Pokemon card scanner
Point your camera at any Pokemon card and get the exact printing, set, rarity, and live market price in seconds. Free on iOS, no signup — or look a card up right here by name.
What the scan actually tells you
Identifying the Pokemon is the easy part. The hard part — and the part that decides whether a valuation is right or off by a factor of a hundred — is resolving which printing you are holding.
The exact printing
Not just "Charizard" — which Charizard. The scan resolves the specific card, so a Base Set holo does not get confused with one of the dozens of later reprints that share the name and artwork lineage.
Set and collector number
The set the card belongs to and its number within that set, which is the pair that uniquely identifies a card and the thing most manual lookups get wrong.
Rarity
The printed rarity tier — common, uncommon, rare, holo rare, and the modern illustration-rare and special-art tiers that carry most of the value in current sets.
Live market price
Once the card is identified, it is joined against current market pricing — the raw market figure plus PSA / CGC graded values where copies have sold in slabs.
How to scan a card
Point the camera at the card
Lay the card on a flat, non-reflective surface in even light and fill the frame with it. Glare on holo cards is the main thing that slows a scan down — angling away from a direct light source fixes most of it.
The app identifies the printing
Image recognition matches the card's artwork and layout against the catalog to resolve which specific printing you are holding, including the set and collector number.
Pricing is attached
The identified card is joined against live market data — the current market price, the full listing range, and graded values where they exist.
Save it to a collection
Add the card to a named collection and its value tracks with the market from then on, so the collection total moves as prices do.
When to scan, and when to just type the name
Scanning is not always the faster route. Here is the honest split.
| Situation | Better | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Working through a binder or a bulk box | Scan | The per-card time difference compounds fast. Typing names for 300 cards is an evening; scanning them is not. |
| One card you already know the name of | Type | If you are at a desk and it is a single card, the web search box on this site is the shortest path. No install needed. |
| A card in a language you cannot read | Scan | Japanese, Korean, and European printings are hard to type and easy to point a camera at. |
| A heavily damaged or obscured card | Type | Recognition needs to see the artwork and layout. If the card is badly worn, torn, or wrapped in a scuffed sleeve, reading the name off it and typing is more reliable. |
| Cards still sealed in a graded slab | Scan | The slab is transparent, so the scan reads through it. You do not need to crack anything open to check a value. |
What a scanner cannot do
Worth being direct about this, because plenty of tools imply otherwise. A camera scan identifies a card and prices it. It does not grade it. Condition depends on corner wear, edge whitening, surface scratches, and centering — physical properties a single photo taken in uncontrolled lighting cannot assess reliably. Any app that hands you a confident "PSA 9.5" off one frame is guessing.
For the parts that can be measured, use the right tool: the centering tool measures your card's borders to the same ratios graders use, and the condition guide walks the defects to inspect by hand. If you are worried a card is counterfeit, the counterfeit-detection guide covers the physical tests that actually work.
No app? Look it up here
Same catalog, same live pricing, no install. Type the card name and match the set symbol and collector number on the result to your physical card.
Pokemon card scanning — frequently asked
Is the Pokemon card scanner free?
Yes. Scanning cards, identifying printings, and checking live market prices are free, with no account required. An optional premium subscription adds unlimited scans and collection backups, but the core scanning and pricing are free.
Can I scan Pokemon cards without downloading an app?
You can look up any card on this website by typing its name — no install needed, and you get the same live pricing. Camera scanning itself needs the free iOS app, because it uses the phone camera to identify the card.
Does the scanner work on Japanese Pokemon cards?
Yes. Scanning is generally the easier route for Japanese, Korean, and European printings precisely because the names are difficult to type accurately.
Can it scan graded cards in a slab?
Yes. The slab is transparent, so the card can be identified through it without opening anything.
Will the scanner tell me my card's condition or grade?
No — condition is a physical judgment that a photo cannot reliably make, and any tool claiming to assign you a PSA grade from one camera frame is overpromising. The scanner identifies the card and its market value. For condition, use the condition guide, and for centering specifically, the centering tool measures your borders the way a grader would.
How many Pokemon cards can it identify?
The catalog covers 20,000+ cards spanning every English set from Base Set in 1999 through the current Mega Evolution block, and the same catalog powers this website.
Is a scanner accurate enough to trust for valuations?
The identification is the part to sanity-check: confirm the set symbol and collector number on the result match your physical card before trusting the price. Once the printing is right, the pricing reflects real recent sales data and refreshes daily.
Start scanning
Free on iOS. No account, no signup, no scan limit to get started.
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