That thin card you keep tossing on the pile is a code card. It unlocks a digital pack in Pokémon TCG Live, that's the whole job, and it's never going to be worth anything as a collectible.
What a code card actually is
If you've ripped even one pack you've seen these. Every English booster comes with an energy card and a thin insert with a code printed on it. That insert is the code card. There's an 11 character code on the face and usually a QR code next to it, and you punch that into Pokémon TCG Live to get a digital version of the pack.
It's not a Pokémon card. No set number, no rarity symbol, no reason to sleeve it. PSA isn't going to slab it. The only thing on that card with any value is the code itself, and the second somebody types it in, that value is gone forever.
Here's the thing people get wrong more than anything else, and I get messages about it constantly. The code does not give you a digital copy of what you pulled. You could hit a Special Illustration Rare in the physical pack and the code will still hand you a completely random digital pack. The two have nothing to do with each other.
- Code cards redeem for digital packs in TCG Live, and every code works exactly once.
- PTCGO died June 5, 2023, but your unredeemed old codes still work fine in TCG Live.
- Booster packs still have code cards in them. Some sealed products quietly dropped them starting with Mega Evolution.
- They're worth about a nickel each, and sorting them is almost never worth your time.
What happened to Pokémon TCG Online codes
PTCGO is dead. The Pokémon Company pulled it from the App Store, Google Play, and Pokemon.com on June 5, 2023 at 9 a.m. PDT, then launched Pokémon TCG Live globally three days later on June 8. Live has been the only official client ever since.
Now, if you've got a shoebox of old inserts sitting in a closet, relax. Those codes didn't die with the old app. Unredeemed PTCGO codes still go through in TCG Live. What you get might not match what the card advertised, because Live rebuilt how digital packs work, but the codes themselves are still live.
Quick tip: One code, one redemption, and that counts across both apps. If you or whoever owned it before you already burned it in PTCGO back in 2021, it's dead. Nothing you can do.
Really old codes sometimes just pay out currency
Codes from ancient expansions will occasionally redeem straight into in game currency instead of a pack, especially once you've maxed the cap for that set. I've run Sun & Moon era codes recently and they still went through, so don't assume a stack is dead just because it's old. Try a handful before you decide.
How to redeem a Pokémon code card
Two ways to do it, both take about ten seconds once you're logged in.
In the app
Open TCG Live, hit Shop, then Redeem. You can type the 11 characters yourself or hold the card up to your webcam and let it scan the QR code. The scanner saves real time if you're working a pile, but it chokes on anything creased or glossy, so expect to type some of them anyway.
On the website
Go to the TCG Live site, click Redeem Code, log in with your Pokémon Trainer Club account, enter the code, hit Submit Code. This is what I use when I'm going through a bunch of them, because typing on a real keyboard beats poking at a phone.
There are caps, and most people don't know about them
TCG Live puts soft limits on how many codes from the same product you can cash in. Go past the cap and the codes still work, you just get a small pile of in game currency instead of the actual reward. Worth knowing before you sit down with 500 codes from one set.
| Product type | What you get | Soft cap |
|---|---|---|
| Booster pack | Digital booster pack | 400 per expansion |
| Build & Battle box | Digital Build & Battle contents | 25 per expansion |
| Preconstructed deck | Digital deck | 4 per deck |
| Other products | Depends on the product | 4 per product |
Which products still include code cards
This is where a lot of older guides are flat out wrong, so pay attention to this part.
Back in July 2025 The Pokémon Company announced changes that kicked in with the Mega Evolution expansion, which dropped September 26, 2025. Two things changed. Code cards started unlocking a wider mix of stuff, so digital packs, digital promos, bonus currency, cosmetics, whatever they feel like. And a handful of sealed products that always used to come with a promo code card just stopped including one.
Read this before you panic: Some Mega Evolution packaging said a pack has an energy card or a code card. That was a printing error. The Pokémon Company confirmed boosters still come with both, and said they'd fix the wording on later sets. Half the internet still repeats the wrong version.
So if you're ripping anything current, you should still be pulling a code card out of every pack. Where you'll actually notice the change is on premium sealed stuff, where a promo code you expected just isn't in the box anymore. Pokémon said those digital promos would show up in Live some other way.
Japanese product never had them
Japanese boosters and decks don't come with code cards and never did. If you're buying Japanese sealed, don't go digging through the wrapper looking for one.
Do Pokémon code cards expire?
Short answer, the ones out of retail packs don't. I've redeemed codes that sat around for years and they went through without a problem. Pokémon has never published an expiration date on retail product codes.
Promo codes are a different animal. Anything handed out at an event, in a giveaway, through a stream, or as part of some crossover promotion usually has a printed expiration date on it, and once that date passes the code is garbage. If a code didn't come out of a sealed retail product, read the fine print before you assume you've got time.
Codes out of a pack keep basically forever. Codes from a limited time promo turn into confetti the day they expire.
Are Pokémon code cards worth anything?
Technically yes. Practically, barely.
Here's what the market actually looks like right now. I found 37 Temporal Forces codes going for $2.75, which is about seven cents a code. A bulk lot of 1,300 physical inserts was listed at $55.99, so roughly four cents apiece. On the high end, sellers doing five codes from a set you pick for $0.99 are pulling around twenty cents a code, and those move steadily because buyers want one specific expansion.
What actually changes the price
- Which set it's from. Codes from a chase heavy set like Evolving Skies beat codes from something nobody's building.
- Digital or physical delivery. Sellers who just message you the code have no shipping cost, so they undercut anybody mailing cardboard.
- How many you're dumping at once. Per code pricing falls apart past a few hundred because almost nobody is shopping for a four figure lot.
Listen, I've been selling online for over five years. You can sell pretty much anything if you're willing to wait long enough, but nobody cares about code cards. The only real way to move them is bulk lots priced under whatever everyone else is charging per card. Your other option is burning them to keep warm.
Sorting through code cards to make five cents a card is a huge waste of time and that time is better spent on almost anything else. If you're streaming rips or you go through a shit ton of packs and you've got thousands of these lying around, throw them on eBay in lots of 1,000 and be done with it. Otherwise you're better off tossing them and moving on. I sell on eBay and TCGPlayer every single day and I still don't bother listing these individually.
If you're buying: A redeemed code card looks exactly the same as a fresh one, so scamming people is easy. Buy from sellers with real feedback and redeem the second it arrives, while you can still open a dispute.
That old rarity trick doesn't work anymore
Around the XY days the art on the back of a code card hinted at what rare was in the pack. Dark green background meant a regular rare, silver and green meant you had a holo, ultra, or secret rare coming. Pack searchers abused the hell out of it. It doesn't hold up on modern product, so ignore any guide still telling you to read code card backs before buying a loose pack.
Frequently asked questions
What do Pokémon code cards do?
A code card unlocks a digital booster pack or other digital reward in Pokémon TCG Live. You type the 11 character code into the app or the TCG Live website and the reward drops into your account. The card itself has no collectible value, and the code has nothing to do with which cards you pulled from the physical pack.
Do Pokémon code cards expire?
Codes from sealed retail products have no published expiration date and still redeem years later. Promo codes from events, giveaways, and streams usually do have a printed expiration date, so check the card before you assume it still works.
Are Pokémon code cards worth anything?
Unused codes go for roughly $0.05 to $0.25 each. Bulk lots sold digitally sit at the bottom of that range, around four to eight cents, while small lots from one popular set reach about twenty cents. A redeemed code is worth nothing. Sorting and listing them individually is rarely worth the time.
Do old Pokémon TCG Online codes still work?
Yes. PTCGO shut down on June 5, 2023, but unredeemed code cards from that era still redeem in Pokémon TCG Live. The reward may not match what the card originally advertised, and codes from very old sets sometimes convert straight into in game currency.
Can you redeem a Pokémon code card twice?
No. Each code works once, and that limit carries across Pokémon TCG Online and Pokémon TCG Live combined. If it was redeemed on the old app, it will not work again.
Do all Pokémon booster packs still have code cards?
English boosters still include a code card along with the energy card. Some Mega Evolution packaging claimed a pack has one or the other, but The Pokémon Company confirmed that was a printing error. Certain premium sealed products did stop including promo code cards starting with that set. Japanese product has never included them.