Your sex sells: Tinder's dodgy pricing model

A mystery shop has revealed that your age, gender, sexual orientation, and location dictate how much you’ll pay for Tinder Plus and yeah we don’t super like that.

According to the investigation by CHOICE, some users are charged up to five times more for the popular dating app’s premium service.

Out of the 60 mystery shoppers, users over 30 were charged on average double the price as their younger counterparts, with straight men over 50 paying the highest monthly premium. Conversely queer women under 30 paid the least, but there are price differences even within these subsets.

Queer males under 30 within a metropolitan region paid between $7.99 and $15.10 per month, while their straight equivalents pay between $13.82 and $16.71. The reason for these variables is entirely unknown, but then again so is the reasoning behind the overarching price disparities.

Tinder refused to comment on the blatantly discriminatory behaviour, although it’s not the first time the app has been in the spotlight for unfair pricing. When Tinder Plus launched in the US in 2015 the premium service charged $US9.99 for users under 30 and $US19.99 for those above 30.

While making any assertions on the basis of age, gender, location, religion or sexual orientation contravenes the Anti-Discrimination Act in Australia - this may be one of the rare times when it doesn’t pay to be a straight, male boomer.

Anula Wiwatowska

Offsite Editorial Lead | Instagram

Anula is the Off-Site Editorial Lead for WhistleOut Australia, and an award winning tech journalist. She has been writing about the Australian telco industry, and consumer technology for over five years, and has been known to tell her Uber driver which phone they should upgrade to next.

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