How to Get PokéCoins in Pokémon Go?

PokéCoins can be obtained by exchanging them for actual money or by defending a Gym in-game. There are price ratios for actual money and there is a 50-coin maximum per day if you defend a Gym long enough. There was a temporary method of obtaining some coins by doing some tasks, but that has since been removed.

This article is going to give you a detailed guide on how to obtain PokéCoins in Pokémon Go. You’re going to find out how to obtain them through Gyms and every other method of obtaining PokéCoins in the game. We’ve gathered all the known and available information in one place to serve as your ultimate guide.

How to get PokéCoins in Pokémon Go?

There are currently two active methods of obtaining PokéCoins in the game. The first one is by exchanging actual money for PokéCoin bundles (see below), while the other is by defending a Gym in-game for a certain amount of time (see below). These two methods will be explained in more detail in the paragraphs that follow.

For a certain amount of time, there was an additional method of obtaining PokéCoins in-game but it was eventually discontinued because of, as Niantic explained, negative player feedback. What was that method? Let us see.

Niantic’s first information on the new method was revealed during this release:

Trainers,

Right now, the only way to earn PokéCoins is to defend Gyms. But since Pokémon GO’s release, we’ve added features that have vastly changed the way you play. In addition, with more Trainers playing at home, we’re looking to provide more ways for you to earn PokéCoins while playing in one place. So, in the future, we’ll be rewarding you with PokéCoins for activities besides defending Gyms. We’ll soon be testing this update only with Trainers in Australia, and it’ll be coming to all Trainers after this testing phase.

In order to balance this new method of earning PokéCoins, the number of PokéCoins earned from defending Gyms will be reduced from six per hour to two. The maximum number of PokéCoins you can earn in a day will be increased to 55.

Here are some of the daily activities you might see. Complete the featured activities each day to receive five PokéCoins!

Make an Excellent Throw

Evolve a Pokémon

Make a Great Throw

Use a Berry to help catch a Pokémon

Take a snapshot of your buddy

Catch a Pokémon

Power up a Pokémon

Make a Nice Throw

Transfer a Pokémon

Win a raid

After the initial rollout in Australia, an update was made on June 11, 2020:

In response to community feedback, we’re updating the current PokéCoin rewards test for Trainers in Australia. When this update goes live, the following changes will be implemented.The maximum number of PokéCoins earned per day will be 50.

The number of PokéCoins earned from defending Gyms will be six per hour.

The maximum number of PokéCoins earned per day from defending Gyms will be 30.

The number of PokéCoins earned per day from completing the featured activities in the Today View will be 20.

The world of Pokémon GO has more ways than ever for Trainers to play, and we are hoping to provide more Trainers the opportunity to earn PokéCoins through a wider variety of gameplay. We will continue to listen to Trainer feedback as we make updates to the PokéCoin rewards system. Stay tuned and stay safe!

It seemed that the whole concept worked for the next month and a half, especially when a new update hit fans on August 4, 2020, which talked about the expansion of the method in other countries:

We’ve seen some promising results from the limited PokéCoin-rewards test and have found that more Trainers are receiving free PokéCoins than ever before. Trainers who cannot readily access Gyms have been able to earn PokéCoins through a wider variety of featured activities.

In response to positive community feedback and these results, we’re updating the current PokéCoin-rewards test for Trainers in Australia as well as expanding this test to Germany, New Zealand, and Taiwan. The update introduces Team GO Rocket–related tasks to the daily activities you can complete to earn PokéCoins.

The world of Pokémon GO has more ways than ever for Trainers to play, and we’re hoping to use the expanded range of activities to provide more Trainers the opportunity to earn PokéCoins. We will continue to listen to Trainer feedback as we make updates to the PokéCoin-rewards system. Stay tuned and stay safe!

And then, just as fans were expecting to see the new system being released worldwide, a new update was released on October 27, 2020:

Based on Trainer feedback and collected data, this PokéCoin-rewards test will be discontinued in all test countries (Australia, Germany, New Zealand, and Taiwan). The PokéCoin-rewards system in those countries will revert to the existing system on Thursday, November 5, 2020, at 11:59 p.m. local time. We appreciate Trainers’ participation in the test, and we’ll continue to look for ways to improve how players can earn PokéCoins.

Niantic suddenly discontinued its program after almost five months without any details given. This limited the players’ ability to earn PokéCoins in game but as it seems from this point of view, no one’s been particularly sad to see this system go.

This left us with the two above-mentioned methods of obtaining PokéCoins in the game and we can now continue with some detailed explanation on how these exact methods work in-game.

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How do you get PokéCoins from the Gym?

The main in-game method of obtaining PokéCoins is by defending Gyms. Gyms are an integral part of the game and they are Team-based, with one Team controlling one specific Gym at one point in time.

Gyms can be taken and retaken, and the player leaves their Pokémon inside the Gym to defend it. The longer the Pokémon stays there before being kicked out, the better. The player will receive a reward in the form of PokéCoins for their Pokémon staying in a Gym for a long(er) time.

Namely, when a Defender is knocked out of a Gym, the player will receive 1 PokéCoin for every 10 minutes the Pokémon spent defending the Gym, rounded down, of course. However, the daily limit is set at 50 PokéCoins which can be earned this way, which would require a cumulative 8 hours and 20 minutes spent while defending a Gym.

Earnings toward the daily limit apply to the day the Defender Pokémon is knocked out of the Gym, not the day it was put there to defend it. If a Pokémon was placed in the Gym on Monday night, for example, and it was knocked out Tuesday morning, the PokéCoins earned will count towards Tuesday’s daily limit.

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How to get PokéCoins without the Gym?

The only way to obtain PokéCoins without the Gym-based method is by exchanging actual money for them. You have to link your account to the game and pay some money to get a certain amount of coins. The PokéCoins are sold in several different bundles, as follows (data for several countries provided):

How to get PokéCoins for free?

Aside from the Gym-based method, which is completely free, there is no other free method of obtaining PokéCoins. You’ll find a lot of guides and generators online, but they’re all fake or illegal, so unless you want to cheat or break the law, you won’t have much luck with them.

We strongly discourage you from doing so and encourage you to follow the regular methods as we have described above.

How long does it take to get PokéCoins in Pokémon Go?

If you’re aiming to get PokéCoins from the Gym, your Pokémon needs to be at least 10 minutes in a Gym for you to receive 1 PokéCoin. The amount of PokéCoins increases with each additional 10 minutes and goes up to a maximum of 50 PokéCoins per day. If you’re exchanging them for real money, you’ll get them immediately after clearing payment.