Hinge cheaper subscription: dating app tests lower-priced tier aimed at women

Hinge, the dating app owned by Match Group, is testing a new subscription tier that will cost less than its existing paid plans, the company told investors on Monday, 2 November 2026, when it reported its results for the July to September quarter. Match Group's chief financial officer, Steve Bailey, said the cheaper tier is designed with women in mind, and also for users who are sensitive to price. The company said the tier will include extra filters and the option to set custom location boundaries, but it has not disclosed the price or said in which countries the test is running.

For many young people, dating apps are now the default way to meet someone new, and paying for them has become a sore point. A free account on most big apps limits how many profiles a user can like in a day and how finely they can filter the people they see. The paid plans remove those limits, but at close to $100 for three months on Hinge, they are a real cost for students and first-jobbers. A cheaper middle step answers a complaint users have made for years: that the useful features sit behind a price meant for the most committed paying users.

The way Match Group described the tier is also telling. By aiming it at women first, the company is focusing on the group that dating apps most need to keep. Women on dating apps often report a flood of low-effort messages; tools such as tighter filters and a set location boundary are meant to help a user see fewer, more relevant profiles. Whether the test leads to a permanent plan, and at what price, is not yet known. Match Group has said only that it is a test.

The tier also shows where the company's growth now comes from. Tinder, the older and bigger app, is still recovering: its paying users fell 4% from a year earlier in the quarter, a smaller fall than the 5% in the April to June quarter, and the company expects Tinder's direct revenue for 2026 to be slightly lower than in 2025. Hinge, by contrast, grew users, revenue and paying users at double-digit rates. Management said revenue per paying user on Hinge fell slightly from a year earlier and linked this to pricing changes and the new lower-priced tier, and it expects more of that pressure in the October to December quarter. In plain words, Match Group is choosing to have more people pay a little, rather than fewer people pay a lot.

Peepals calculation: Hinge+ at $89.99 for three months works out to about $30 a month, and HingeX at $99.99 for three months to about $33.33 a month ($89.99 / 3 = $30.00; $99.99 / 3 = $33.33), so the top plan costs about 11% more than the middle one ($99.99 / $89.99 = 1.11). Any tier priced below Hinge+ would therefore cost less than about $30 a month for a three-month plan. Our calculation from the reported figures.

Short-term: Some Hinge users in the markets where the test runs may see a new, cheaper plan offered in the app. Others will see no change. Since the company has not named the markets, users in India cannot yet know whether they are part of it.

Long-term: If the test works, a three-step paid ladder could become normal across dating apps, with a low-cost plan for basic tools and premium plans for those who want more. That may make paying more common but less costly per person, which matches the company's own description of lower revenue per paying user.

Who is affected: Young adults who use Hinge, especially women and users who find the current paid plans too expensive, and investors following Match Group, which also owns Tinder.

What to watch next: Match Group said it expects further pressure on Hinge's revenue per paying user in the fourth quarter, and it keeps its goal of $1 billion in Hinge revenue for 2027.

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