Is OkCupid Premium Worth It?

Premium is worth it for a man who already gets some Likes and some replies on the free account and wants to see who is interested before he spends a Like of his own. It is not worth it if nothing is happening on free, because it only shows you more of an empty result. Test it for one billing term with your numbers written down, and keep it only if the number of dates goes up.

A lot of men pay before they have used the free version properly. A free OkCupid account can send and receive Likes and Intros, see your matches, and message them. That is the whole conversation loop, and it works.

The limit you will run into is the daily cap on how many people a free member can Like. It is real, but it is a cap on volume, not a wall in front of the app.

Premium includes the perks of OkCupid Basic, which are unlimited Likes, Dealbreakers, seeing all your Intros at once, and no ads. On top of that it adds three things:

• Seeing everyone who has Liked you in the Interest tab before you Like them
• Seeing how your matches answered public questions, even ones you have not answered yourself
• A small number of free SuperLikes every week

Premium Plus goes further with Priority Likes, unlimited read receipts, a bigger weekly allowance of SuperLikes, and a monthly Rush Hour Boost token. Incognito Mode is its own subscription and is not part of Basic or Premium.

It pays off when women are already Liking you and you keep missing them. A woman who Liked you first is the easiest conversation on the app, because she said yes before you wrote a word. Seeing all of them in one list turns a handful of lost chances a week into a handful of extra conversations.

It also pays off when you keep hitting the free daily Like cap while there are still women you would be glad to meet. Unlimited Likes removes that cap, and the Likes you send after it matter as much as the ones before it.

Both cases share one condition. You are already getting a response, and Premium takes friction out of something that works.

If nobody Likes you on the free account, the Interest tab shows you an empty list. Paying to look at an empty list is a bad trade.

a dating coach's rule for every paid feature on every app is that it multiplies what you already have. A man with Likes and replies gets more of both. A man with nothing gets nothing, in front of more people. A subscription cannot repair a weak lead picture or a written section with no specific line in it.

Unlimited Likes can also hurt you. coach has coached plenty of men who showed interest in nearly everyone they saw, and when they got choosier they sent far fewer Likes and got far better results. Every match you create is a conversation you then have to hold up. Paying for more Likes only helps if you were already choosing well.

Give the free account two honest weeks before you spend anything. Use a clear, recent lead picture with your face easy to see, and write a few lines that only you would write. Like only the women you would be glad to hear from, and write to each one the same day.

Count your Likes sent, matches, replies and dates planned. If the numbers are weak, change one thing, usually the lead picture, and count again. That costs nothing, and it tells you whether Premium has anything to multiply.

If the free account gives you a few real conversations and you wish you could see who Liked you, a short stretch of Premium is a fair experiment. Run it cleanly.

1. Write down your free numbers for the last two weeks.
2. Buy the shortest term on offer.
3. Change nothing else while it runs. If you rewrite your page the same night you upgrade, you will not know which change did the work.
4. Answer everyone who Liked you within a day.
5. At the end, compare dates planned, not Likes seen.

Read the renewal terms on the purchase screen before you pay, and put the cancellation date in your calendar. A subscription you forget about costs the same as one you love.

Many men would get more from spending on their pictures than on a plan. A lead picture where your face is clear and relaxed does more than any feature, and you can take one with a friend and a phone in daylight. Premium changes how many women see you. It does not change what a woman thinks when she does.

My approach to the messages themselves is to get from a first message to her number in four to seven exchanges, and to bring up a drink early as a light suggestion. That works on the free account and on Premium alike. The plan only changes how many chances you get to use it.