How to transfer your character’s server in World of Warcraft

Here's how to do a server swap in WoW.

Night Elf Warlock casting a spell.
Image via Blizzard Entertainment

Character transfers are a service that Blizzard Entertainment offers for World of Warcraft players who are looking to send their characters to another server. Oftentimes, WoW players will append the entirety of their playing careers with all of their characters on one server, but occasionally, you’ll have to send a toon over to a new home. Let’s say you got recruited by a new high-end raiding guild, and you need to join them on their server—you’ll want a transfer. 

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Transferring a character from server to server costs a flat rate of $25, regardless of whether you’re doing a transfer between Classic realms or retail realms. Sometimes, Blizzard will do a sale on character services, but these sales are relatively few and far between. 

Whether you’re looking to join friends on another server, get away from some old guildmates, or just want for another server name attached to the back end of your character’s identity in trade chat, look no further. Here’s how to transfer your characters in World of Warcraft Dragonflight, as well as all eras of WoW Classic

How to transfer your characters in WoW Classic

Orc Shaman standing with a totem in old Orgrimmar.
There are many perks to server swapping in WoW Classic. Image via Blizzard Entertainment

Transferring your Classic-era characters is incredibly simple. However, it’s likely the transfer that has the most restrictions attached to it. You can transfer your Classic WoW characters to any other Classic-era server, but only Classic-era servers. You cannot send your Classic WoW character to a Wrath of the Lich King or Hardcore Classic server. 

How to transfer your characters in WoW Classic Hardcore

Character transfers in WoW Classic Hardcore are extremely convenient. Should your character ever die during their Hardcore run, you can take advantage of a free character transfer that sends your Hardcore character to a Classic-era server. You cannot come back to life after you die on Hardcore servers, so you may as well take advantage of this free transfer if you want to continue playing that character. Alternatively, you could leave them in the spirit realm on the Hardcore server as a monument to your failure. 

Related: What is solo self-found mode in WoW Classic Hardcore?

How to transfer your characters in Wrath of the Lich King Classic

Character transfers on Wrath of the Lich King-era servers work exactly as they do on Classic-era servers, except the major stipulation here is that you can only send Wrath characters between Wrath servers. 

How to transfer your characters in WoW Dragonflight

A dwarf hunter stands in combat stance in WoW Dragonflight.
A dwarf hunter stands ready to strike in WoW Dragonflight. Screenshot by Dot Esports

Modern WoW server transfers should be pretty self-explanatory. You obviously can’t send your retail WoW Dragonflight characters back into Classic WoW or vice-versa. You can send your WoW Dragonflight characters across servers if you want to, although this option has the least practicality, as server restrictions are far less prominent in retail WoW than they are in Classic. Unless you’re joining a new raiding guild, there aren’t many reasons to server-swap your Dragonflight character. 

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Image of Michael Kelly
Michael Kelly
Staff Writer covering World of Warcraft and League of Legends, among others. Mike's been with Dot since 2020, and has been covering esports since 2018.