Calculate Stardust & Candy needed to power up, trade, or purify Pokémon.
Stardust is the universal currency in Pokémon GO. Unlike Candy, which only works on one species (and its evolutionary family), Stardust applies to every Pokémon in your collection. You earn it by catching Pokémon, hatching eggs, battling in raids and Gyms, completing Field Research, and walking with Adventure Sync. You spend it powering up Pokémon, unlocking second Charged Attacks, trading with other Trainers, and purifying Shadow Pokémon. Most Trainers run a permanent Stardust deficit. You earn a few hundred per catch, but a single high-level power-up can cost 10,000 or more. That gap is exactly why a Pokémon GO Stardust Calculator is useful: instead of guessing whether you can afford to max out your next raid Pokémon, you can see the exact cost before you spend a single Dust.
Our Stardust Calculator covers the four situations where Trainers actually spend Stardust: powering up a Pokémon, maxing it out completely, trading with a friend, and purifying a Shadow Pokémon. Each tab uses the same cost tables Niantic uses internally, so the numbers match what you’ll see in-game.
Pick a current level and a target level, and the calculator adds up the Stardust, Candy, and XL Candy needed to get there. This is the tab you’ll use most often — for example, checking what it costs to push a freshly-caught raid Pokémon from level 20 up to level 35 for Gym defense.
This tab calculates the full cost from your Pokémon’s current level all the way to the level cap — either level 40 (the standard cap) or level 50 (the Best Buddy / XL cap). It’s the fastest way to answer “how much Stardust do I need to fully max this Pokémon?” without manually adding up dozens of power-up steps.
Trading costs Stardust based on your friendship level with the other Trainer and whether the trade is a “special” trade (Legendary, Shiny, Shadow, or a Pokémon neither of you has registered in your Pokédex). The calculator factors in both, so you know the cost before you confirm the trade.
Purifying a Shadow Pokémon removes the Frustration-locked moveset and Shadow bonus, but it costs Stardust and Candy that scale with the Pokémon’s level. This tab gives you that cost instantly, along with the IV boost you’ll receive
Power-up costs aren’t flat — they rise in stages as your Pokémon’s level increases. Here’s a simplified breakdown of how Stardust and Candy costs scale from level 1 to level 40:
| Level Range | Stardust per Power-Up | Candy per Power-Up |
|---|---|---|
| 1 – 8 | 200 – 800 | 1 |
| 9 – 20 | 1,000 – 2,500 | 1 – 2 |
| 21 – 30 | 3,000 – 6,000 | 3 – 4 |
| 31 – 40 | 7,000 – 10,000 | 5 – 7 |
| 40 – 50 | 10,000 – 15,000 | XL Candy only |
Maxing a Pokémon out from level 1 to level 40 costs roughly 288,000 Stardust and 237 Candy in total. Pushing it further from level 40 to level 50 — the Best Buddy cap — adds another 250,000 Stardust and 296 XL Candy. That’s why most Trainers only take their best raid and PvP Pokémon past level 40; it’s a significant investment reserved for Pokémon you’ll actually use long-term.
Levels 1 through 40 use regular Candy. Levels 40 through 50 use XL Candy instead, which is far harder to come by — it mainly drops from catching Pokémon above level 35, from the Daily Adventure Incense encounter, and from certain raid and research rewards. This is the main reason post-40 power-ups feel so much slower: it’s not just the Stardust cost climbing, it’s the candy type itself becoming scarce.
Four Pokémon traits change your Stardust math, and our calculator applies all of them automatically:
These effects can stack. A Lucky Best Buddy Pokémon, for example, gets both the 50% Lucky discount and the 10% Best Buddy discount applied to its Stardust cost — a meaningful saving if you’re maxing out a Pokémon you plan to use for a long time.
If the calculator shows you’re short on Stardust for your next power-up, here’s where to focus your time:
Maxing a Pokémon from level 1 to level 40 costs approximately 288,000 Stardust and 237 Candy. Continuing from level 40 to the level 50 Best Buddy cap costs an additional 250,000 Stardust and 296 XL Candy.
Yes. Lucky Pokémon receive a flat 50% discount on Stardust costs for every power-up, from level 1 all the way to level 50. Candy costs are not discounted.
Shadow Pokémon deal and take more damage than their normal counterparts, and Niantic balances that advantage with a 20% increase in both Stardust and Candy costs during power-ups.
Only for Pokémon you’ll use long-term in raids or PvP. The level 40–50 range requires XL Candy, which is much harder to farm than regular Candy, and the Stardust cost per power-up roughly doubles compared to the level 30s.
XL Candy mainly comes from catching Pokémon above level 35 in the wild, from the free Daily Adventure Incense encounter, and from select raid and research rewards. There’s no direct way to convert regular Candy into XL Candy.
Stardust is too valuable to spend on guesswork. Before you power up, trade, or purify, run the numbers through our Pokémon GO Stardust Calculator and know exactly what it’ll cost. Pair it with our CP Calculator and IV Calculator to fully plan out which Pokémon are worth the investment before you commit your Stardust and Candy.