Where we stand. We make Card Lab, an app for designing and printing your own trading cards. It is free with nothing to buy on the App Store and Google Play. It is not a card game and opens no packs, so it does not compete with Pokémon TCG Pocket for play, only for a child's card-making time. We are not connected to The Pokémon Company and take no referral fee from anyone on this page.
Yes. Pokémon TCG Pocket is free to download and free to play, with two booster packs a day at no cost. It sells two things: Poké Gold, from $0.99 for 5 to $39.99 for 200, which shortens the wait between packs, and a Premium Pass at $9.99 a month after a 14-day trial.
What Apple lists
| Item | Price | Per Poké Gold |
|---|---|---|
| Premium Pass | $9.99 | — |
| Poké Gold (paid) ×5 | $0.99 | $0.198 |
| Poké Gold ×5 + Bonus Poké Gold | $0.99 | Bonus not stated |
| Poké Gold (paid) ×25 | $4.99 | $0.200 |
| Poké Gold (paid) ×50 | $9.99 | $0.200 |
| Poké Gold (paid) ×100 | $19.99 | $0.200 |
| Poké Gold (paid) ×200 | $39.99 | $0.200 |
| Release Poké Gold (paid) x5, x15, x50 | $0.99, $2.99, $9.99 | About $0.20 |
The last column is derived. Buying more Poké Gold does not make it cheaper: every bundle works out to about 20 cents a Gold. Apple shows at most ten items, so this is a sample of the shop, and the “Release” items are not explained on any page we read. There is no promoted purchase above the App Privacy panel. Google Play shows an “In-app purchases” badge and no items-and-offers section.
What Poké Gold does
Pokémon Support's gameplay FAQ lists what spends it: shortening the wait to open a pack or make a wonder pick when you run out of hourglasses, and restoring an expired wonder pick. A player can spend up to 720 Poké Gold a day on pack waits, and hold up to 3,600. At Apple's prices, 720 Poké Gold is about $144 (derived). How many Gold one pack takes, and the odds inside a pack, are shown only in the game.
The Premium Pass, and the shared-account catch
Pokémon Support's purchase FAQ sets out the rules. The pass is monthly and starts with a 14-day no-cost trial, once per Apple or Google account. Its benefits are listed only on the Premium Pass screen in the game. Promo cards come from premium missions and premium tickets, not from subscribing alone.
The pass belongs to the store account, not the save file, and only one save per Apple or Google account can hold it. Families who share one Apple Account across children's devices are the case the FAQ warns about: a second child cannot subscribe, and subscribing from the second save moves the pass away from the first, after which it cannot move again for 60 days. Deleting the app does not cancel the subscription, and canceling early gives no refund for the rest of the month.
The privacy price
Apple's App Privacy panel lists user content and identifiers as data that may be used to track you across other companies' apps and websites, and lists third-party advertising among the purposes for data linked to you. Google Play's data safety summary says financial info, app activity and two other types may be shared with third parties. The game is rated 4+ on the App Store and Everyone on Google Play.
What Pokémon TCG Pocket does better
- It is a real card game with a real collection: packs, trading, battles against other players and ranked matches. Card Lab makes cards and plays no game with them.
- Its cards are the official ones, with illustrations that have a 3D feel. Card Lab's designs are its own, and they carry no Pokémon.
- It is one of the most played card apps there is: 700,815 App Store ratings and over fifty million Google Play downloads. Card makers that imitate the official look are compared in apps like PokeArt.
- App Store — Pokémon TCG Pocket, the In-App Purchases row and the App Privacy panel
- Google Play — Pokémon TCG Pocket, the description, rating and data safety summary
- Pokémon Support — Pokémon TCG Pocket Purchase and Premium Pass FAQ
- Pokémon Support — Pokémon TCG Pocket Gameplay FAQ
- Pokémon TCG Pocket — official site
- App Store — Card Lab: Trading Card Maker, ours