Pokémon Bank Ends Service in February 2027 as The Pokémon Company Completes Its Move Off the 3DS

Pokémon Bank, the cloud storage app that has kept Nintendo 3DS-era collections alive for more than a decade, will shut down on February 25, 2027, The Pokémon Company announced on August 13, 2026. Once the service ends, transferring Pokémon from Bank to Pokémon HOME will no longer be possible, and any Pokémon still sitting in Bank’s online Boxes at the cutoff will be stranded there.

The company buried the date inside a Pokémon HOME news post otherwise devoted to the app’s October 2026 update, giving players roughly six and a half months’ notice.

“Pokémon Bank, a Nintendo 3DS application that lets players deposit or withdraw Pokémon they have befriended in Pokémon titles on that system from online Boxes, will be ending service on Thursday, February 25, 2027, at 7:00 p.m. PST,” the statement reads. “If you have Pokémon stored in Pokémon Bank that you wish to carry over, please move them to Pokémon HOME prior to Pokémon Bank’s end of service. Please note Pokémon Bank is not currently available for download.”

The shutdown ends a run that began in Japan in December 2013. Bank launched as a paid subscription ($4.99 a year) and could hold up to 3,000 Pokémon, serving as the bridge that carried creatures from the 3DS generations, and through the companion Poké Transporter app from the Game Boy-era Virtual Console releases, forward into newer games.

The Last Online Service Standing on the 3DS

Bank has outlived nearly everything else on its home platform. When Nintendo closed the 3DS eShop on March 27, 2023, Bank was delisted from sale, and The Pokémon Company made it free to use for anyone who already had it installed, saying at the time there was no end date planned for the no-cost service.

When Nintendo switched off 3DS and Wii U online services entirely on April 8, 2024, Bank and Poké Transporter were the only two pieces of software Nintendo named as exceptions that would keep connecting. For more than two years since, they have been the last functioning online services on the 3DS — and the only route by which a Pokémon caught in a 2013 copy of Pokémon X could still reach a 2026 game.

Moving a Collection to Pokémon HOME Is a One-Way Trip

The mechanics of the migration matter, because the door only swings one way. Pokémon moved from Bank to Pokémon HOME can never be sent back, and the transfer itself requires a paid Pokémon HOME Premium Plan, priced at $2.99 for one month, $4.99 for three months, or $15.99 for a year on the service’s official site.

HOME’s free tier caps storage at 30 Pokémon. The Premium Plan raises that ceiling to 6,000, and the October 2026 Version 4.1.0 update will expand it again to 9,000 at no change in price — headroom The Pokémon Company is clearly building for exactly this wave of transfers. The company has not said what will happen to Pokémon left in Bank after the cutoff; the announcement’s guidance ends at the instruction to move them beforehand.

The same October update opens another front in the collection strategy. Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen on Nintendo Switch will link with HOME beginning in October 2026, with a Celebi gift for players who complete those games’ Pokédex — though Pokémon pulled out of FireRed or LeafGreen cannot return to them, the same one-way rule Bank users have lived with since 2020.

The Timeline for 3DS Holdouts

Two dates now define the endgame for the 3DS generation:

• October 2026: Pokémon HOME Version 4.1.0 adds FireRed and LeafGreen linking and raises Premium storage from 6,000 to 9,000 Pokémon.
• February 25, 2027, 7:00 p.m. PST: Pokémon Bank service ends, and with it all transfers from Bank to Pokémon HOME.

Anyone with a 3DS still holding a working copy of Bank has a narrowing window: the app cannot be redownloaded, the transfer requires a Premium Plan, and after the February date there is no published fallback. The 3DS era’s last online service gets its final checkout in six months.