Inkay first appeared in A Battle of Aerial Mobility! while Team Rocket was dining at a café in Lumiose City. As Team Rocket were busy celebrating news from Giovanni, Inkay stole their food and proceeded to eat it from under their table. While Team Rocket were on their balloon, the same Inkay from before approached them when they dropped their sandwich and sprayed ink at them. After Team Rocket cleaned themselves off, James scanned the Inkay to get some details about it and the Team Rocket trio attempted to battle it with Wobbuffet. However, James offered Inkay some food instead as bait. While Inkay was distracted, James threw a Poké Ball at it and caught it, much to the surprise of Jessie and Meowth.
In A Shockingly Cheeky Friendship!, it was sent out for the first time to help capture Pikachu and a Dedenne, but the two managed to evade them. When the two were rescued by Ash and his friends, Team Rocket arrived and James sent Inkay out again to battle Dedenne, who was under Clemont's command. The two proved to be evenly matched until Dedenne used Nuzzle on Inkay, paralyzing it and allowing Dedenne and Pikachu to defeat it by combining their respective Thunder Shock and Thunderbolt.
In Heroes - Friends and Faux Alike!, Inkay was part of Team Rocket's plan to impersonate Ash and his friends. Inkay disguised itself as Pikachu alongside its trainer, who masqueraded as Ash. James meets a boy Myron and his Pancham and asks for a battle, to which Myron declines. James has Inkay attack Pancham with its Psybeam and Tackle anyway, which causes Myron to call for Officer Jenny. Inkay is later seen helping Team Rocket eat a bunch of food and running off without paying.
In XY054, it chased after a truck containing driven by three Malamar, recognizing its leader as the Malamar that had previously hypnotized it. When the Evil Malamar kidnapped their friends, it, James, Meowth and Clemont were able to escape from the Malamar thanks to Clemont's Bunnelby, it later helped to defeat the Evil Malamar after convincing a group of Good Malamar and other Inkay to assist. Despite being hypnotized, James was able to break Inkay free and thwart its plans. Although the Malamar escaped, Inkay was offered to join the Good Malamar's group in gratitude of its efforts, but decided to stay with James much to its trainer's glee.