How to Leverage Tinder's Algorithms to Boost Your Chances of Successful Dating

Tinder, the world’s leading dating app, collects a vast amount of data on each user — and you can use this information to your advantage.

By Katerina Khripko

Author of the relationship and science-based sex channel “Come for Tea 🍷”.

Tinder is a dating app where you create a minimal profile including your age, preferred distance to potential matches, name, a few words about yourself if you wish, and photos.

After setting up your profile, you start browsing others’ profiles filtered by your selected gender and age range. Swipe left if you’re not interested, swipe right if you are. When two users swipe right on each other, it’s a match — opening a chat window to start a conversation. Those you swipe left on won’t know if you saw their profile, and you won’t know who swiped left on you.

Journalist Austin Carr from Fast Company revealed Tinder’s algorithm-driven nature, and French journalist Judith Duportail’s book “Love by Algorithm: How Tinder Dictates Who We Sleep With” exposed that Tinder’s algorithm details have been publicly accessible through patent filings.

How Tinder Decides Who to Introduce to You

The app accesses some of your data to both select the best candidates for you and to display targeted advertisements.

You can sign up using your phone number or a Facebook account. According to Tinder’s privacy policy, when you register via Facebook, information from your Facebook and Instagram profiles (both owned by Meta Platforms Inc.) automatically syncs to Tinder.

Arthur Khachuyan

Data analyst and developer of the new dating app Adele.

Even if you register with your phone number, if it’s linked to your social media accounts, similar data sharing occurs.

Moreover, Tinder collects more than just your openly provided information. For example, if advertisers upload customer phone numbers to Facebook to retarget ads and your number is included, your profile may be associated with specific interests.

This could theoretically influence your match suggestions — for instance, if you frequently order from adult stores online using your phone number, you might see more profiles with users interested in alternative lifestyles.

The app also recognizes your device and advertising identifiers, like Google's AAID, which track your online behavior through ads you interact with.

There is no evidence that Tinder pulls data from Yandex or VKontakte, as competing social networks typically do not share such information.

— Arthur Khachuyan

Tinder evaluates your photos (e.g., many travel photos suggest you’re a traveler), profile details (education, interests, dating goals), and even analyzes your chat messages using AI — no humans read your conversations.

Judith Duportail requested her own data from Tinder and received an 802-page file detailing the extensive information Tinder holds on each user.

Ideally, Tinder matches users with similar interests — like shared travel habits, attending the same or similarly ranked universities, or belonging to similar Facebook groups — then shows these users to each other. The algorithm also experiments with other interest categories to see if you might connect.

Therefore, avoid indiscriminately liking all profiles, as this confuses the algorithm about your true preferences.

However, Arthur Khachuyan suggests Tinder primarily prioritizes showing users who are geographically nearby, then filters by similarity — or sometimes not.

The algorithm’s description notes that, despite aiming to pair similar people, it sometimes shows younger or lower-status women to educated, wealthy men.

Over time, you develop an internal, undisclosed rating based on the ratings of those who like you most. After several days or weeks, Tinder refines your visibility, showing your profile to a specific subset of users with similar interests, status, and ratings — though occasionally it will still present you to other groups.

How to Appear More Frequently to Users

Within any category, there will be people with whom you could match despite differing Tinder ratings. The more you appear, the better your chances. Here’s how to improve your visibility.

1. Regularly Delete and Recreate Your Profile

When I first created my profile and purchased Tinder Gold, which lets you see who liked you, I received over 1,000 likes in three days. However, over the next three and a half weeks, the likes barely reached 3,000.

Why? When you’re new or returning after a long break (six months to a year inactive), the algorithm treats you as a mystery and shows you to many different users to learn your preferences. Once it collects enough data and categorizes you, it reduces your exposure.

When your profile circulates mainly within one user segment, your chances of meeting people from other groups decrease.

2. Purchase a Paid Subscription for a Short Duration

Then wait for it to expire.

Analyzing Tinder’s push notifications, I noticed that 3–5 days before a subscription ends, matches increase by about 40%. Tinder likely boosts your visibility to encourage subscription renewal.

— Arthur Khachuyan

Be active and search for matches during the last days of your subscription. This suggests subscribing monthly and renewing rather than paying upfront for six months or a year.

3. Periodically Update Your Profile

Algorithm descriptions indicate that profile edits trigger a re-evaluation of your fit with potential matches. New information might help Tinder find fresh options and test them.

Your updates also appear in news feeds, reminding old matches who never connected that you’re still active.

4. Log in from Different City Areas

Since the system prioritizes nearby matches, logging in from various locations increases your exposure to suitable users, resulting in more targeted likes and overall visibility.

This effect is negligible if you haven’t used the app recently and just traveled around the city. You must actively use the app throughout the day.

Conversely, if you want to avoid being noticed in a certain area (due to lack of prestige or many acquaintances), don’t use Tinder there. To be sure, avoid the app for several days before entering that location.

5. Purchase the Boost Feature

Boost places your profile at the top of the selected area’s queue for 30 minutes. Use it at optimal times: data shows chat activity peaks in weekday mornings until noon. Tinder recommends 9–10 PM as the best time, and Friday and Saturday evenings as the worst.

This feature is included in all Tinder paid packages. Buying it separately isn’t recommended; my experience showed Boost didn’t significantly help since 30 minutes is too short to reach many users.

How to Appear More Often to High-Status and High-Rating Users

The exact components of the rating system and the gap between categories remain unclear. If you seek educated and affluent matches, focus on locations they frequent.

1. Choose a Narrow Radius for Your Search Area

You’ll need Tinder Plus or higher to select your geographic preferences. This is especially useful in large cities. Set your location to a prestigious district, luxury residential complex, or an area with upscale restaurants, and minimize the search radius. The system will show you all users in that area and show you to them, prioritizing those you like.

Note that Tinder also obtains location data from Facebook and Instagram. If you post with geotags, the algorithm may show you not only within your Tinder-selected area but also at tagged locations. Even general social media usage outside your Tinder zone might influence this. Disable Facebook and Instagram location access in settings if you want to limit this.

— Arthur Khachuyan

2. Check in at Prestigious Venues

Regularly posting from business centers and high-end restaurants may lead the algorithm to show you to users who frequent these places. If these users are mostly affluent professionals, you may cross paths more often in Tinder and possibly gain some of their rating by association.

3. Create a Fake Facebook Profile or Enhance Your Existing One

Tinder matches users based on mutual connections, shared subscriptions, and educational background visible on Facebook.

If you graduated from a top university or travel extensively, reflect this on Facebook so Tinder can use the data.

If your real profile doesn’t reflect this but you’re serious about dating, consider creating a secondary Facebook profile listing prestigious education, connecting with media personalities, or joining groups you aspire to be part of — even if you don’t become friends, being subscribed to them helps. Adjust other parameters to match your desired match profile.

However, if your rating is low due to poor photos or unengaging conversations (AI evaluates dialogue length and contact exchange), your chances remain limited.

Remember, the algorithm is imperfect and constantly evolving. Some effective tactics may become obsolete, and you might miss great matches.

Many find “love by algorithm” unsettling — a faceless system judging and deciding your romantic prospects. Yet, it also filters out unsuitable matches, which is valuable in large cities with abundant options.

*Meta Platforms Inc. and its social networks Facebook and Instagram are restricted in certain countries.

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