Short answer: open the in-game shop, tap the event, tap Gift, and pick a friend you've reached Great Friends with or higher. You can send up to 20 paid gift tickets a day, only tickets bought with real-money currency are giftable, and once a gift ticket is sent it cannot be cancelled or refunded - confirm your friend can actually attend first.
Trainer school
How to gift an event ticket to a friend in Pokémon GO (and can you get a refund?)
Ticket gifting turned a one-player purchase into something you do for someone - handy when a friend forgot an event was happening, or wants to go but is between devices. The flow is simple, but the no-refund rule makes it worth getting right the first time.
How to send one
- Open the in-game shop and tap the event you want to buy.
- Tap the Gift button next to the normal purchase option.
- Pick the friend from your list. They must be Great Friends (7+ days) or higher with you - see the friendship levels guide if you're not sure where you stand.
- Confirm the purchase with your device's native payment screen. The ticket goes straight to your friend's account.
The rules that actually matter
- Friendship floor: Great Friends. Good Friends (day one) isn't enough - you need at least a week of daily interaction together first.
- 20 paid gift tickets per day, total, across all friends and events.
- Only real-money tickets qualify. Anything bought with Pokécoins, or any Pokécoin-purchased item, can't be gifted.
- The recipient can't already have the ticket. If they bought it themselves, or someone else already gifted it to them, your gift fails.
- No cancellation, no refund, once sent. You can still back out during the purchase flow (before payment completes), but after that the gift is final - subject to Niantic's normal refund policy and local law, which does not cover a change of mind.
- In-person events work differently. Safari Zone-style events use a separate flow where you enter a friend's username directly in the purchase screen, rather than picking them from your friends list.
Why confirm before you send
Because there's no refund path, a gifted ticket for an event your friend can't make is money gone. Check they're free that day - and check they actually want to go - before you buy. This pairs naturally with Community Day and other ticketed events where the whole point is playing together.
FAQ
Can I gift a free event ticket? No - gifting only applies to paid tickets bought with real-money currency.
What if my friend already owns the ticket? The gift won't go through - Niantic blocks duplicate tickets per account.
Can I gift to someone I just added? Not yet - you need Great Friends status first, which takes seven days of at least one qualifying interaction (gift, trade, raid or battle) per day.
Can I cancel after sending? No. You can only cancel before completing payment, while you're still on the friend-selection screen.
Where do I find more friends to reach Great Friends with? One tap on the front page gives you a fresh, unused trainer code - add a batch early so some of them are already at Great Friends by the time the next ticketed event lands.