How to Put an Egg in an Incubator in Pokémon GO

To put an Egg in an incubator in Pokémon GO, tap the Poké Ball, tap Pokémon, and switch to the Eggs tab. Tap an Egg, tap Incubate, and choose an incubator. Then walk the distance shown on the Egg to hatch it.

The steps are the same on iPhone and Android and match the Pokémon GO Help Center’s Incubators and Hatching Pokémon Eggs page.

What you need first

• At least one Egg. A Pokémon Egg is an item that hatches into a Pokémon after you walk a set distance. You can find one when you collect items at a PokéStop, and Gifts from friends can contain Eggs too.
• A free incubator. An incubator is the item that holds an Egg while you walk. Every Trainer has one orange Egg Incubator ∞ that never runs out. It holds one Egg at a time, so it must be empty before you can use it again.
• Location turned on. The game counts distance from your movement, so it needs location access.

Incubate an Egg, step by step

Before you start: Niantic’s guide does not describe any way to take an Egg back out of an incubator. Treat step 6 as final, and check which Egg and which incubator you picked before you tap.

1. Open Pokémon GO and wait for the map to load. Tap the Poké Ball at the bottom of the map. Niantic calls this button the Main Menu.
2. Tap Pokémon. Your Pokémon collection opens.
3. Tap Eggs at the top of the screen. You see every Egg you carry. Each one shows the kilometers it needs, and Eggs with different distances look slightly different.

4. Tap the Egg you want to hatch. The next screen lists the Pokémon that can hatch from that Egg, grouped by rarity.
5. Tap Incubate. A list of the incubators you own appears.
6. Tap the incubator you want to use. The Egg now sits in that incubator.
7. Walk. The Egg shows how many kilometers are left.

Which incubator to pick

The list in step 6 can show more than one kind of incubator. Niantic’s item guide lists three standard types, and the official site describes a fourth that comes and goes.

Incubator	Uses	What it does	How you get it
Egg Incubator ∞	Unlimited	Hatches an Egg at the normal distance	Every Trainer has one
Egg Incubator	Breaks after 3 uses	Hatches an Egg at the normal distance	Research rewards or the Shop
Super Incubator	Breaks after 3 uses	Hatches Eggs more quickly	Rewards, bundles, or the Shop
Timed Incubator	Unlimited until it expires	Works as an extra unlimited incubator for a limited time	Selected GO Pass Deluxe ranks

• Use the ∞ incubator first. It costs nothing to use, so keep an Egg in it whenever it is empty.
• Think before you spend a limited incubator. Each Egg you hatch uses one of its three uses. Many players save those uses for long Eggs, such as 10 km or 12 km, because a short Egg uses up a turn just as a long one does. That is a common player strategy, not a Niantic rule.
• Super Incubator. Niantic says it hatches Eggs more quickly. Check the distance shown on the Egg after you place it to see the new total.
• Timed Incubator. The official GO Pass page says it lasts until one week after that GO Pass ends. If an Egg is still inside when it expires, the game moves the Egg into a single-use incubator so it can finish hatching.

The incubator does not change which Pokémon can hatch. That list belongs to the Egg, and you saw it in step 4.

How to check it worked, and whether you can undo it

Go back to Poké Ball › Pokémon › Eggs. An incubating Egg appears inside its incubator, with the distance walked so far shown against the distance it needs. Walk a few minutes with the game open and check that the number has moved. It does not update with every step, so give it a little time.

When you reach the full distance, the game plays a hatching animation and the new Pokémon joins your collection. If several Eggs finish together, the animation plays once for each Egg, and you can tap to speed it up. Niantic notes the animation can be slightly delayed while the game is still loading or while you have active Remote Raid invitations.

To label your new Pokémon, you can rename a Pokémon in Pokémon GO from its summary screen. To see your lifetime totals, check how many Pokémon you have caught on your Trainer Profile.

If new hatches leave your Pokémon storage full, you can free space in bulk once you transfer multiple Legendary Pokémon at once.

There is no documented undo. Niantic’s help pages describe no option to remove an Egg from an incubator, move it to a different one, or delete an Egg. The practical way out is to finish the walk. With a three-use incubator, the use is spent on that Egg.

How to get more incubators

One incubator means one Egg at a time. To hatch several Eggs on the same walk, you need more incubators.

Before you buy: items in the Shop cost PokéCoins, the game’s currency, and PokéCoin packs cost real money. If a child uses the phone, block in-app purchases in Pokémon GO first. On Android, you can also require authentication for Google Play purchases so every purchase asks for your password or fingerprint.

1. On the map, tap the Poké Ball.
2. Tap Shop.
3. Tap the incubator or bundle you want. The price in PokéCoins is shown on the item.
4. Tap Exchange. The incubator appears in your Bag, sometimes after a short delay, and in the list you see when you tap Incubate.

Niantic’s Shop guide covers the same steps. You can get incubators without paying, too:

• Research rewards. Niantic says three-use incubators come as rewards from Special Research and Research Tasks.
• Free PokéCoins. Pokémon you leave defending a Gym earn PokéCoins, up to 50 a day. You can spend those in the Shop. If the alerts about those defenders get tiresome, here is how to turn off low motivation notifications.
• Events and GO Pass. Some events and GO Pass ranks include an incubator. These rewards change often, so check the current event details in the game.

One regional limit: Niantic’s known-issues list says paid incubators, Super Incubators, and bundles that contain them cannot be bought in Brazil. Players there can still earn incubators through gameplay.

Hatch Eggs faster

• Turn on Adventure Sync. Adventure Sync is a setting that counts your walking while the game is closed, using Apple Health or Google Fit. Without it, the game must be open while you walk. It is available from Trainer Level 5. Here are the steps to turn on Adventure Sync.
• Use extra incubators during events. Hatching several Eggs at once gets more out of every walk. Some events also shorten hatch distance, and the event announcement states which Eggs qualify.
• Use Battery Saver on walks. Battery Saver darkens the screen when you point the phone down and still tracks distance.
• Walk, don’t ride. The game is built around walking. Players widely report that distance covered at car speed does not count. Niantic’s help pages do not publish a speed limit, so treat any exact figure you read as unconfirmed.

Fixes when an Egg won’t incubate or hatch

There is no free incubator in the list

Each incubator holds one Egg. If your ∞ incubator already has an Egg, it is busy until that Egg hatches. Finish that Egg, or get another incubator from the Shop or a reward.

You can’t find the Eggs tab

The Eggs tab only appears after you tap Pokémon from the Poké Ball menu. It sits at the top of that screen. Incubators also show in your Bag under Items, but you start incubation from the Egg.

You are not getting new Eggs

Niantic puts the regular limit at 12 Eggs. When your Egg storage is full, you will not pick up more. Incubate and hatch what you have to free up room.

The distance isn’t going up

Work through these checks in order. They come from Niantic’s Adventure Sync troubleshooting steps.

1. Confirm the Egg is in an incubator. An Egg that only sits in storage never gains distance.
2. Check Adventure Sync. Tap the Poké Ball, then Settings, then General, and make sure Adventure Sync is checked. If it is off, only walking with the game open counts. Refreshing game data can switch it off, so look again after a refresh.
3. Set location to Always. On iPhone, open Settings, go to Location Services in the privacy settings, tap Pokémon GO, and choose Always. On Android, open your phone’s settings, find Pokémon GO in the apps list, tap Permissions, and allow Location. Menu names vary by phone maker and system version.
4. Check Apple Health or Google Fit. Open the health app and confirm it is recording steps and that Pokémon GO is listed as a connected app. Distance you type in by hand does not count.
5. Turn off your phone’s battery saving mode. Niantic says it can disable the sensors Adventure Sync needs. This is the phone’s own mode, not the Battery Saver setting inside the game.
6. Wait, then restart the game. Niantic says syncing with Apple Health or Google Fit can take up to several hours, and restarting the app may help.

Frequently asked questions

Next step

Put an Egg in your ∞ incubator now, then turn on Adventure Sync so your everyday walking counts even when the game is closed.