Our guide on Pokemon Go Power Leveling features the absolute best and easiest methods to power through the ranks all the way to level 40. Leveling up is arguably one of the most important goals in Pokemon Go, as a higher trainer level increases your chances of catching Pokemon with higher CP, as well as encountering rare Pokemon. You'll also get a bunch of awesome rewards each time you level up, and the higher levels have the best rewards.
Leveling up is crucial if you want to unlock the best content. Raids, Friends, and more are locked behind level gates that you'll want to surmount to have the most fun. There are a bunch of different methods of gaining experience in Pokemon Go, and we're going to detail every single one of them. We'll then detail the best strategy at the very bottom for those of you that want to go the optimal route.

Activities That Provide XP

Before we even get into the best methods of farming experience, let's take a quick look at all of the different activities that you can perform to actually earn XP.
  • Capturing Pokemon (100 XP for existing, 500 XP for a new Pokemon)
  • Performing tricky throws (10 XP for curveball, 10 XP for nice, 50 XP for great, and 100 XP for excellent)
  • Catching a Pokemon on your first attempt (50 XP)
  • Pokemon runs away (25 XP)
  • Evolving Pokemon (500 XP, or 1,000 XP for a new evolution)
  • Hatching eggs (200 XP for 2km, 500 XP for 5km, and 1,000 XP for 10km, 500 XP for new Pokemon)
  • Interacting with PokeStops (50 XP standard, 250 XP for a new PokeStop, 500 XP for Daily Bonus PokeStop, 2,000 XP for day seven Daily Bonus)
  • Beating Raids (3,000 XP for Tier 1, 3,500 XP for Tier 2, 4,000 XP for Tier 3, 5,000 XP for Tier 4, and 10,000 XP for Legendary)
  • Visiting gyms (25 XP per tier of the gym, and 25% extra if it's of the same team as you)
  • Completing Research Breakthroughs (3,000 XP)
  • Interacting with friends (200 XP for sending a gift, 3,000 XP for Great Friend, 30,000 XP for Ultra Friend, and 100,000 XP for Best Friend)

XP Bonuses – Eggs and Events

Above is a list of the various different activities that you can perform to earn experience, but before we move onto the various methods you can perform to easily farm it, we wanted to discuss XP bonuses.
There are two key features that can drastically increase your experience: Lucky Eggs, which double every single XP gain for 30 minutes, and the Double XP events, which do exactly what they say on the tin for a limited period.
The best part? You can combine these two different features to quadruple the XP you earn for that period. So if there's a double XP weekend active and you use a Lucky Egg, for 30 minutes you'll earn four times the usual amount of XP for every action you perform that earns XP.

Highest Earners – Raids and Friends

The absolute most effective method of earning experience are Raids and Friends. Legendary Raids net you a massive 10,000 XP per completion, with a Tier 1 Raid rewarding you a not too shabby 3,000 XP.
Earning Best Friend status with a friend rewards you with an enormous 100,000 XP, and that's without mentioning the 33,000 XP in total you earn from Great and Ultra Friend status before you reach that point.
These methods are by far the most rewarding, but they're also very time-consuming and require other people to get the most out of them – particularly when it comes to Raids, which you can't do alone.
We'd recommend finding a Friend Code sharing space online, so you can max out your friends list and start sending out your 20 gifts every single day, and opening gifts from friends. That way you'll have a steady stream of experience coming in each day, from both leveling up your friendship status and from sending gifts.
We also recommend completing Raids as often as humanly possible – particularly Legendary Raids, which are the most lucrative. If those aren't possible, beating a Tier 4 or lower regularly will suffice.
Finally, make sure to use a Lucky Egg before you turn in any of the most lucrative rewards to double your XP gain. Try and time it so you can chain gaining the rewards during a 30 minute session where possible.

The Old Reliable – Evolutions

An easier method, that's a lot more reliable, is to catch a bunch of common Pokemon that have a low Candy cost to evolve, like Weedle, Pidgey, Caterpie, Wurmple, and Whismur, and earn XP by performing a ton of evolutions in quick succession.
What you want to do, is go crazy and catch as many of these common Pokemon as you can, building up a stockpile of Candy. You can transfer excess Pokemon to gain extra Candy if you've got too many Pokemon, though we'd recommend doing this after evolving each one so you still get the XP.
Then, simply pop a Lucky Egg and evolve all of your common Pokemon you can until the timer runs out. If done correctly, and quickly, it's entirely possible to evolve around 60 Pokemon per 30 minute period. That's an absolute ton of XP for very little effort.
We also recommend saving any new evolutions you haven't performed yet for when the Lucky Egg is active, so you double the extra XP you earn from a new evolution.

Idle XP – Pokemon Go Plus

Another method, which can work alongside the evolution method, is to get yourself a Pokemon Go Plus and walk through busy areas in your city. That way you can quickly catch a bunch of Pokemon and spin a bunch of PokeStops with absolute ease.
We would recommend that you whip out your phone and try and catch new Pokemon yourself, as you earn a lot more XP for these. While you're at it, increase your chances of catching them by performing an Excellent or a Curveball throw to earn bonus XP.
Again, you can also use a Lucky Egg during these walks to give yourself a nice boost in XP from the variety of stuff you'll interact with along the way. However, if you're going the evolutions route, we wouldn't recommend wasting a Lucky Egg on this method unless you plan on dropping real cash on them. Save them for your evolution spree, which is far more lucrative.

Best XP Farming Methods

Now that we know all of the most reliable methods, how should you maximize your XP earnings? Well, if you can, do all of the above.
Ultimately, it does depend on how much time and money you have on your hands. If money is no object, get yourself a Pokemon Go Plus and drop the cash on a bunch of Lucky Eggs. Go for 30 minute walks through busy areas and activate a Lucky Egg, catching a ton of Pokemon and spinning PokeStops and Gyms along the way.
Save up your Whismurs, Wurmples, Pidgeys, Caterpies, and Weedles and transfer any other Pokemon you don't need. When you have enough candy and Pokemon to perform 60 evolutions, pop a Lucky Egg and perform them all within that 30 minute time frame. You can also save a new evolution or two to perform in this period to double that extra XP you earn.
Not short on time? We'd recommend you join a group online that lets you share Friend Codes and max out your friends list. Send your 20 gifts every single day to your top 20 friends and build up to Best Friend status.
When you know you're about to hit that status, pop a Lucky Egg so you get double that enormous amount of XP. If you can, time it so your evolution session coincides with reaching Best Friend status to save on Lucky Eggs.
Finally, we'd also recommend performing Legendary Raids as often as possible – or, at the very least, perform Tier 4 Raids – to get that insane XP from it. Again, pop a Lucky Egg before you get your rewards to double your earnings.