In Switzerland, the National Immunization Advisory Group (NITAG) has formulated recom-mendations for pneumococcal vaccination among adult-risk patients. Little is known about gen-eral practitioners’ (GPs’) perception, knowledge and implementation of these recommendations. Therefore, we investigated GPs’ awareness and drivers of and barriers to pneumococcal vaccina-tion by means of a web-based questionnaire. Of the 300 study participants, 81.3% were aware of the recommendations for vaccinating adult risk patients, but only 42.7 % were aware of all risk groups. The recommendations were perceived by 79.7% as slightly to very complex. Most GPs (66.7%) had good arguments to convince patients to get vaccinated, but only 41.7% reported rec-ognizing patients at risk for pneumococcal disease and only 46.7% checked their patients’ vac-cination status and proposed vaccination if needed. The main reasons for not vaccinating were patients’ refusal (80.1%), lack of reimbursement by the health insurance (34.5%), patients’ fear of side effects (25.1%), and lack of regulatory approval despite the NITAG recommendations (23.7%). Most (77.3%) agreed that the treating chronic disease specialist should recommend the vaccination and 94.7 % believed that adult-risk patients would not be aware of their need for pneumococcal vaccination. Optimal implementation of the recommendations will require addressing knowledge gaps and reported barriers.