Hinge tries a cheaper tier as fatigue bites

A dating app that already earns roughly twice as much per paying user as its sibling is about to ask some people for less. On a Monday earnings call, Match Group said it is testing a cheaper subscription tier for Hinge, built around additional filters and custom location boundaries that give users more say over who they see and where they meet.

The move arrives at an awkward-sounding moment: Hinge just posted its best quarter in the portfolio while Tinder, the company's revenue engine, continued to shrink. And the company did not say what the new plan will cost.

A cheaper Hinge, aimed narrowly

The new tier is not a blanket price cut. Match Group described its target audience in specific terms during the third-quarter 2026 earnings call on Monday. The features listed were additional filters and custom location boundaries — tools that affect who appears in a user's feed and where they can arrange to meet.

Steve Bailey, chief financial officer of Match Group, framed the design around two groups of users rather than the whole base.

“It’s designed for women in particular, but also for price-sensitive users,” said Steve Bailey, chief financial officer of Match Group. “Remember that Hinge is one of the highest-priced products we have. The revenue per payer, for example, at Hinge is almost twice that of Tinder, around $30. It also has one of the lower payer penetrations. Its payer penetration is only slightly more than half that of Tinder.”

— Steve Bailey, chief financial officer of Match Group

The two numbers Bailey cited describe a business with a narrow base paying a relatively high rate. That combination is what the test is built around, according to the company's comments on the call.

What Hinge actually earned

Hinge's quarter was strong on the metrics Match Group reported. Global monthly active users grew 12% year over year. Direct revenue rose 19%, and paying users climbed 23% to 2.3 million. By the end of the quarter, the app had generated $221 million in direct revenue — money from subscriptions and in-app purchases — with those 2.3 million paid subscribers on the books.

Tinder, despite remaining far larger in absolute terms, moved the other way. It brought in $480 million in direct revenue, a 2% decline year over year. Its paid user base stood at 8.9 million, down 4% from a year earlier.

The comparison matters for understanding why a strong performer is being asked to test a lower price point rather than a higher one.

• $221 million — Hinge direct revenue for the quarter
• 2.3 million — Hinge paid subscribers at quarter's end
• 12% — Hinge year-over-year growth in global monthly active users
• 19% — Hinge year-over-year growth in direct revenue
• 23% — Hinge year-over-year growth in paying users
• $480 million — Tinder direct revenue for the quarter, a 2% decline
• 8.9 million — Tinder paid users, down 4% year over year
• around $30 — Hinge revenue per payer, nearly double Tinder's

The pivot from a pricier bet

Hinge's subscription history runs in the opposite direction from this test. In 2023, the company experimented with a more expensive tier aimed at users willing to pay extra for features meant to get more out of the app. The current test asks whether a more affordable option can appeal to a broader audience.

Match Group's call did not explain the reasoning behind the reversal beyond the audience and features described. The company also did not respond immediately with pricing details; TechCrunch said it had reached out for more information.

Subscription fatigue in the background

The context Match Group is operating in, as described in the reporting, is a user base increasingly tired of paying for dating apps — and in some cases tired of dating apps altogether. Subscription fatigue, endless swiping, and frustration with the overall dating experience have left users questioning whether premium features are worth the money.

That backdrop is why the Hinge test is being read as an attempt to convert more users into paying customers without requiring them to spend as much upfront. Whether that works is not something the company has reported yet.

Beyond one-on-one matching

Match Group has also pointed to product changes meant to make its platforms feel less like traditional dating apps. Among the recent initiatives are Group Hangouts and Events, which the company describes as alternative ways for users to connect beyond the usual one-on-one matching experience.

Match Group said it plans to ramp up those efforts in the fourth quarter. The company also said it is seeing some signs of improvement, partly thanks to those efforts.

Faster recommendations on deck

Another initiative scheduled for the fourth quarter is real-time adaptive recommendations, which the company plans to begin testing then. Announced during its CEO Connection presentation in September, the feature will let Tinder respond to user actions within seconds rather than hours, with the goal of making recommendations more relevant and personalized.

Like the Hinge pricing test, the recommendation change has no published results yet. Both are scheduled for or already in testing during a period when Match Group is trying to reverse user fatigue across its brands.

What the test leaves open

Several specifics remain unanswered. Match Group did not share how much the new Hinge subscription will cost. It did not detail which additional filters or location boundary controls will be included beyond the general description given on the call. And it did not say when or in which markets the test will run.

What the company did say is that the plan is designed for women in particular and for price-sensitive users, and that Hinge carries one of the highest price points in its portfolio alongside one of the lower payer penetrations. Those two facts, as stated by Bailey, are the stated basis for testing a cheaper option.

Why it matters

For anyone who has looked at a dating app's subscription page and closed it, this test suggests at least one major operator is willing to consider that its price is part of why people don't convert. The company's own numbers point at a gap: Hinge earns roughly $30 per payer while its payer penetration sits at only slightly more than half of Tinder's. A lower tier aimed at price-sensitive users is one way to address that gap, according to the company's framing.

For the industry, the test is worth watching because it runs against the prevailing direction of the past few years, when Hinge itself tried going upmarket. If a cheaper tier brings in paying users without denting the existing base, other apps in the portfolio could face similar questions about where their pricing sits. If it doesn't, the results would suggest that price was not the barrier — and that the fatigue Match Group has described is the harder problem to solve.

Either outcome will show up in the metrics the company already reports: paying users, direct revenue, and revenue per payer. Those are the numbers to check when Match Group next updates investors on the Hinge test.