much it costs to all the different features it offers on each platform.

What is Pokemon Home?

Like Pokemon Bank for the Nintendo 3DS, Pokemon Home is a cloud service that lets you store Pokemon you’ve caught over the years in one place and transfer them between compatible games. The service also offers a few ancillary features, including the ability to trade Pokemon with other players, view detailed information about your monsters, and check out battle data for Pokemon Sword and Shield competitions you’ve participated in.

How much does Pokemon Home cost?

Pokemon Home is available in two plans: Free and premium.

The free tier offers access to most of the service’s features, albeit in limited capacity. With this plan, you can only store a maximum of 30 Pokemon on the service, and only one Pokemon can be deposited on the Global Trade System at a time.

The premium tier, on the other hand, offers significantly more storage space. This plan allows you to store up to 6,000 Pokemon, and up to three monsters can be deposited on the Global Trade System at one time. The premium plan is also required to transfer Pokemon over from Pokemon Bank on the 3DS.

There are three different payment options for Pokemon Home’s premium plan:

• One month – $3 USD
• Three months – $5 USD
• 12 months – $16 USD

One important thing to note is that the Pokemon Home premium plan is separate from Nintendo Switch Online. Each service requires its own subscription. You can see the full list of features each Pokemon Home plan offers below:

Pokemon Home – Free vs. Paid Plan Features

Description	Free plan	Paid plan
Move Pokemon from Pokemon Bank	Unavailable	Available
Number of Pokemon that can be deposited	30 Pokemon	600 Pokemon
Number of Pokemon that can be placed in the Wonder Box at once	3 Pokemon	10 Pokemon
Number of Pokemon that can be placed in the GTS at once	1 Pokemon	3 Pokemon
Room Trade	Participate	Participate and host
Judge function	Unavailable	Available

Which games are compatible with Pokemon Home?

At the moment, Pokemon Home is compatible with Pokemon Go, as well as the following Nintendo Switch games:

• Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu/Let’s Go, Eevee
• Pokemon Sword/Shield

In the future, the service will add support for Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, Pokemon Legends: Arceus, and the upcoming Pokemon Scarlet and Violet games. 

Thanks to the ability to transfer Pokemon over from Pokemon Bank, Pokemon Home can also store monsters from the following 3DS games:

• Pokemon X/Y
• Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire
• Pokemon Sun/Moon
• Pokemon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon
• Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow (Virtual Console version)
• Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal (Virtual Console version)

What’s different between the Nintendo Switch and mobile versions?

Pokemon Home is available on both Nintendo Switch and mobile devices, and each version of the service boasts some unique features and functionality. 

On Nintendo Switch, you can use Pokemon Home to move Pokemon between compatible games. You can also exchange Pokemon Home Points you’ve accrued by using the service for Battle Points, which can then be used to purchase certain rare items at the Battle Tower in Pokemon Sword and Shield.

The mobile version of Pokemon Home, meanwhile, lets you trade with other players. You can search for specific Pokemon you’d like through the Global Trade System, randomly trade with other users using the Wonder Box, or trade directly with friends locally. The mobile version also displays battle data for Pokemon Sword and Shield online competitions, as well as notifications and details about Pokemon moves and abilities.

Pokemon Home – Switch vs. Mobile Features

Feature	Nintendo Switch version	Mobile version
Move Pokemon with Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu / Let’s Go, Eevee	Available	Unavailable
Move Pokemon with Pokemon Sword / Shield	Available	Unavailable
Move Pokemon with Pokemon Bank	Available	Available
Judge Pokemon	Available	Available
Trade Pokemon	Unavailable	Available
Receive Mystery Gifts	Unavailable	Available
Check battle data	Unavailable	Available
Check news	Unavailable	Available
Exchange Pokemon Home Points for Battle Points	Available	Unavailable

How to transfer Pokemon

Pokemon Home’s headlining feature is the ability to store Pokemon and move them between compatible games. Check out our guide on how to transfer Pokemon for a detailed breakdown on the process.

As mentioned, Pokemon Home is still being expanded. The service will add support for other Pokemon games later this year, including Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and Pokemon Legends: Arceus. The service will also be compatible with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, which are slated to launch for Switch in late 2022.