Pokemon Go Speed Limits - How to Take Advantage

Pokemon Go is the biggest mobile game phenomenon of the year. Since it’s meant to be played while walking, the game sets various speed limits. We’ll show you Pokemon Go speed limits and how to take advantage of them.

Speed Limits in Pokemon Go

Pokemon Go is meant to be played, well, on the go. Specifically, while walking. The game sets different speed limits for different things to prevent you from “cheating”. That is to say, it prevents you from using vehicles to get around. Reddit user Dingsign compiled a table of the various speed limits in the game, and you can check it out below. Note that the speeds marked with “*” are speeds Dingsign didn’t try out for himself, but read somewhere.

Limit type	Speed limit km/h	Speed limit mph	PoGo+	Notes / Update speed
Egg/Buddy distance tracking limit	10.5 km/h	6.5mph		(max. 175m per minute)
Passenger warning threshold	*30 km/h	*18.6 mph		will come again after going below threshold and then exceeding again
Pokestop Spinning limit	~ 35 km/h	~ 21.7 mph	drops to 15 mph	updates every 5 – 15s depending on speed
Pokemon Sightings and Encounter limit	40 km/h	25 mph	drops to 20 mph	updates every 5 – 15s depending on speed
"Softban" speed limit (insta break and run)	*100 km/h	*62 mph
Ideal Incence travel speed	~ 15 km/h	9.3 mph		gives you ~1 spawn per minute

Now that we have this table, all that is left to do is some basic math. For example, the PokeEgg distance tracker goes at 10 km/h, about 175 meters per minute (or ~ 574 feet per minute). So, this is your ideal speed to hatch eggs, and explains why they take so long to hatch when you use any vehicle, even a bike.

Similarly, the ideal speed for Incense spawns is approximately 15 km/h (250 meters per minute, 820 feet per minute). In other words, if you walk about 200 meters every minute with an Incense, you should be able to attract about 26 Pokemon in half an hour.

Now get out there, armed with this new knowledge, and catch some Pokemon!