Pokémon GO: The Stamp Rally Explained

The Stamp Rally is likely old news for Pokémon GO players living in Japan, but for those of us who live elsewhere it may remain a bit of a mystery. Maybe you've never heard of a stamp rally, or perhaps a gift from a friend in Japan has put them on your radar. If you've had the pleasure of participating in one you're not likely to be reading this... Regardless, you can continue on for an overview of what exactly a Stamp Rally is, and to what extent players can participate when living outside of the regional event locations.

What Are Stamp Rallies?

First added to Pokémon GO in 2025, the Stamp Rally is a feature that involves collecting stamps by visiting specific pokéstops to earn rewards. A Stamp Rally may be temporarily active when in alignment with a particular event, but several are permanently active.

Upon receiving your first stamp, you'll be able to find it in a new tab within your scrapbook. All collected stamps will be added to this section of the scrapbook so that you may flip between your postcard and stamp collections.

This feature is region-locked, and the three permanently active Stamp Rallies are only available in Japan. However, players living elsewhere may still get the chance to participate in one as previous Stamp Rallies have taken place in locations like Miami, Paris, Buenos Aires, and more!

Niantic may announce the next Stamp Rally near you if you're lucky, but even if you're unlucky and/or living in the middle of nowhere, not all hope is lost. Players from around the world can still collect stamps without physically going to Stamp Rally regions to participate!

How Can Players Collect Stamps?

As players in Japan collect stamps from pokéstops, they also gain copies of stamps that can be attached to gifts and sent to friends much like a sticker. Where a gift with a sticker attached shows a yellow Pikachu outline in the top right corner of the recipient's gift, it will instead show a blue icon in the bottom right if a stamp is added. Recipients of a gift with a stamp attached can save that stamp in a special tab to view whenever desired.

Though we can gain stamps secondhand this way, we won't reap the same rewards that players who visit participating pokéstops do for collecting certain amounts of stamps. Only in-person stamp collecting counts toward rewards.

How to View Collected Stamps?

Upon receiving your first stamp, you'll be able to find it in a tab within your scrapbook. All collected stamps will be added to this section of the scrapbook, enabling you to toggle between your postcard and stamp collections with ease.

Stamps with a light blue ring around them indicate that they were received via a gift, while a yellow ring around a stamp shows that you collected the stamp from the pokéstop itself. On the off chance that you visit the corresponding pokéstop after already receiving the stamp from a gift, the ring will change from blue to yellow.

Where to make friends that can send stamps?

Looking to befriend players in Japan to increase your odds of receiving stamps? I highly recommend seeking out players through Leek Duck's Pen Pal; simply filter the search to show players from the elegant region, which is exclusive to Japan. (The tundra region may work as well--Northern Japan is within it, but it includes locations outside of Japan, so elegant is the safest bet.)

This isn't the first time I've recommended Leek Duck's Pen Pal, and you can read my post on catching all regional scatterbugs here for info on better utilizing the site. It is truly the best tip I can give for a chance to start or grow your stamp collection… aside from going directly to the source with a ticket to Japan. Happy hunting, and hopefully, happy stamping!