Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter shut down on 26 February 2027 at 03:00 UTC. After that minute there are no more deposits, no more withdrawals and no more moves to Pokémon HOME. Anything still sitting in Bank is gone, with no second chance. That leaves a little over six months to empty your Boxes.
Pokémon Bank, live since February 2014, closes thirteen years later. © 2026 Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/GAME FREAK.
When exactly does Pokémon Bank close?
On 26 February 2027 at 03:00 UTC. Two dates are circulating because the announcement was relayed across three time zones: Nintendo support writes "Thursday, February 25, 2027, at 7:00 p.m. PST", Serebii gives 03:00 UTC on the 26th, and Japan lists noon on the 26th. It is the same instant.
The announcement landed on 13 August 2026, in the same The Pokémon Company post that confirmed Pokémon HOME support for FireRed and LeafGreen. Nintendo support puts it bluntly: "If you have Pokémon stored in Pokémon Bank that you wish to carry over, please move them to Pokémon HOME prior to Pokémon Bank's end of service." No grace period, no reduced mode, no second window.
A useless detail that stings anyway: Bank closes the day before 27 February, the anniversary of the Japanese release of Pokémon Red and Green in 1996.
What actually disappears on 26 February 2027?
Two Nintendo 3DS apps, not one. Pokémon Bank, which stores up to 3,000 Pokémon across 100 online Boxes. And Poké Transporter, the companion app that is the only official bridge between old cartridges and the current ecosystem. Both go dark at the same second.
The second one does the real damage. Bank can be emptied. Poké Transporter simply vanishes with no successor: fifth generation Nintendo DS cartridges and the Virtual Console re-releases of the Game Boy games will have no route into a modern title at all. Whatever sleeps in them stays there.
Both apps were already on borrowed time. When Nintendo cut 3DS online services on 8 April 2024, Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter were the only two pieces of software explicitly spared. Three years later the exception ends.
The official Pokémon Bank diagram: direct deposit for 3DS titles, Poké Transporter for everything else. © 2026 Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/GAME FREAK.
Which games can still reach Pokémon Bank?
The 3DS titles deposit straight into Bank: X and Y, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Sun and Moon, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. Everything else goes through Poké Transporter first, and often through two or three steps before that. Here is what each origin really demands.
| Your Pokémon are in... | The route to Bank | What you need | Per run |
|---|---|---|---|
| X, Y, Omega Ruby, Alpha Sapphire, Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, Ultra Moon | Direct deposit | The 3DS and the cartridge | A whole Box |
| Black, White, Black 2, White 2 (DS cartridge) | Poké Transporter, then Bank | A 3DS and the DS cartridge | 30 Pokémon (Box 1) |
| Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal (3DS Virtual Console) | Poké Transporter, then Bank | The game bought on the 3DS eShop before March 2023 | 20 Pokémon (Box 1) |
| Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, SoulSilver | Poké Transfer to a fifth generation game, then Poké Transporter | Two DS or 3DS systems and both cartridges | 6 Pokémon |
| Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, LeafGreen (GBA cartridge) | Pal Park into generation four, then the whole chain | A DS or DS Lite, the only systems with a Game Boy Advance slot | 6 Pokémon |
The bottom row is the one that hurts. Pal Park needs a dual slot system, so a Nintendo DS or a DS Lite: neither the DSi nor any 3DS has a Game Boy Advance slot. And in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum, migration is capped at 6 Pokémon per source save every 24 hours. That wait disappears in HeartGold and SoulSilver, which makes them the best entry point if you have a stack of GBA cartridges to drain.
Colosseum and XD on GameCube are not dead ends either: they link to a Game Boy Advance cartridge over a link cable, which puts them back on the same rails, with one extra step.
How does a transfer work, step by step?
Poké Transporter only takes Box 1 of the source game, and it takes it whole. So you fill that Box with what you want to send, launch the app, confirm, and the Pokémon land in Bank's Transport Box. It is a one way trip: nothing goes back down to the original cartridge.
Poké Transporter sends Box 1 in one go, up to 30 Pokémon from a DS game. © 2026 Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/GAME FREAK.
Then comes the trap almost no article flags, and it stops one transfer in two. The Transport Box is not a normal Box: you cannot pull Pokémon out of it from Bank alone. You need a save file from a 3DS Pokémon game to fetch them and file them into a real Box. And as long as the Transport Box is not empty, Poké Transporter refuses the next run.
In practice: Pokémon coming from a fifth generation game are collected in X, Y, Omega Ruby, Alpha Sapphire, Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun or Ultra Moon. Pokémon coming from the Virtual Console generation one and two games are collected in Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon only. Without one of those games, the jam is permanent.
The Transport Box on top, the 3DS save below: without the second, the first never empties. © 2026 Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/GAME FREAK.
The last hop, from Bank to Pokémon HOME, runs from the console version of HOME on Switch or Switch 2. The mobile app on its own is not enough, Nintendo support is explicit about it. You first link the Nintendo Network ID used with Bank to your Nintendo Account, then HOME shows a Moving Key that you type on the 3DS. That key expires after three minutes, so have both machines awake and online before you ask for it.
What does it cost, and what do you need to own?
Moving from Bank to HOME is reserved for the Pokémon HOME Premium Plan. Bank itself has been free since the 3DS eShop closed in March 2023, but it is no longer downloadable: the Nintendo support page states plainly that "Pokémon Bank is not currently available for download". If the app is not already on your 3DS, there is no official door.
| What you need | Detail | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Pokémon Bank on the 3DS | Installed before March 2023, otherwise nothing to be done | Free |
| Pokémon HOME Premium Plan | Required for the move from Bank | 2.99 euros a month, 4.99 euros for 3 months, 15.99 euros a year |
| Pokémon HOME on Switch or Switch 2 | The mobile version cannot receive from Bank | Free |
| A 3DS Pokémon game | To empty the Transport Box | Whatever you already own |
One month is plenty if you have three Boxes to bring home. For a collection spread across five generations and several cartridges, take the year: the back and forth will stretch out, and having to resubscribe in February because the month ran out would be a shame.
Can a 1996 Charizard really make it to HOME?
No, and this is the nuance most articles flatten. An original Game Boy cartridge never had a bridge to the third generation: the link cable protocol changed in 2002, and nothing connects 1996's Pokémon Red to Pokémon Ruby. The Charizard from your childhood, the one sitting on the original save battery, is not going anywhere.
What does travel is a Charizard caught in the Virtual Console re-release published on 3DS in 2016 for the franchise's 20th anniversary. Poké Transporter accepts those versions, and only those. The real longevity record therefore belongs to Game Boy Advance cartridges: a Pokémon caught in Ruby or Sapphire, released in 2003, can still reach HOME today through Pal Park. Twenty-three years of travel, five applications, and a console with a GBA slot.
The journey leaves marks, by the way. A Pokémon coming from the Virtual Console arrives with a forced Hidden Ability, regenerated IVs, EVs wiped to zero and a plain Poké Ball whatever it was caught in. In exchange it gains a Game Boy origin mark that nothing else grants. It is a collector's item, not a competitive piece.
That generation happens to be the one that fills our catalogue: of our 29 Poké Balls, most are Kanto and Johto Pokémon. If yours is the fire starter, the Charizard LED Poké Ball on a wooden stand laser engraves it inside the crystal, at 29.99 euros. And for anyone whose collection is stuck in Gold and Silver, the Ampharos LED Poké Ball comes from the same Johto as those forgotten Boxes.
Do FireRed and LeafGreen on Switch change anything?
Partly, and in the other direction. The same 13 August post announced that Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, re-released on Switch on 27 February 2026 for 19.99 euros, will connect to Pokémon HOME from October 2026. One door opens the month the other starts closing.
FireRed and LeafGreen on Switch join Pokémon HOME in October 2026. © 2026 Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/GAME FREAK.
Do not misread it: these Switch versions do not read your old cartridge. They are new save files on a new machine, and they rescue nothing that is stuck in Bank. What they do offer is everything the 2004 Kanto held, with no vintage hardware required, wild Articuno included. The Pokémon Company even shows the Mythical Deoxys as a wild encounter in its official screenshots.
Articuno in the Seafoam Islands, Switch version. © 2026 Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/GAME FREAK.
Deoxys, one more reason to run Kanto again on Switch. © 2026 Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/GAME FREAK.
The October update brings two more things. A Celebi gift in Pokémon HOME for anyone who completes the FireRed or LeafGreen Pokédex. And the Premium Plan goes from 6,000 to 9,000 slots at the same price, which is convenient in a season where everyone is about to empty their old Boxes. Along the way, Pokémon caught in a Pokémon GO Safari Ball change Ball on arrival in HOME, where it becomes a Strange Ball.
The Pokémon GO Safari Ball turns into a Strange Ball inside HOME. © 2026 Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/GAME FREAK.
If Kanto is where you started, the Bulbasaur crystal LED Poké Ball holds the LeafGreen starter in a three dimensional engraving. The rest of the road, from the DS to the Switch, is laid out in our chronological rundown of every Pokémon game on Nintendo DS.
Where to start if the collection is big?
With the slowest part, not the easiest one. A 3DS to Bank deposit takes a minute and will still work on the last day. Climbing back up from a Game Boy Advance cartridge is measured in weeks.
The maths is easy. Pal Park moves 6 Pokémon at a time, and in Diamond, Pearl or Platinum, once every 24 hours per source save. Over the six months that remain, that caps out just under 1,200 Pokémon per cartridge. Going through HeartGold or SoulSilver removes the wait, and it is the single most profitable shortcut in the whole chain.
The order I would follow: GBA cartridges first, then generation four, then generation five, and the 3DS games last. Also check right now that Pokémon Bank is actually installed on your 3DS and that the console still connects. Finding out otherwise in February would be the worst possible timing.
One honest limit to close on: this guide only covers the official chain. Workarounds through modified consoles exist, they work, and they are not documented here. For the rest, this 30th anniversary deserves better than a lost Box: the season's release list sits in our article on Pokémon's 30 years, and if you would rather display the Pokémon you just rescued on a shelf than on a server, our light-up Poké Ball collection covers 29 species.
Frequently asked questions about the Pokémon Bank shutdown
What happens to Pokémon left in Bank after 26 February 2027?
They become permanently unreachable. The service stops, the online Boxes do not reopen and no catch-up transfer has been announced. The Pokémon Company explicitly asks players to move everything to Pokémon HOME before the deadline, which amounts to saying nothing will be recoverable afterwards.
Do you have to pay to move Pokémon to Pokémon HOME?
Yes. Moving from Pokémon Bank requires the Pokémon HOME Premium Plan, priced at 2.99 euros per month, 4.99 euros for three months or 15.99 euros per year. Pokémon Bank itself has been free since March 2023. A single month is plenty if you only have a few Boxes to bring over.
Can you transfer from an original 1996 Game Boy cartridge?
No. The original Game Boy games have no bridge to the third generation, and the chain stops there. Only the Virtual Console re-releases published on 3DS in 2016 and 2017 are accepted by Poké Transporter, and only if you bought them before the 3DS eShop closed in March 2023.
Is the Pokémon HOME mobile app enough to bring Pokémon over?
No. The move from Pokémon Bank can only be started from the console version of Pokémon HOME, on Nintendo Switch or Switch 2. The mobile app then lets you view and rearrange the Pokémon you received, but it cannot begin the operation.
Does Poké Transporter shut down on 26 February 2027 too?
Yes, at the same second. That is the heavier loss: Poké Transporter is the only official path between fifth generation Nintendo DS cartridges, the Virtual Console re-releases and modern games. No replacement has been announced, and nothing suggests one is coming.
What if Pokémon Bank is not installed on my 3DS?
There is no official fix. The 3DS eShop closed in March 2023 and Nintendo support states that Pokémon Bank is not currently available for download. If the app is not already on the console, the only route left is borrowing a 3DS where it still is.
Sources: Nintendo support, pokemon.com, Serebii, Bulbapedia. Visuals: The Pokémon Company.
