If you’ve ever signed up for an official dating site, bought a bundle of credits, and then wondered “OK, where is all this money actually going?”—you’re not alone. The modern dating industry is a real business machine, especially in markets like the UK, where millions of adults now treat dating apps as basic life infrastructure.
1. How Dating makes its money
Dating.com is part of Dating Group, a global “social discovery” holding company that also owns brands like AnastasiaDate, DateMyAge and Cupid Media. Dating Group reports around 73 million registered users across its portfolio and roughly $200 million in annual revenue, putting it among the larger players in the space.
Instead of a simple “£X per month” subscription, Dating.com uses a credit-based system with optional subscriptions layered on top:
- You buy credits, then spend them on actions:
- 1 credit to send a basic message
- 10–15 credits for longer emails or other “push” messages
- 5–1000+ credits to send virtual or real gifts
- You can also buy monthly credit packs (a kind of subscription) that refill your balance every month.
Typical pricing (exact amounts vary by region and device) looks like this:
- 150 credits – often promoted around $29.99–$49.99, with heavy intro discounts for new users (for example, a first-month deal down to about $19.99).
- 600 credits – roughly $149.99
- 1500 credits – roughly $299.99
- On Android, subscription packs run up to 950 credits/month for $269.99, with a cheaper 150-credit starter tier at $29.99 for the first month, then $69.99.
From a business point of view, that gives Dating.com three main revenue streams:
- Subscriptions / monthly credit packs – recurring revenue, which investors love.
- A-la-carte spending – pay-per-message, gifts, extras; this is where heavy users can spend a lot.
- Affiliate and partner traffic – through its parent Social Discovery Group, the company uses a big affiliate network that’s paid per lead, per activation or via revenue share.
Other big dating brands (Match Group’s apps, Bumble, etc.) mostly follow the same pattern: freemium access, then layers of paid features—boosts, super likes, “see who liked you,” plus subscriptions for more visibility.
2. The UK online-dating market in numbers
Now, zoom in on the UK. It’s one of the most mature dating-app markets in Europe, and the money involved is no joke.
Market revenue
Recent market research estimates that the UK online dating application market generated about $388 million in revenue in 2023 and is on track to reach $660 million by 2030, with a healthy 7.9% annual growth rate. Subscriptions are the biggest single revenue stream.
A different analysis focusing on “dating apps” puts UK app revenue at about $430.5 million in 2024, which lines up with that growth story.
To make that easier to picture, here’s a simple revenue chart using those 2023–2024 figures:
Even in a cost-of-living crisis, singles are clearly not giving up on paid dating tools.
How many people in the UK use online dating?
The UK media regulator Ofcom tracks this pretty closely:
- In 2024, around 10% of UK online adults—about 4.9 million people—visited an online dating service, basically unchanged from 2023.
- Around 8% (1.8 million) visit a dating service daily.
- Usage is highest among ages 25–34: about 20% of that age group engages with online dating platforms.
- The user base skews male: Ofcom reports that in one sample, 61% of dating-service visitors were men and 39% women.
Put simply: millions of British adults are dipping into these apps, and a smaller but still huge slice is using them almost every day.
3. How much do UK users spend?
Spending happens in two layers: on the apps themselves, and on the actual dates.
App spending
Global estimates suggest that the average dating-app user spends around £20 per month on premium features—things like boosts, super likes and “see who liked you” upgrades.
If we take the UK’s 2023 app-market revenue of $388 million (roughly £310 million) and spread it across about 4.9 million users, that works out to roughly $79 per user per year, or about $6–7 per month on average.
That average includes people who never pay at all, so paying users are clearly spending much more than that—often in the £15–£30 per month range when you factor in recurring subscriptions and extra boosts.
Overall dating spend
When you add in nights out, drinks, outfits, transport and so on, the cost climbs quickly:
- A Barclays-linked survey reported that people in the UK now spend about £111 per month on dating overall (apps plus actual dates), or roughly £1,300 per year, with some heavy daters spending several hundred pounds a month.
- Another survey cited by the Guardian put a “typical” individual date at £38 on average, with many people expecting to spend £50–£100.
So app subscriptions and credit packs are just one slice of a much more expensive pie.
4. Who’s actually paying all this?
Putting it together, here’s a compact snapshot of the UK online-dating economy.
UK online-dating snapshot (simplified)
| Indicator | Latest figure | Year / scope | What it tells us |
| UK online dating app revenue | $388m | 2023, apps only | Size of the UK app market, not counting offline matchmaking or events. |
| UK dating apps revenue | $430.5m | 2024, apps only | Confirms steady growth, roughly 7–8% a year. |
| Dating services revenue (wider industry) | £399m (projected) | 2025–26, UK dating services overall | Includes online and other paid dating services. |
| Online-dating users | 4.9m adults (10%) | 2024, UK online adults | Roughly one in ten online adults uses a dating service. |
| Daily users | 1.8m adults (3.8%) | 2024, UK online adults | People for whom dating apps are almost a daily habit. |
| Age skew | ~20% of 25–34-year-olds | 2023, UK adults | Young adults are the core audience. |
| Gender split | 61% men / 39% women | 2023, UK visitors to dating services | Men are more represented on the apps. |
| Global avg premium spend | ≈£20/month per user | 2024, global estimate | Typical spend for those who pay for extra features. |
| UK total dating spend | £111/month per person | 2024, dates + apps | Shows how quickly the broader dating lifestyle adds up. |
5. So how do sites like Dating.com fit into this?
Platforms like Dating.com plug into that UK (and global) spending in a few very specific ways:
- They convert free users into payers through friction.
You can usually sign up for free, browse, maybe send a couple of messages. But meaningful interaction—longer chats, video calls, gifts—sits behind credits and subscriptions. - They monetise intensity, not just presence.
One casual user might buy a small credit pack once. A lonely or highly engaged user might keep topping up, buy bigger bundles (600 or 1500 credits), and hold an ongoing subscription. That’s how a relatively small % of paying members can support a much larger free user base. - They diversify across brands and regions.
Dating Group doesn’t rely on one site; it runs multiple platforms aimed at different niches and countries, spreading risk and multiplying revenue streams. - They rely heavily on affiliate traffic and marketing.
Social Discovery Group, the parent of Dating.com, runs big affiliate programs paid per lead or per activation, which continually pump new users into the system.
In other words: your monthly subscription and credit top-ups are not random. They’re part of a carefully designed ecosystem that turns swiping and chatting into a stable, growing revenue stream.
The short version
- com and similar “official” sites mostly make money from subscriptions, credit packs and pay-per-interaction features, plus partner and affiliate deals.
- The UK online-dating app market is closing in on half a billion dollars a year, with millions of adults using these services and a smaller hardcore group logging in daily.
- Average spend varies, but between app fees and real-world dates, plenty of people are now budgeting £100+ per month for their love life.
So the next time you top up credits or renew a subscription, you’re not just paying for one more chat—you’re contributing to a very real, very busy slice of the UK digital economy.
