Hinge is testing a lower-cost subscription as its parent company, Match Group, seeks to attract more paying users amid growing frustration with dating apps and recurring subscriptions.
Match Group announced the new tier during its third-quarter 2026 earnings call. It will include features such as additional filters and custom location boundaries, giving subscribers more control over who they see and where they meet people. The company has not said how much the plan will cost.
Match Group CFO Steve Bailey said the offer is designed particularly for women and also for users who are sensitive to price. He noted that Hinge generates about $30 in revenue per payer, almost twice Tinder’s figure, while its payer penetration is only slightly more than half Tinder’s.
Hinge delivered stronger growth than Tinder in the quarter. Its global monthly active users rose 12% year over year, direct revenue increased 19% to $221 million, and paying users climbed 23% to 2.3 million. Direct revenue includes income from subscriptions and in-app purchases.
Tinder recorded $480 million in direct revenue and had 8.9 million paying users, down 4% from a year earlier. Its direct revenue fell 2% year over year.
The cheaper Hinge tier follows a 2023 experiment with a more expensive subscription aimed at users willing to pay extra for additional features. The new test explores whether a lower price can bring more users into the paid service.
Match Group is also pursuing ways to make its apps feel less like conventional dating platforms. Group Hangouts and Events offer alternatives to one-on-one matching, and the company plans to expand those efforts in the fourth quarter. It also plans to begin testing real-time adaptive recommendations on Tinder during the quarter, allowing the app to respond to user actions within seconds rather than hours.
Sources: TechCrunch.