10 Statistics on How Fast Users Quit Dating Apps

Online dating is now one of the most ordinary ways to find a date. These days, lots of people have tried it at least once (roughly 30% of American adults1).

I have friends who set up a profile and did a bit of swiping…and then gave up before getting much further.

I set out to learn how much churn actually shapes online dating, and whether the typical user really plans to stay until they meet someone. Unsurprisingly, the answer isn’t simple.

1. Dating Apps Kept 26% of Users Past Day 1 in 2025

With dating apps, most people download…and delete right away. According to one study, average retention after just one day on a dating app was 26%, a small improvement on the 24% retention figure for 20242.

Retention plunges over the first week, with only 12% of users still around on day seven.

Don’t panic, though: a 26% churn figure may sound grim, but dating isn’t special in that regard. Apps in every category have trouble holding on to users. People install an app on a whim or out of curiosity, decide they hate the design or that it wastes their time, and uninstall it.

Even if just 26% of people stay, dating apps get downloaded so often that plenty of users remain.

2. Each Dating App Visit Lasts 11.49 Minutes on Average

When people open a dating app, they usually stay a while. In 2025, the typical user logged 11.49 minutes per visit3.

That may not seem like much, but on swipe-driven apps where you can flip through lots of profiles fast, it’s quite a stretch.

Like it or not, the design of most dating apps is a little addictive. Swiping is basically a game. Scrolling through profiles and wondering who’ll pop up next is fun. Losing track of time on a dating app is easy, since most people like browsing profiles.

3. Active Users Log 80 Minutes Daily on Dating Apps

Excluding dormant profiles, the typical active user devotes 80 minutes a day to dating apps4. A casual runner could cover eight miles in that time, and it’s nearly enough to get through an episode of Stranger Things.

You likely don’t need to invest an hour and a half a day to succeed on dating apps, but it makes sense that people do.

Popping into an app for a quick swipe is effortless, much like idly checking Instagram or TikTok. Plus, it feels kind of productive.

If you’re logging hours on the apps every day, go easy on yourself, but understand that the payoff shrinks the longer you stay.

4. Just 1 in 20 Monthly Subscribers Are Still Active After 12 Months

Depending on your perspective, this could be encouraging: people generally don’t keep paying for dating apps indefinitely. Fewer than 5% of monthly subscriptions remain active after 12 months5.

That might mean subscriptions do their job. After twelve months of premium, users have achieved exactly what they came for: falling in love.

Or it might mean users don’t think their subscriptions are worth hanging on to.

Most likely it’s a bit of both – daters aren’t all the same.

5. More Than 50% of Subscribers Renew for the 2nd & 3rd Cycles

The evidence suggests subscribers cancel dating apps only once they’re ready. Business of Apps reports that 69% of dating app subscribers, weekly and monthly alike, renewed after their 2nd cycle, while 77% renewed for a 3rd cycle6.

That hints that during the first weeks or months on an app, when it’s fair to assume a person is dating actively, things go well enough to be worth renewing, and users are committed to making their time there worthwhile.

A more skeptical take is that people simply forget to cancel before the second cycle. Yet retention is actually higher for the 3rd cycle, which suggests forgetfulness isn’t the explanation.

6. 26% of Online Daters Pay for a Subscription

More and more, people on dating apps are willing (and, to a degree, obligated) to pay. Among the 32% of single Americans using dating apps, 26% pay for a subscription7.

People disagree about whether paying gets you a better service, but it definitely raises the incentive for users to stay active.

Putting money on the line makes people determined to get what they paid for, and for single people worried about their chances, it’s very encouraging that a quarter of users have money riding on it.

7. A Third of People Once Used Dating Apps but No Longer Do

Online dating went mainstream in the 2010s, and Tinder arrived in 20128. Today, plenty of young adults consider it a given. At the very least, trying an app is standard.

Around 34% of adults have given online dating a shot at some point, versus a fairly steady 10% who use it today9.

Considering how many adults were already in relationships before online dating existed, those figures are pretty impressive.

Zooming out, it’s striking that adults are over three times as likely to have ever tried dating apps as to be using them now.

Most people who work in online dating, particularly at relationship-focused apps such as Hinge, Match, or eharmony, would say that’s the whole point. Ideally, people use dating apps and then stop, because it means they got what they came for.

8. Tinder: Slightly More Than Half of Users Open It Daily

Whatever you think of Tinder, its users are hooked. According to Data Globe Hub, 56% of Tinder users log on every day10. Talk about commitment. The only apps I check daily are Gmail and Messages!

Its easygoing swipe features may be part of why Tinder does so well. The app doesn’t feel like a chore; it feels thrilling! A new profile is always just ahead, which brings users back again and again.

9. User Sentiment About Hinge Fell 36% From 2010 to 2023

Users are becoming unhappy even with the biggest dating apps (or perhaps especially with those). One study found that sentiment toward most dating apps slipped, and Hinge saw the steepest drop in positivity, at 36%11.

Hinge pitches itself as the answer for people who want relationships, but results are mixed.

If user sentiment isn’t clearly changing behavior, it’s hard to say how much it really counts.

If anything, Hinge has grown more relevant over the past 15 years. Back when I began dating online in 2019, nobody I knew was on it. Today, lots of my single friends use nothing else. Maybe being on top is just lonely.

10. Intent to Churn on Tinder Is Up 80%

People who don’t actually quit an app still consider it. Infegy found that users’ intent to abandon Tinder grew 80% between 2021 and 2023, judging by Themes data drawn from online comments12.

The app isn’t going anywhere, but a growing number of users are asking whether it’s working for them.

FAQ: Is Churn Good for Online Dating?

Higher churn may seem bad by definition, but that’s not always so. If people quit the apps because they met someone, or because they never planned to date seriously anyway, that’s a positive.

The worrying part is when people sincerely trying to date walk away because they dislike how the app works or can’t find compatible matches.

Does Online Dating Actually Work?

At this point, there’s enough evidence to state confidently that online dating works.

As of 2021, over 50% of couples had met online13. According to The Knot, 27% of engaged couples got together through the apps14.

Those success numbers only cover people seeking relationships, too; lots of people succeed at casual dating online every single day.

There’s no magic formula, and no wrong route, for meeting someone. For a relationship, how you met matters less than what you do after the first date.

How Many People Are on Dating Apps?

More than 350 million people around the world use dating apps, 80 million of them in the U.S. alone15. Roughly a third of American adults have tried a dating app, a share that jumps to 53% among singles 18 to 29 and falls to 17% for people over 65.

I expect these figures to keep rising as the population gets older.

Dating App Churn Exists, but It Might Not Matter

There’s no denying it: most people who download dating apps delete them almost right away. For singles who want to give online dating a real try, that can feel discouraging, as if nobody will be there.

If you date online, though, the odds are still on your side. Even though most users bail on day one, millions of singles remain on the apps.

So stop worrying about whether others keep their apps. Lots of wonderful people are ready to put everything into online dating and meet someone exactly like you. And when they do? Then you two can delete the apps side by side.

Data Sources:

1. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/02/02/key-findings-about-online-dating-in-the-u-s/ ↩︎
2. https://www.adjust.com/blog/state-of-dating-apps/ ↩︎
3. https://www.adjust.com/blog/state-of-dating-apps/ ↩︎
4. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/dating-app-benchmarks/ ↩︎
5. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/dating-app-benchmarks/ ↩︎
6. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/dating-app-benchmarks/ ↩︎
7. https://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/online-dating-2030 ↩︎
8. Tinder dating statistics ↩︎
9. https://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/online-dating-2030 ↩︎
10. https://dataglobehub.com/tinder-data-and-insights/ ↩︎
11. https://www.infegy.com/insight-brief/swipe-right-for-insights ↩︎
12. https://www.infegy.com/insight-brief/swipe-right-for-insights ↩︎
13. https://dailycitizen.focusonthefamily.com/most-american-couples-meet-online-survey-shows/ ↩︎
14. https://www.theknot.com/content/online-dating-most-popular-way-to-meet-spouse ↩︎
15. https://www.eharmony.com/online-dating-statistics/#fn2-3175 ↩︎