Is OkCupid Premium Worth Paying For?

Only after the free version is already producing conversations. Premium gives you unlimited Likes and a list of everyone who Likes you, and both are useful. They multiply what your page already earns. If the free app is getting you mutual Likes and chats, a month of Premium is a fair test. If it is getting you nothing, paying will not change that.

A free OkCupid account lets you answer match questions, Like women, send Intros and chat once you both Like each other. You can also send one SuperLike a week without paying.

You also learn about mutual interest for free. When a Like goes both ways, OkCupid tells you, and people who Like you tend to show up sooner in your Discover. So the free app already shows you who is interested at the moment it becomes mutual.

That is a lot to start with. It means you can find out whether OkCupid works in your city before spending anything.

Premium includes unlimited Likes, Dealbreakers, no ads and all your Intros at once. It also shows everyone who Likes you, lets you see public question answers you have not answered yourself, and gives you a few SuperLikes each week.

Two of those do most of the work. The rest make the app nicer to use.

On the free version, you are rationing your interest. Unlimited Likes removes that, so you can Like every woman you would be glad to meet instead of picking a few and hoping.

a dating coach rates this kind of feature above almost anything else a dating app sells. His reasoning is that the ability to choose who you contact, instead of waiting for the app to decide, is worth paying for in nearly every case.

Unlimited does not mean indiscriminate. coach has coached plenty of men who liked nearly everyone, and they got far better results once they became selective. Use the extra room on women you would genuinely take for a drink, not on everyone in your feed.

This is the paid view of everyone who has Liked you. Instead of browsing and waiting for a pop-up, you start with women who already showed interest and decide whom to answer.

That is the warmest possible start to a conversation, and it saves time. It is a convenience, though, and not a way into rooms you could not otherwise enter. You can learn about mutual interest without it.

Seeing public answers to questions you have not answered yourself gives you more to read before you write. More to read means a better opening line and a better sense of whether you would get along. It is a small feature, and it is worth using on purpose.

It does not add women to your feed. If a thin feed is your problem, the usual cause is your own settings. Widen your distance and age range one step at a time, and reset your passes if you have been on the app for a while.

It does not fix a weak first picture or a page with nothing on it. My rule for any paid feature is that it multiplies results you already have. It makes a working setup better, and it cannot rescue a setup that earns nothing.

It does not write your first message. A woman agrees to a drink because your picture got her to stop, your words made her curious and your opening line gave her something easy to answer.

Run the free app for two weeks first. Use clear, recent pictures, answer the match questions honestly and write a few specific lines about your week. Write down four numbers: women you Liked, mutual Likes, chats that started and dates you set.

Then pay for one month of Premium and keep counting the same four numbers. Check how and when the plan renews before you pay, and set a reminder for a few days before the end so a renewal does not catch you.

Judge the month by conversations and dates, not by a busier inbox. If mutual Likes and chats rose and a date or two came out of them, Premium paid for itself. If the numbers look the same, go back to free and put the effort into your pictures and openers.

Skip it if you are getting almost no mutual Likes. The list of women who Liked you will be short too, because the number of women Liking you is the thing you need to raise.

Skip it if your chats start and then die. That is an opening-line or a plan problem, and Premium does not touch either.

Skip it if you live somewhere with few active women on the app. No plan fixes the size of a city.

Premium Plus keeps everything in Premium and adds Priority Likes, unlimited read receipts, a bigger weekly allowance of SuperLikes and Rush Hour Boosts. These are extras built on top of a working setup. Try Premium first, and move up only if Premium is clearly working and you want more of the same.

A SuperLike brings your interest to her attention, and My caution is that it also gives away a little power, because you have shown your hand before saying a word. Use them on women you really want, with a short, playful note, and not as a scattergun.

Whatever you pay for, the plan only changes how many chances you get. What you do with a chance is up to you.