Previous research has shown that task switching can hurt how well information is encoded: Information presented on a switch trial is less well remembered than information presented on a repetition trial. This pattern suggests that higher control needs during switching lead to less attention toward the new task and thus worse encoding of information. While language switching shares many cognitive processes with task switching, it also differs in key components (e.g., need for selective attention). Thus, to better understand how switching can impact memory, we investigated whether language switching can also hurt how well information is encoded. In two experiments (N1 = 58; N2 = 55), unbalanced adult German-English bilinguals first completed a language switching task where pictures had to be named (Experiment 1) or categorized (Experiment 2) either in their L1 (German) or L2 (English) in a predictable sequence (e.g., L1, L1, L2, L2, L1, L1, etc.). After a filler task, they were asked to indicate whether a picture had been presented before and, if so, in what language. In Experiment 1, pictures that had been presented in participants’ L2 were more likely to be remembered correctly than pictures presented in participants’ L1. Importantly, however, we found no evidence that language switching hurt memory encoding, despite robust switch costs during picture naming. In Experiment 2, we again found no evidence that language switching hurt recognition memory. Together, these results suggest that a mechanism related to cognitive processes that are not shared between language and task switching hurts memory encoding.