Grindr Review: 15 Million Monthly Users, XTRA From £9.99 and a £26m UK Data Settlement

Seventeen years after it first put a grid of nearby faces on a phone screen, Grindr is still the default app for gay, bi, trans and queer men in most cities on earth. The free version is busy and ad-heavy, the paid tiers are pricier than most rivals, and its privacy history deserves a careful read before you hand over your location.

Grindr Promo Code: none needed
There is no official Grindr promo code. The real saving is on the subscription length: Grindr XTRA appears on the UK App Store from £9.99, but the store does not say which plan length each price covers, so check the in-app store for the durations offered to you.

Offer detail	What you get
Promo Code	None needed
Welcome offer	Free ad-supported plan; XTRA from £9.99, Unlimited from £24.99 (UK App Store listing)
Who qualifies	Anyone aged 18 or over, in any country where Grindr is not blocked
Key terms	Subscriptions renew automatically; Grindr says all purchases are final and non-refundable
How to claim	Download the app, create a profile, then upgrade from the in-app store

Get the Grindr offer

Grindr at a glance

• Owner: Grindr Inc. (NYSE: GRND), via Grindr LLC
• Launched: 2009
• Best for: gay, bi, trans and queer people who want to meet nearby
• Free plan: yes, with ads and a limited grid
• Premium from: £9.99 (XTRA, UK App Store)
• Verification: no photo verification badge; in-app video chat and a “Taken on Grindr” photo watermark
• Trustpilot: 1.1/5 from 1,039 reviews | App Store (UK): 4.3/5 from 56k ratings

Our verdict
Grindr is hard to replace if you want to know who is around you right now, whether you live in Leeds or have just landed in Lisbon. Nothing else matches its reach among queer men. But the free tier has been squeezed, the paywall is steep, and the app’s approach to data has twice ended up in front of regulators or courts. Use it, but use the privacy settings too, and think twice before paying for Unlimited when XTRA covers most of what people actually need.

Pros

• The largest user base of any app for gay and bi men: around 15 million monthly active users
• Genuinely useful safety tools for people in or travelling to countries where being LGBTQ+ is risky
• Distance hiding, a discreet app icon and PIN Lock are available to everyone
• XTRA removes ads and widens the grid to 500 profiles
• Works on the web as well as on phones for paying members

Cons

• The free grid shows only dozens of nearby profiles
• Unlimited is expensive next to Hinge or Tinder
• No refunds under Grindr’s terms
• A NOK 65 million fine in Norway over data sharing, upheld on appeal
• Very poor Trustpilot score, with frequent complaints about bans and paywalls

Grindr free vs paid: what you get without paying

The free version still does the main job. You build a profile, see a grid of people sorted by distance, send messages and photos, and block or report anyone who makes you uneasy. For a new arrival in London who simply wants to find a few friends in the area, or someone checking who is about before a night out in Manchester’s Gay Village, it is often enough.

The limits are where the frustration starts. Grindr’s own help centre says free users see “dozens” of nearby profiles in the grid, can only use some combinations of filters and tags, and get a preview of the Popular feed rather than the full list. Ads appear between profiles and in chats. Grindr Web, the browser version, is for XTRA and Unlimited subscribers only.

Grindr XTRA and Unlimited prices: what each plan costs in the UK

Grindr sells two main subscriptions, XTRA and Unlimited, plus one-off extras. Prices vary by platform, plan length and sometimes age, and the UK App Store lists them without naming the duration of each.

Product (UK App Store)	£	US$	€
XTRA (lowest listed)	£9.99	$13.31	€11.86
XTRA	£10.99	$14.65	€13.04
XTRA	£14.99	$19.98	€17.79
XTRA (highest listed)	£15.99	$21.31	€18.98
Unlimited (lowest listed)	£24.99	$33.30	€29.66
Unlimited (highest listed)	£39.99	$53.29	€47.46
“1 MONTH” (plan not named)	£8.49	$11.31	€10.08
“1 MONTH” (plan not named)	£21.99	$29.30	€26.10
Boost	£11.99	$15.98	€14.23
Right Now	£1.99	$2.65	€2.36

Grindr does not publish UK prices by plan length, so check the durations and prices the in-app store shows you before you confirm.

What XTRA adds: no third-party ads, up to 500 of the nearest profiles in the grid, any combination of filters, read receipts, saved phrases, up to five expiring photos a day, premium album features, Grindr Web, and up to five connections a day with people elsewhere in the world through Explore.

What Unlimited adds: every profile in the grid with no cap, the daily For You recommendations, the ability to unsend a message, and Incognito, which hides your online status. Grindr’s help centre also lists an Unlimited Day Pass, though it does not give a price.

Above both sits Edge, an AI-led tier Grindr began testing in February 2026 in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand at US$349.99 to US$499.99 (£262.63 to £375.19 / €311.70 to €445.29) a month, according to PinkNews. The UK is not among the test markets.

The cheapest way to pay: stay on free until you know you use the app often, then choose XTRA rather than Unlimited, and pick a longer plan if you are sure you will keep it. Compare the in-app price with the App Store and Google Play listings, since they can differ.

Grindr discounts, promo codes and student deals: what exists and what doesn’t

There is no official Grindr promo code, and codes circulating on coupon sites are not something Grindr publishes. We found no student discount, no NHS or key worker offer and no standard free trial. The only real ways to pay less are a longer subscription, sticking with XTRA, or using the free plan with its limits. Anyone selling a “free Unlimited” code is best ignored.

Who owns Grindr and who uses it

Grindr launched in 2009 and is now run by Grindr Inc., listed on the New York Stock Exchange under GRND since a merger with a special purpose acquisition company closed in November 2022. Its principal office is in West Hollywood, California, with further offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago and New York.

In its second-quarter 2026 results, published on 6 August 2026, Grindr reported around 15 million average monthly active users and 1.4 million average paying users, up 16% on a year earlier, with quarterly revenue of US$138 million. The app is aimed at gay, bi, trans and queer people, is restricted to adults aged 18 and over, and is used in most countries. Grindr itself says the service has been banned in Indonesia and Turkey, and it blocks access from North Korea.

Grindr features that matter: the grid, Explore, Roam and filters

• The grid: the heart of the app. Profiles are ordered by distance, nearest first. Tags and filters let you narrow by age, what people are looking for and more.
• Explore: browse people in another city, useful before a trip. XTRA allows five connections a day this way.
• Roam: lets you appear in a destination before you arrive, which Grindr’s travel guidance suggests for scouting a place in advance.
• For You and Popular: algorithm-led feeds of suggested and well-liked profiles, with full access on paid tiers.
• Right Now: a separate, opt-in space for people hoping to meet up soon, sold here as a £1.99 extra.
• Video chat and albums: in-app video calls help confirm someone is who they say they are before meeting, and albums let you share photos with specific people.
• Boost: puts your profile in front of more people for a short time, £11.99 on the UK App Store.

Is Grindr safe? Safety, verification and privacy

For many users this is the section that matters most. Grindr publishes a risk framework that grades countries from Level 1 (Malta is its example of strong protections) to Level 5, where the app is banned or blocked. In Level 3 and Level 4 countries, Grindr switches off Show Distance automatically, sends security alerts (weekly in Level 3, daily in Level 4) and makes its safety features free. Egypt and Syria are among the Level 4 examples it cites.

Several tools began life for higher-risk regions and are now available to everyone: screenshot blocking on expiring photos, albums and profiles; disappearing photos; and message unsending, though Grindr’s help centre now lists unsending as an Unlimited feature. Working with the free-expression group Article 19 and The Guardian Project, Grindr also created a discreet app icon that disguises the app as something like a notepad or clock, after reports of users being harassed at checkpoints in Beirut when officers spotted the icon. PIN Lock adds a code to the app itself, and you can hide your distance manually anywhere. Grindr notes that people may still estimate your distance from your position in the grid, and that screenshot blocking is not foolproof.

Its travel guidance for LGBTQ+ people is practical rather than alarming: check local laws through ILGA or Human Rights Watch before you go, think about what your profile and chats reveal, and “exercise extreme caution” where same-sex relationships are criminalised. Trans and gender-diverse travellers are advised to think about document gender markers and airport security.

There is no photo verification badge of the kind Tinder and Hinge use. Since July 2025, though, every UK user has had to pass a one-off age check to keep using the app, either a video selfie or a video selfie with photo ID.

Grindr’s privacy record, in order:

• April 2018: BuzzFeed News reported that Grindr had shared users’ HIV status with two app analytics firms. Grindr said it would stop sharing that data.
• 15 December 2021: Datatilsynet, the Norwegian Data Protection Authority, fined Grindr NOK 65 million (about US$6 million) for sharing personal data, including location, age and the fact that someone used the app, with advertisers between 2018 and 2020 without valid consent. Because the data could reveal sexual orientation, it was treated as sensitive under GDPR.
• 29 September 2023: Norway’s Privacy Board (Personvernnemnda) upheld the fine.
• 1 July 2024: Oslo District Court rejected Grindr’s challenge and ordered it to pay around NOK 500,000 in costs.
• 21 October 2025: the Borgarting Court of Appeal upheld the fine.
• April 2024: a group claim was filed in the High Court in London on behalf of UK users over the alleged sharing of sensitive data, including HIV status.
• September 2026: Grindr agreed to pay £26 million to settle that claim, brought on behalf of about 12,000 people, saying the settlement includes no admission of liability.

What users say about Grindr

The ratings split sharply. On the UK App Store Grindr scores 4.3 out of 5 from around 56,000 ratings, while on Trustpilot it sits at 1.1 out of 5 from 1,039 reviews. On Google Play it scores 4.1 from about 1.68 million reviews. The complaints cluster around paywalls, account bans and fake profiles.

“It’s unfortunately become a cash-grab app with no opportunity realistically for people to meet.” J21_XOX, UK App Store, January 2025

“Do not ever upgrade. I would suggest that you sign up for a different platform.” Andrew M., New Zealand, Trustpilot, September 2026

How to sign up, set up a good Grindr profile and cancel

1. Download Grindr from the App Store or Google Play and confirm you are 18 or over.
2. Create an account, then complete the one-off UK age check with a video selfie, with or without photo ID.
3. Add a clear, recent photo. A face is not compulsory, and many people in less tolerant places choose not to show one.
4. Write a short, specific bio. “New to Bristol, into climbing and quiz nights” gets better replies than a blank box.
5. Open the Safety & Privacy Center and decide on Show Distance, PIN Lock and the discreet icon before you start chatting.
6. Use video chat before meeting anyone, and meet first in a public place.
7. To cancel on iPhone: open the App Store, tap your profile icon, then Subscriptions, Grindr and Cancel Subscription.
8. To cancel on Android: open Google Play, tap your profile icon, then Payments & Subscriptions, Subscriptions, and Cancel under Grindr.
9. Deleting the app or your profile does not stop billing, and Grindr does not offer refunds under its terms.

Grindr vs Hinge vs Tinder

	Grindr	Hinge	Tinder
Free plan	Yes, with ads	Yes	Yes
Premium from (UK App Store)	£9.99 (XTRA)	£12.99 (Hinge+)	£3.99 (Tinder Plus)
Best for	Gay, bi, trans and queer people meeting nearby	Relationship-minded daters of every orientation	A big, mixed pool for casual or serious dating
Verification	Video chat; no badge	Selfie verification	Photo verification
Owner	Grindr Inc.	Match Group	Match Group

Choose Grindr if you are a gay, bi or queer man who wants the biggest local pool and the best travel safety tools. Choose Hinge if you want slower, prompt-led conversations aimed at relationships. Choose Tinder if you want a broad audience and the cheapest entry to paid features. Plenty of people keep two of the three.

Grindr FAQs

Is Grindr free?
Yes. The free plan lets you build a profile, browse nearby profiles and chat, with ads and a limited grid.

How much is Grindr XTRA in the UK?
The UK App Store lists XTRA from £9.99, with other XTRA prices up to £15.99 depending on plan length.

Is Grindr Unlimited worth it over XTRA?
For most people, no. XTRA removes ads and shows 500 profiles. Unlimited adds every profile, Incognito and unsending, from £24.99.

Is there a Grindr promo code or student discount?
No official promo code or student discount exists.

Is Grindr safe to use abroad?
It can be used more safely with distance hidden, PIN Lock on and the discreet icon set. Check local laws first; in some countries Grindr is banned or blocked.

Why was Grindr fined in Norway?
Datatilsynet fined it NOK 65 million in December 2021 for sharing users’ data with advertisers without valid consent. Courts upheld the fine in 2024 and 2025.

Can I get a refund on Grindr?
Grindr says all purchases are final and non-refundable. Apple and Google handle their own refund requests.

Who owns Grindr?
Grindr Inc., a US company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Visit Grindr

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