Open Hinge and tap your Photo Icon, then tap the Gear icon to open Account Settings. Scroll down to the Subscription section and tap Subscribe to Hinge, which shows you the packages on offer. Then select the subscription you want. The whole thing takes about a minute, and the more useful part is deciding what to buy before you tap.

The steps

  1. Open the Hinge app.
  2. Tap your Photo Icon.
  3. Tap the Gear icon to open Account Settings.
  4. Scroll down to the Subscription section.
  5. Tap Subscribe to Hinge to see the available packages.
  6. Select the subscription you want.

That is all there is to it. The packages screen is where you choose between the two tiers and between the plan lengths, so it pays to know what you want before you get there.

Hinge+ or HingeX

Hinge+ is the base subscription. It gives you unlimited likes, unlimited Undo Skips and every incoming like on one screen. It also adds advanced dating preferences, such as height, politics and drinking. You can also sort your incoming likes by Last Active and Nearby.

HingeX includes everything in Hinge+ and adds three features. See Compatible People Sooner moves the people you are likely to be interested in to the top of your feed. Get Seen by More Daters shows you higher in other people's feeds. Priority Likes keep your likes near the top of their lists.

A simple way to choose: if your problem is running out of likes or wading through incoming likes too slowly, Hinge+ covers it. If your page already works and you want more of the right women to see it, HingeX is the tier built for that.

Choosing how long to sign up for

Hinge offers weekly, monthly, three-month and six-month plans, and each one renews automatically for the same length. Check the prices on the packages screen, since they change.

If you have never paid before, start short. A week or a month is enough to find out whether the subscription changes your results. You can always choose a longer plan once you know it is worth it. If you decide not to continue, turn off auto-renew at least a day before the period ends, because the renewal charge comes in that last day.

Before you pay

a dating coach is firmly against the habit of never paying for dating apps on principle. He points out that the apps are businesses that want their paying members to stay, so they have every reason to make paid features work, and your time is worth more than the fee. But he adds a condition that saves a lot of men a lot of money.

Most paid features multiply your results. If your results on the free version are close to zero, multiplying them gets you close to zero again. So before subscribing, make sure the free version is getting you at least a few matches. If it is not, spend the money and the effort on your first photo and your written answers first. A subscription on top of a page that does not work just shows that page to more women who pass on it.

Your first week as a subscriber

The first week is when you find out whether the money was worth it, so use it on purpose.

Start with your incoming likes. With everyone who liked you on one screen, go through them, match with the women you actually want to take out, and send each of them a real first message rather than a silent match.

Set your preferences carefully. Switch on only the filters that reflect genuine dealbreakers. Every extra filter shrinks your pool.

Then use the unlimited likes without getting careless. Read each page before you decide, and put a comment on every like about one specific thing she wrote or showed. Unlimited likes are useful. Unlimited thoughtless likes are how men fill their feed with women they never really wanted.

Keep a count through the month. How many likes did you send, how many matches came back, how many conversations reached a date? Compare that with your last month on the free version. The numbers will tell you whether to renew.

Nobody else will know

Some men hesitate because they worry a woman will see they pay. She will not. Hinge says your subscription is private, and no one else on the app can see it.

So the only person who needs to judge whether it is worth it is you, using your own numbers. If they improve, keep paying. If they do not, cancel before the next renewal and put that money toward better photos instead.