By the numbers
The real cost of dating apps
The apps quote you a tempting weekly price. Below is what that actually works out to per month, the framing tricks they use, and the dark patterns regulators and courts have already flagged. We earn nothing from any of these apps — so we can tell you when the answer is “don't pay.”
Overall gender split
~65% men / 35% women
Cost per date (Hinge, US)
~$9.83 men · $3.61 women (best value of the majors)
Cost per date (Tinder Platinum, US)
~$19.77 men · $8.06 women
Match Group revenue (FY2025)
$3.49B — flat YoY, propped up by +5% revenue-per-payer against −5% payers
Does paying for Super Likes help?
CONTESTED — heavy spenders matched no better than non-payers (single-source, correlational). Treat as “no proven benefit.” (disputed — read with caution)
Monthly cost, normalised (US)
From the cheapest tier to the most expensive, true $/month. Prices are A/B-tested snapshots (observed 2026-06-06) — see methodology.
| App | Owner | From | Top tier | Flags |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tinder | Match Group | $23.33/mo | $499/mo | 2 red |
| Hinge | Match Group | $16.67/mo | $49.99/mo | 1 red |
| Match.com | Match Group | $18.99/mo | $45.99/mo | 1 red |
| OkCupid | Match Group | $19.99/mo | $54.99/mo | no red flags |
| Plenty of Fish | Match Group | $10.47/mo | $19.99/mo | no red flags |
| The League | Match Group | $299/mo | $429/mo | 1 red |
| Bumble | Bumble Inc. | $39.99/mo | $130/mo | 2 red |
| eharmony | ProSiebenSat.1 (ParshipMeet) | $45.9/mo | $65.9/mo | 2 red |
| Grindr | Grindr Inc. | $8.33/mo | $39.99/mo | no red flags |
| Coffee Meets Bagel | Coffee Meets Bagel | $33.33/mo | $46.99/mo | 2 red |
| Feeld | Feeld Ltd. | $8/mo | $11.99/mo | no red flags |
| Stir | Match Group | $12/mo | $86.62/mo | 1 red |
The dark-pattern evidence library
Documented by regulators, researchers and courts — not opinion.
FTC $14M settlement (Aug 2025)
Match, Tinder, OkCupid, Hinge and Plenty of Fish: bot/scam-bait marketing to sell subscriptions, false “guarantees,” hard-to-cancel subscriptions, and locking out users who disputed charges.
sourceTinder age-based pricing — $60.5M settlement (Candelore)
Tinder charged users aged 29+ more than under-29s for the same Plus/Gold features. Class-action settlement, preliminary approval 2026.
sourcePersonalized pricing up to 5× (Mozilla / Consumers International, 2022)
Tinder Plus prices varied by user; some paid up to five times more for the same service, and 30–49-year-olds paid ~65% more than 18–29s.
source“Designed to be deleted” class action (Feb 2024)
Alleges Tinder/Hinge are engineered for compulsion — a “perpetual pay-to-play loop” — and seeks to strip Hinge’s “designed to be deleted” slogan.
sourceWork out your own number
Pick the apps and tiers you pay for — the calculator shows the real monthly cost, the framing reveal, and the flags.
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