Trading
Player-to-player Pokémon trading — when it unlocks and how the level cap works
Trading lets two players swap Pokémon (and tradeable items) directly, party-to-party. It’s gated behind a Trainer-Level requirement, and once unlocked the Pokémon you can give or receive are still capped by your Trainer Level.
Unlock requirement
Trading unlocks at Trainer Level 10. Both you and the player you’re trading with must be Trainer Level 10 or higher — if either side is below, the trade window won’t open and you’ll get the “You must be trainer level 10 to trade Pokémon” message.
A few extra gates apply on top of the level requirement:
- Neither player can be in an active battle.
- Neither player can have an active challenge running.
- Neither player can have an increased difficulty active.
- On Survival, Pokémon obtained during a previous season cannot be traded.
Pokémon level cap
Each side of a trade is checked against the maximum wild-encounter level for their Trainer Level, in the current generation. A Pokémon can only change hands if its level is ≤ that cap on both the sending and receiving sides — so the lower of the two players’ caps is the one that actually binds the trade.
If the cap blocks a transfer, the rejected player is told the highest level they’re allowed to send or receive.
A handful of Pokémon are exempt from being traded at all (the level cap doesn’t even come into it):
- Starters (unless they came from an egg, the rank store, or the egg manager).
- Legendaries, when legendary-trading is disabled server-side.
- Bred Pokémon.
- Purified Pokémon (out of the Purification Lab).
- Pokémon currently assigned to a gym.
- Pokémon flagged untradeable individually (event gifts, the Casey gift, etc.).
- Pokémon the receiving player already owns.
Cap by Trainer Level
The cap depends on which generation you’re playing. Gen 1 hands out higher trade caps early; Gen 2 keeps you at level 6 until very late; Gen 3 onward uses a slower, smoother curve that’s shared across Gen 3, Gen 4, and Gen 5.
Tables start at Trainer Level 10 (the trade unlock). Repetitive tail rows are collapsed.
Gen 1
| Trainer Level | Max tradeable Pokémon level |
|---|---|
| 10 | 30 |
| 11 | 33 |
| 12 | 36 |
| 13 | 38 |
| 14 | 40 |
| 15 | 42 |
| 16 | 44 |
| 17 | 45 |
| 18 | 47 |
| 19 | 49 |
| 20 | 50 |
| 21 | 51 |
| 22 | 52 |
| 23 | 53 |
| 24 | 54 |
| 25 | 55 |
| 26 | 60 |
| 27 | 70 |
| 28 | 80 |
| 29 | 90 |
| 30 | 100 |
Trainer Level 30 is the cap for Gen 1; from there onward the trade ceiling stays at 100.
Gen 2
| Trainer Level | Max tradeable Pokémon level |
|---|---|
| 30 – 31 | 6 |
| 32 | 10 |
| 33 | 14 |
| 34 | 18 |
| 35 | 21 |
| 36 | 26 |
| 37 | 30 |
| 38 | 33 |
| 39 | 36 |
| 40 | 40 |
| 41 | 44 |
| 42 | 47 |
| 43 | 50 |
| 44 | 51 |
| 45 | 52 |
| 46 | 53 |
| 47 | 54 |
| 48 | 55 |
| 49 | 60 |
| 50 | 100 |
Gen 2 picks up where Gen 1 leaves off — your Trainer Level continues from 30 onward. The trade cap holds at level 6 through the first couple of Trainer Levels and doesn’t start climbing until Trainer Level 32. Trainer Level 50 is the Gen 2 cap.
Gen 3, Gen 4, Gen 5
These three generations share the same trade-cap table.
| Trainer Level | Max tradeable Pokémon level |
|---|---|
| 10 | 12 |
| 11 – 12 | 15 |
| 13 – 14 | 18 |
| 15 – 16 | 21 |
| 17 – 18 | 25 |
| 19 – 20 | 28 |
| 21 – 22 | 30 |
| 23 – 24 | 33 |
| 25 – 26 | 36 |
| 27 – 28 | 38 |
| 29 – 30 | 40 |
| 31 – 32 | 44 |
| 33 – 34 | 45 |
| 35 – 36 | 47 |
| 37 – 39 | 49 |
| 40 | 50 |
| 41 | 51 |
| 42 | 52 |
| 43 | 53 |
| 44 | 54 |
| 45 | 55 |
| 46+ | 100 |
Note that the trade unlock at Trainer Level 10 lands you in the 12 bracket on Gen 3+. If you want to trade a higher-level Pokémon to a friend — or receive one — the receiving player’s Trainer Level is what matters most: they need to be high enough that the cap covers the Pokémon being sent.
Where trading happens
/trade <player>opens a trade window with another player on the same server.- In Survival, Trading Machines placed in the world also handle player-to-player trades within a 5-block range of each participant.
Trade evolutions (Kadabra, Machoke, Haunter, Graveler, etc.) trigger automatically the moment the trade completes, just like in mainline games.