Most XP guides still quote numbers from before the 2020 XP rework. Here is the current, verified ranking — and why the top spot isn't even close.
1. Friendship level-ups (the king)
| Level-up | XP | With Lucky Egg |
|---|---|---|
| Good Friend | 3,000 | 6,000 |
| Great Friend | 10,000 | 20,000 |
| Ultra Friend | 50,000 | 100,000 |
| Best Friend | 100,000 | 200,000 |
| Forever Friend | 150,000 | 300,000 |
Nothing else in the game pays six figures for tapping a gift. The strategy is batching: add many friends the same day, interact daily, and pop all the level-ups under one Lucky Egg — the game even prompts you to activate the egg on the level-up screen now. Full playbook in the friendship XP guide; fresh friends are one tap away.
2. Raids
Legendary (5-star) raids pay 10,000 XP each (Elite ~12,000, Mega Legendary 13,000, lower tiers 3,500–5,000). With the 10-per-day remote limit and a Lucky Egg, a raid session stacks up fast — and each raid with a friend doubles as that day's friendship interaction.
3. Excellent throws
1,000 XP per Excellent (+20 curveball) on a successful catch — Nice is 20, Great is 100, so accuracy pays 10× over sloppy throws. New Pokédex entries add another 1,000. During Community Day spotlights with easy targets, Excellent-throw grinding under an egg rivals raiding.
4. Mass-evolving (the old classic, demoted)
Evolutions pay a flat 1,000 XP (2,000 under an egg). A 30-minute Pidgey-style evolve session still earns a steady ~60–80k with an egg, but it costs hours of candy farming — friendship pays more for less.
5. The background trickle
- Hatching: roughly 500 XP (2 km) up to 4,000 XP (12 km) per egg.
- First catch and first spin of the day, and 7-day streaks — worth keeping alive, exact values have shifted over the years (Niantic's help center lists the current ones).
- Sending a gift: 200 XP (one of the few things a Lucky Egg does not double).
The takeaway
Everything on this list doubles under a Lucky Egg except gift-sending — so the meta is: stack friendship level-ups, then fill the same egg window with raids and Excellent throws. A well-planned 30 minutes clears a million XP. It all starts with having enough active friends: get fresh codes, keep the list healthy with the cap guide, and let the XP roll in.