Pokémon players have spent years hearing that Bank would not stay online forever. Now the service has a final date: February 26, 2027.
The official Pokémon website confirms that Pokémon Bank will close at noon in Japan. The transfer connection between Bank and Pokémon HOME ends with it. After that, Pokémon left inside Bank can no longer be moved forward.
The date is several months away, but this is not a job to save for the final weekend. You may need an old 3DS, working game cartridges, the right Nintendo accounts, and a paid Pokémon HOME Premium Plan before the transfer can begin.
What should you move first?
Start with the Pokémon you would be upset to lose access to. That usually means old story teams, event Pokémon, shinies, ribbon collections, competitive Pokémon, and anything kept for personal reasons.
A practical order is:
- Pokémon already stored inside Bank.
- Event Pokémon and old team members that cannot be replaced easily.
- Pokémon with ribbons, rare marks, or a long history across several games.
- Boxes still sitting in compatible 3DS games that you want to keep.
You do not need to transfer every common Pokémon just because the service is closing. Make a smaller priority list first, confirm those Pokémon reached HOME, and then decide whether the rest are worth moving.
What you need before starting
The official Pokémon HOME instructions say that a paid HOME Premium Plan is required for a Bank transfer. Nintendo Switch Online is not required.
Pokémon Bank can no longer be downloaded as a new app. If it is already installed on your 3DS, open it now and make sure it still runs. If your Pokémon are in older games that use Poké Transporter, that app also needs to be available on your system.
