Fourteen years after it popularised the swipe, Tinder is still the dating app most people download first. The free version does more than you might expect; the paid tiers are a more mixed proposition, not least because what you pay can depend on how old you are.
Tinder Promo Code: none needed
Promo Code: None needed. Tinder does not publish promo codes.
Best real saving: a longer plan. In the US, Gold costs $39.99 for one month but $23.33 a month on a six-month plan, roughly 42% less per month. In the UK, the App Store lists Gold from £7.49 to £14.99 without naming plan lengths, so check the monthly cost in the app before you choose.
Key terms: subscriptions renew automatically until you cancel; prices vary by age, platform and location.
| Offer detail | What you get |
|---|---|
| Promo Code | None needed |
| Welcome offer | Free app with swiping, matching and messaging; Tinder Plus from £3.99 on the UK App Store |
| Who qualifies | Anyone aged 18 or over; new UK sign-ups must pass a Face Check video selfie |
| Key terms | Auto-renews within 24 hours of the period ending; most purchases non-refundable; price can vary by age and platform |
| How to claim | Download the app, create a profile, then tap the subscription banner in your profile to compare tiers |
Tinder: key facts
- Official website: tinder.com
- Owner: Match Group (Tinder LLC)
- Headquarters: West Hollywood, California, USA
- Founded: 2012 (App Store launch September 2012)
- Ratings: App Store 4.2 (274k ratings, UK App Store); Trustpilot 1.2 (5,074 reviews)
- Headline offer: Free to swipe, match and message; Tinder Plus from £3.99 on the UK App Store
- Promo Code: None needed
- Price from: £3.99 (Tinder Plus, UK App Store)
- Free plan or trial: Yes: profile, swiping, matching and messaging, with a cap on likes and ads
- Payment methods: Apple App Store, Google Play, Credit or debit card, PayPal
- Best features: Largest dating pool of the UK mainstream apps; Face Check video selfie for new UK users; Passport to swipe in another city
Tinder at a glance
- Owner: Match Group (Tinder LLC, West Hollywood, California)
- Launched: September 2012
- Best for: meeting lots of people quickly, in cities and while travelling
- Free plan: yes, with swiping, matching and messaging
- Premium from: £3.99 (Tinder Plus, UK App Store)
- Verification: Face Check video selfie for new UK users, Photo Verified badge, optional ID check
- Trustpilot / App Store: 1.2/5 (5,074 reviews) / 4.2/5 (274k ratings, UK)
Our verdict
Tinder remains the broadest net in British dating. If you live in a city, the free app alone will give you plenty of people to talk to, and the arrival of mandatory Face Check for new UK users makes the pool feel less like a lottery than it once did. The paid tiers are harder to love. Plus is a fair price for unlimited likes and Passport; Gold is only worth it if you are getting more likes than you can see; Platinum is a luxury. The opaque, age-linked pricing is the biggest irritation, and the Trustpilot score is grim.
Pros
- The largest user base of any app here, so fewer empty swipes outside London
- Free plan lets you match and message without paying
- Face Check video selfie for every new UK sign-up
- Passport lets you meet people in a city before you arrive
- New social features such as Double Date for people who prefer company on a first meeting
Cons
- Prices are not published and can rise with your age
- Most purchases are non-refundable, and deleting the app does not cancel a subscription
- A Trustpilot score of 1.2 out of 5, dominated by billing and ban complaints
- The best features (seeing who likes you, messaging before a match) sit behind the dearer tiers
- Its reputation as a casual app can put off people looking for something serious
Tinder free vs paid: what you get without spending a penny
The free version of Tinder is the whole app, with a speed limit. You build a profile with photos and a short bio, set the age range and distance you want, and swipe right on people you like. When two people swipe right on each other it is a match, and only then can you message. There is no charge to match, chat or meet.
What the free tier rations is volume. You get a capped number of likes in a given period, ads appear between profiles, and you cannot undo a left swipe made in haste. You also cannot see who has already liked you; you find out only when you happen to like them back.
For most people that is enough. Someone who has just moved to London and wants to fill a calendar with drinks, or a first-timer in Manchester planning a Saturday coffee in the Northern Quarter, can do it all without a subscription. Paying makes sense mainly if you hit the like cap regularly, or if you want to set your location somewhere else before a move or a trip.
Tinder Plus, Gold and Platinum prices in the UK, and the cheapest way to pay
Tinder sells three main subscriptions, each building on the last.
- Tinder Plus: unlimited likes, unlimited rewinds, Passport (swipe in any city) and no ads.
- Tinder Gold: everything in Plus, plus See Who Likes You, daily Top Picks, five Super Likes a week and one Boost a month.
- Tinder Platinum: everything in Gold, plus the option to message someone before you match, priority placement for your likes and a view of the likes you have sent in the past seven days.
There is also Tinder Select, an invite-only tier priced at $499 a month in the US, which few people will ever be offered.
Tinder does not publish a UK price list. Prices are set per account and can differ by age, platform and location, so two friends on the same sofa may be quoted different sums. The UK App Store lists these purchase prices, without saying which length of plan each one covers:
| Item (UK App Store) | £ | $ | € |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tinder Plus | 3.99 | 5.32 | 4.73 |
| Tinder Gold | 7.49 | 9.98 | 8.89 |
| Tinder Gold | 11.99 | 15.98 | 14.23 |
| Tinder Gold | 13.99 | 18.64 | 16.60 |
| Tinder Gold | 14.99 | 19.98 | 17.79 |
| 1 Boost | 3.99 / 7.99 | 5.32 / 10.65 | 4.73 / 9.48 |
| 3 Boosts | 9.99 | 13.31 | 11.86 |
| 5 Super Likes | 4.99 | 6.65 | 5.92 |
Platinum does not appear in the UK list, although it is sold in the app. Tinder does not publish UK prices by plan length, so the upgrade screen is the only place to see what a week, a month or six months costs on your account.
For comparison, Android Authority reported US prices in November 2025 of $24.99 (£18.75 / €22.26) a month for Plus, $39.99 (£30.01 / €35.62) for Gold and $49.99 (£37.51 / €44.52) for Platinum. On six-month plans those fell to $16.66 (£12.50 / €14.84), $23.33 (£17.51 / €20.78) and $29.99 (£22.50 / €26.71) a month.
The cheapest way to pay is to decide on a tier, then choose the longest plan you are confident you will use, because monthly cost falls sharply with length. It is also worth comparing the in-app price with tinder.com, since purchases made on the web are billed separately from Apple and Google. And if you are only after one feature, a single Boost before a Friday evening may cost less than a month of Gold.
Tinder promo codes, discounts and student deals: what exists and what doesn’t
There are no official Tinder promo codes. Coupon sites list them, but Tinder does not issue codes for its subscriptions, and payment goes through Apple, Google or Tinder’s own checkout, none of which has a field for one.
There is no student discount in the UK either. Tinder U, launched in 2018, was a campus feature for US college students that helped them meet people at nearby universities, not a price cut.
What Tinder does offer is in-app discounts, shown to some users and not others. After an investigation by EU consumer authorities, Tinder agreed in March 2024 to tell users in the EU when a price has been personalised and why, for example because they had previously turned down the standard rate. The UK was not part of that case. Age is the other factor: in California, Tinder agreed a $60.5 million settlement over charging older users more, which a court preliminarily approved in January 2026. Tinder denies wrongdoing.
Who owns Tinder and who uses it
Tinder was built at a hackathon in early 2012 and launched on the App Store in September that year. Its founders included Sean Rad, Justin Mateen, Jonathan Badeen and Whitney Wolfe Herd, who later founded Bumble. Today it belongs to Match Group, the Dallas-based company that also owns Hinge, Match.com and Plenty of Fish.
Tinder says it is available in 190 countries and 45 languages. Match Group no longer reports Tinder’s user numbers separately in its quarterly results; the most recent widely cited figure is around 75 million monthly users in 2022. In its second-quarter 2026 results, Match said Tinder’s year-on-year decline in daily users had narrowed to 4%, its best result in ten quarters, with improvement among women and in its top five markets.
The app is for adults only, with a minimum age of 18. It skews young, and Match has aimed recent features squarely at 18 to 24 year olds. Its strength is density: in London, Birmingham, Manchester or Glasgow there is rarely a shortage of profiles, and it is often the app with the most people in smaller towns too.
Tinder features that matter
Matching. Swiping is still the core. Tinder ranks profiles using its own recommendation system, which Match says it has reworked in the past year.
Passport. Plus and above let you set your location anywhere in the world. It is genuinely useful for someone relocating to Leeds next month, or anyone who wants to line up a coffee before a work trip to Lisbon.
Modes and Double Date. In September 2025 Tinder introduced Modes, which group features such as Blind Date into structured experiences. Double Date lets you pair up with a friend and match with another pair, which takes the edge off a first meeting. Match has also mentioned a Music Mode and, in the US and selected European cities, Tinder Events.
Matchmaker. Since 2023, friends and family can suggest matches for you, which will appeal to anyone whose friends already have opinions.
Video. Face to Face, rolled out in the UK and worldwide in 2020, lets you video chat with a match inside the app before deciding to meet. Both people have to opt in before a call can start.
Privacy controls. Since 2023, subscribers on Plus and above can switch on Incognito mode, so that only people they have liked see them in their recommendations.
Is Tinder safe? Verification, safety tools and privacy
Since March 2026, every new Tinder user in the UK must complete Face Check: a short video selfie that Tinder compares with your profile photos. Pass it and you receive a Photo Verified badge; the check is also designed to spot duplicate accounts. Tinder has offered photo verification since 2021, video verification since 2023 and optional ID checks since 2024. The company says verification has cut exposure to fake or harmful accounts by more than 60%.
Inside chats, Tinder uses two prompts: “Does This Bother You?” asks whether an offensive message bothers you, and “Are You Sure?” asks a sender to think again before sending something harmful. You can report or unmatch at any point. The usual advice still applies: meet somewhere public, tell a friend where you are going, and never send money to someone you have not met.
On privacy, the record is mixed. Researchers found flaws that exposed users’ locations in 2013 and 2016, both since fixed. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission opened an inquiry into Tinder’s handling of access requests and data retention in February 2020 and issued a preliminary draft decision in January 2024; Match has said a fine of up to $60 million is possible. No final decision had been reported in Match’s latest annual filing. The app’s App Store privacy label lists location, contacts, user content and sensitive information among the data linked to you.
Tinder lets you choose from a wide range of gender identities and show your sexual orientation on your profile. It has faced criticism in the past over trans users being wrongly reported and banned.
What users say about Tinder
Opinion splits sharply by platform. On the UK App Store Tinder scores 4.2 out of 5 from 274,000 ratings. On Trustpilot it scores 1.2 from 5,074 reviews, 89% of them one-star, although the profile is unclaimed and Trustpilot notes that Tinder has never invited reviews, so unhappy customers dominate.
The complaints mostly concern billing and bans. “Account got deleted and I paid for subscription,” wrote Tyler H. from Canada in August 2026. The happier reviews are short and practical: “User friendly and easy to use app,” said Ayush M. from India the same month.
How to sign up, build a good Tinder profile and cancel a subscription
- Download Tinder from the App Store or Google Play, or go to tinder.com.
- Sign up with your phone number, Google or Apple account, and confirm you are 18 or over.
- Complete Face Check by recording a short video selfie.
- Add at least four recent photos: one clear face shot, one full length, one doing something you enjoy. Skip group shots where nobody can tell which one is you.
- Write a bio that gives someone an easy opening, such as the best curry house in Rusholme or the book you keep recommending.
- Set your age range and distance, then swipe for a week before deciding whether to pay.
- To cancel on iPhone, open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions, choose Tinder and tap Cancel Subscription.
- To cancel on Android through Google Play, open Play, tap your profile icon, then Payments & Subscriptions, Subscriptions, Tinder, Cancel subscription.
- If you paid by card or PayPal in the app or on tinder.com, tap your profile icon, choose Manage Payment Account, then Cancel Subscription.
Deleting the app or your account does not cancel a subscription. Refunds for App Store and Google Play purchases are handled by Apple and Google; for direct purchases, contact Tinder support from the email address you used, quoting the order number.
Tinder vs Bumble vs Hinge
| Tinder | Bumble | Hinge | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes: swipe, match, message | Yes: swipe, match, message | Yes: likes, prompts, message |
| Premium from | £3.99 (Plus, App Store) | £9.99 for 7 days of Premium (App Store) | £12.99 (Hinge+, App Store) |
| Best for | The biggest pool, casual to serious | Control over who contacts you, plus strong safety tools | People who want a relationship |
| Verification | Face Check video selfie (mandatory for new UK users) | Photo verification | Selfie verification |
| Owner | Match Group | Bumble Inc. | Match Group |
Pick Tinder if you want numbers and are not yet sure what you are looking for. Pick Bumble if you prefer a slower pace and want strong free safety tools, including photo and ID verification. Pick Hinge if you want prompts that start a conversation and a culture that leans towards relationships.
Tinder FAQs
Is Tinder free?
Yes. You can create a profile, swipe, match and message for free. Plus, Gold and Platinum add extras such as unlimited likes and seeing who likes you.
How much is Tinder Gold in the UK?
The UK App Store lists Tinder Gold at £7.49, £11.99, £13.99 and £14.99, depending on plan length and account. Your exact price appears in the app.
Why is Tinder more expensive for me than for my friend?
Tinder sets prices per account, and age, platform and location can all play a part. Older users have historically been charged more.
Is there a Tinder promo code or student discount?
No. Tinder does not issue promo codes, and there is no UK student discount.
Is Tinder Gold worth it?
Only if you are receiving likes faster than you can find them. If matches are slow, Plus or the free app is the better buy.
Is Tinder safe to use in the UK?
It is as safe as any big dating app used sensibly. New UK users must pass Face Check, and you can report or unmatch anyone.
How do I cancel Tinder Gold?
Cancel through the store you paid with: Apple Settings, Google Play, or Manage Payment Account in Tinder. Deleting the app does not stop payments.
Can I get a refund from Tinder?
Most purchases are non-refundable. Apple and Google decide on refunds for their purchases; Tinder handles direct ones.
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