# Payer conversion benchmarks for dating apps, 2026

Published 2026-10-16. Updated 2026-10-16. https://www.datingapi.io/insights/payer-conversion-benchmarks

**In short:** Only a few dating companies publish both active members and payers. From those that do, about 9% of Grindr's monthly active members paid in the second quarter of 2026, up from under 7% in 2023, and about 7% of Tantan's paid in mid 2025. Match Group, Bumble and Momo publish payers but not member counts.

Most dating companies tell investors how many people pay, but very few also say how many people use the app. Where both numbers are public, payer conversion sits in the high single digits. About 9.3% of Grindr's average monthly active members paid in the second quarter of 2026, up from about 6.8% in 2023 [1][2]. About 6.9% of Tantan's monthly active members paid in the second quarter of 2025, down from about 7.8% a year earlier [3].

Match Group, Bumble and Hello Group's Momo app publish payer numbers without matching member counts, so their conversion cannot be calculated from public data [4][5][6]. This page compiles what can be calculated, shows the method, and explains why conversion differs so much between apps.

## The benchmark table

| App | Period | Payers | Monthly active members | Payer conversion (our calculation) | Range allowing for rounding |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Grindr | 2023 average | 0.9m | 13.3m | 6.8% | 6.4% to 7.1% |
| Grindr | 2024 average | 1.1m | 14.2m | 7.7% | 7.4% to 8.1% |
| Grindr | 2025 average | 1.3m | 15.0m | 8.7% | 8.3% to 9.0% |
| Grindr | Q2 2026 average | 1.4m | 15m | 9.3% | 9.0% to 9.7% |
| Tantan | Q2 2024 | 1.0m | 12.9m (June) | 7.8% | 7.4% to 8.1% |
| Tantan | Q2 2025 | 0.7m | 10.2m (June) | 6.9% | 6.4% to 7.4% |

Source: Grindr 10-K for 2025 [2] and Q2 2026 shareholder letter [1]; Hello Group Q2 2025 results [3]. Payer conversion is payers divided by monthly active members. Companies round payers to one decimal place in millions [2][3], so the range column shows the lowest and highest result the rounded figures allow.

### How we calculated it

- **Formula:** payers divided by monthly active members for the same period, as a percentage. See [payer conversion](/glossary/payer-conversion).
- **Grindr:** average paying members divided by average monthly active members, both as Grindr reports them [2]. For the second quarter of 2026 we used the 1.4 million average paying members and the 15 million average monthly active members given in the shareholder letter [1].
- **Tantan:** Hello Group reported Tantan's paying members for the quarter and its monthly active members for June of the same year [3]. Mixing a quarterly payer count with a single month's members is the best match the disclosures allow.
- **Rounding:** with payers given to one decimal place, Grindr's reported 1.3 million paying members for 2025 could be anything from 1.25 million to 1.35 million [2]. That is why we show a range.

## Who publishes payers but not members

| Group or app | Payers, Q2 2026 | What is published about members |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Match Group (all brands) | 13.3m | No absolute member numbers [4] |
| Tinder | 8.5m | Monthly active members down 7% on a year; payer penetration up [4] |
| Hinge | 2.0m | Global monthly active members up 13% on a year [4] |
| Bumble Inc (all apps) | 3.16m | No member numbers in quarterly results [5] |
| Momo app | 3.9m | No member numbers in the Q2 2026 release [6] |
| Tantan | 0.5m | Member numbers were not in the Q2 2026 release [6] |

Source: Match Group [4], Bumble Inc [5] and Hello Group [6] results for the three months to June 2026.

Match Group does track conversion. It defines payer penetration as the share of monthly active members paying for a subscription or an à la carte feature, and said Tinder's was up on a year earlier in the second quarter of 2026, both globally and across its top five revenue countries [4]. It did not give the percentage.

Bumble's most recent statement on overall audience size that we found is from its first annual report, which said over 40 million people came to its apps each month [7]. That is too old and too loose to set against today's 3.16 million paying members [5].

## Why conversion differs between apps

### The model

Subscription apps charge for a better version of the core product: more likes, seeing who liked you, better filters. Live and social apps such as Momo earn mostly from virtual gifts sent to broadcasters and other members, with membership subscriptions second [3]. Gifting apps can have a small share of members paying but a few paying a lot, so conversion alone can understate them. Grindr and Tantan sit in between, with subscriptions plus single purchases [1][3].

### The audience

Grindr is built around who is nearby right now, which makes paid features such as seeing more profiles and fewer limits easy for members to value. Its conversion has risen every year in our table, from about 6.8% in 2023 to about 9.3% in the second quarter of 2026 [1][2].

### The market

Tantan's conversion fell as its audience shrank: monthly active members dropped from 12.9 million to 10.2 million in the year to June 2025, and payers from 1.0 million to 0.7 million [3]. Hello Group has linked Tantan's revenue decline to a smaller member base [6]. When an app loses members, the most engaged often stay, but here payers fell faster than members.

### How generous the free tier is

Every app chooses how much to give away. A generous free tier helps [liquidity](/glossary/liquidity), the number of active members a person can meet, but lowers the share who need to pay. Restrictive free tiers raise conversion and can shrink the pool. Hinge is a useful example: Match said its members in core markets were roughly flat on a year while revenue grew by double digits, which means more revenue from the same people [4].

## Conversion, revenue per payer and revenue per member

Conversion is one half of the picture. Revenue per active member equals conversion multiplied by revenue per payer.

For Grindr in the second quarter of 2026: about 9.3% conversion multiplied by $26.51 a month per payer gives about $2.47 a month per active member [1]. That is our calculation. Grindr's own direct revenue of $113 million over three months, divided by 15 million members, gives about $2.51 a month, close to the same answer [1].

Match Group reported that direct revenue per monthly active member rose 6% on a year in the second quarter of 2026, while revenue per payer also rose 6% [4]. If both rose by about the same amount, conversion was roughly steady on that measure, though Match's wording leaves it unclear whether the first figure covers the whole group or only Tinder.

## What it means for dating app operators

- **Measure conversion the same way every month.** Use payers divided by monthly active members, with the same definition of active. The public benchmarks above only work as a guide if your own number is built the same way.
- **Use high single digits as a reference point, not a target.** Grindr's 9.3% and Tantan's 6.9% are the public reference points [1][3]. A niche subscription app may do better, a gifting app may look worse on this measure and still earn well.
- **Watch conversion alongside members.** Tantan shows that falling members and falling conversion can arrive together [3]. A rising conversion rate on a shrinking base can also hide trouble.
- **Track revenue per active member as your headline.** It combines conversion and price into one number and is harder to flatter with discounts. See [ARPU](/glossary/arpu) and [ARPPU](/glossary/arppu).
- **Know what your platform lets you test.** Paywall placement, trial lengths and pricing tests are the main levers on conversion. If you cannot run them quickly, that is a platform question as much as a product one; [how it works](/how-it-works) explains how we approach it.

For revenue and payers by brand, see [top dating apps by revenue](/insights/top-dating-apps-by-revenue). For how each app earns its money, see [dating app business models](/insights/dating-app-business-models).

## Questions

**What percentage of dating app members pay?**

Among companies that publish both numbers, it is high single digits. About 9.3% of Grindr's average monthly active members paid in the second quarter of 2026 [1], and about 6.9% of Tantan's paid in the second quarter of 2025 [3]. Our calculations are shown in the table.

**What is Tinder's payer conversion?**

Match Group does not publish Tinder's member numbers, so it cannot be calculated from public data. It reported 8.5 million Tinder payers in the second quarter of 2026 and said payer penetration was up on a year earlier [4].

**How do you calculate payer conversion?**

Divide payers by monthly active members for the same period. Grindr's 1.3 million average paying members in 2025 against 15.0 million average monthly active members gives about 8.7% [2].

**Why don't Bumble and Match publish conversion?**

Neither publishes absolute member numbers. Bumble's results give paying members only [5], and Match gives payers plus year-on-year changes in active members [4].

## Sources

1. Grindr Q2 2026 shareholder letter, Grindr Inc (SEC filing), 2026-08-06. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001820144/000182014426000023/shl_q2x2026xfinal.htm
2. Grindr Inc. annual report on Form 10-K for 2025, Grindr Inc (SEC filing), 2026-03-02. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820144/000182014426000007/grnd-20251231.htm
3. Hello Group announces unaudited financial results for the second quarter of 2025, Hello Group via PR Newswire Asia, 2025-09-09. https://technode.global/prnasia/hello-group-inc-announces-unaudited-financial-results-for-the-second-quarter-of-2025/
4. Match Group Q2 2026 shareholder letter, Match Group (SEC filing), 2026-08-04. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000891103/000089110326000128/mtch8-k20260804ex992.htm
5. Bumble Inc. second quarter 2026 results, Bumble Inc (SEC filing), 2026-08-05. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001830043/000183004326000099/bmbl-ex991prxq22026.htm
6. Hello Group announces unaudited financial results for the second quarter of 2026, Hello Group via PR Newswire, 2026-09-03. https://finviz.com/news/388434/hello-group-inc-announces-unaudited-financial-results-for-the-second-quarter-of-2026
7. Bumble Inc. annual report on Form 10-K for 2020, Bumble Inc (SEC filing), 2021-03-15. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1830043/000156459021013176/bmbl-10k_20201231.htm