Short answer: you tag the Pokémon you're willing to remote-trade, your Forever Friend picks up to three from your tagged list as a wish list, you each then choose one Pokémon from the other's wish list to offer, and the trade only completes once both of you confirm. It's a four-step tag → wish-list → offer → confirm flow, not a normal "pick any Pokémon" trade screen.
Trainer school
How does a Forever Friends remote trade actually work in Pokémon GO?
Forever Friends is the only friendship level that lets you trade with someone you'll never stand next to — no 100 m range, no travel. But the trade screen for it works differently from a normal trade, and neither of our own guides on friendship levels or trading basics walks through the actual steps. Here's exactly how it goes.
Step 1: Tag the Pokémon you're willing to trade
Before your first remote trade with a given friend, you'll be prompted to mark Pokémon with a Remote Trade tag. Only tagged Pokémon become visible to that friend as trade candidates — untagged Pokémon in your box stay private. You can tag more than one Pokémon, and tagging doesn't use up anything; it just makes a Pokémon eligible to be picked.
Step 2: Build a wish list by picking up to 3
Once you're both Forever Friends and both have tagged Pokémon, each of you can see the other's tagged list. Trainers take turns selecting up to three Pokémon from their friend's tagged list — these picks become a "wish list" that's sent to the other trainer. You're not committing to trade for all three; you're flagging what you'd accept.
Step 3: Each of you offers one Pokémon back
After the wish lists are in, each trainer picks one Pokémon from their friend's wish list to actually offer. This is the step where the trade narrows down from "up to three I'd like" to "the one I'm sending."
Step 4: Confirm or cancel
Both of you review the final one-for-one match. Either side can still back out before confirming — nothing is sent until you both lock it in.
The limits that still apply
- One remote trade per day, account-wide. It doesn't matter how many Forever Friends you have or how many remote trades you've banked — you can only complete one per day. See friendship levels & XP for how you earn more (one at 180 points, another every 90 points after that, per friend).
- Remote trades never count as a special trade. Your one-per-day special trade (new Pokédex entry, Lucky trade attempt, etc.) is a separate allowance — see trading basics for the full Stardust and special-trade rules.
- Each Pokémon can still only be traded once, same as any other trade.
- Remote trades are per-friend, not transferable. A remote trade you earned with one Forever Friend can't be spent on a different friend, even if that friend is also Forever Friends with you.
Why this matters if your trade partners are all local
If every friend on your list lives near you, remote trading just saves a meetup. But it's also the one mechanic that makes a friend on the other side of the world actually useful for trading, not just for gifts and regional Pokémon swaps. Grab a fresh code with one tap from a country you don't already have a friend in, or browse codes by country — a Forever Friend in another region becomes a remote trade partner once you've both put in the daily interactions.
FAQ
Do I have to tag every Pokémon I own, or just the ones I'm willing to trade? Just the ones you're willing to trade. Tagging is opt-in per Pokémon, and only tagged Pokémon show up on your Forever Friend's wish-list screen.
Can I pick all three Pokémon from my wish list, or only one gets traded? Only one. The "pick 3" step builds a shortlist; each side then narrows it down to the single Pokémon they're actually offering.
Does a remote trade count toward my one special trade per day? No. Remote trades and special trades are tracked separately — see trading basics for what else counts as a special trade.
Can two Forever Friends do a remote trade together more than once a day? No — the one-remote-trade-per-day cap applies account-wide, across every Forever Friend you have, not per friendship.
What happens to an unused remote trade — does it expire? Remote trades you've earned don't stack past one available per friend; use the one you have before the next 90 points banks you another with that same friend.