Gifts are the engine of the whole friendship system: they level up your friends, supply items (a lifeline if you live far from PokéStops), and their postcards unlock Vivillon. Here are the actual rules and limits.
Where gifts come from
- Spinning PokéStops and Gyms — gifts drop occasionally from Photo Discs.
- Your Buddy Pokémon fetches them from nearby stops when you're running low — up to 5 at a time, up to 3 times a day.
You can hold a maximum of 20 gifts in your bag (rising to as many as 40 via Trainer Level rewards at level 43+). They take no regular item space.
The real sending and opening limits
- One gift per friend per day — and you can't send them another until they've opened the previous one. (You may see a "100 per day" total cap in older guides; current official documentation only states the one-per-friend rule.)
- Open up to 30 gifts per day. With a big friend list, the opening cap is what you hit first — prioritise friends close to a level-up.
- You can't open gifts when your item bag or egg storage is completely full.
What's inside
Poké Balls, Great/Ultra Balls, Potions and Revives, Pinap Berries, Stardust, occasionally evolution items — and 7 km Eggs, which gifts are the only regular source of. If you want the 7 km egg pool, keep an egg slot open before opening gifts.
Postcards — and why you should pin them
Every gift carries a postcard from the Photo Disc where it was collected. Tap pin to save it to your Postcard Book. Pinning is what drives the Vivillon Collector medal:
- 3 pinned postcards from a region unlock your first Scatterbug encounter for that pattern, then 9 for the second, 15 for the third and beyond.
- You can pin at most 3 of your own postcards per day — postcards from friends' gifts are how you go faster.
- Friends in the right countries are the whole game here: see our Vivillon guide and browse codes by country — the pool usually has Japan and South Korea codes that Western boards never carry.
FAQ
Do gifts count toward friendship even if I only send? Yes — since the December 2025 update, official documentation credits both sending and opening. Either direction moves the shared friendship bar.
Can I choose what's in a gift? No — contents are random from the gift's item pool.
Why can't I send a gift to this friend? They haven't opened your previous one yet, or you already sent one today.
Fastest way to get more gift-friends? One tap on the front page = a fresh, unused trainer code. Add a batch, gift daily, and watch the XP pile up.