Tinder Plus, The Paid Version Featuring An Undo Button And More, Arrives In U.S. Next Month
Context & Ripple Effects
Tinder's first subscription push follows a run-up the coverage already documents: the company confirmed Plus would launch on a Monday in March, turning this month-ahead announcement into a firm date. The undo button and bundled extras are the pitch — free users get one product, payers get control.
What makes the story worth tracking is where it led: within months of rollout Tinder jumped from #969 to #26 in iOS app revenue rankings, and the pricing ladder kept growing — Tinder Gold at $4.99/month in 2017 and eventually the $500/month Tinder Select tier in 2023. Plus is the base layer of that entire structure.
First-order effects
- U.S. Tinder users split into two classes next month: paying subscribers gain the undo button and Plus perks while free users keep the original swipe experience, giving Match's monetization its first recurring-revenue line on iOS and Android.
Second-order effects
- If Plus moves the revenue needle the way the later rankings jump suggests — #969 to #26 after rollout — rival dating apps face pressure to add their own paid tiers, normalizing subscriptions in a category previously built entirely on free usage.
Third-order effects
- The pattern holds across eight years of coverage: each new tier (Plus, then Gold, then Select) prices above the last, pushing dating apps toward segmented subscription ladders where status signals like badges and DM privileges become the premium product rather than utility features.
The trend: Dating apps are converting free user bases into tiered subscription pyramids, with each successive premium layer priced an order of magnitude above the last.