Coffee Meets Bagel review: free chats, paid plans and who it suits

What Coffee Meets Bagel is

Coffee Meets Bagel is a dating app run by Coffee Meets Bagel, Inc., the company named in its terms and also the App Store seller and Google Play developer. The App Store subtitle reads "Meet & Date Serious Singles." The Google Play description opens with "Ready to ditch the dating games and find something serious? You'll be in good company at Coffee Meets Bagel, where 91% of our daters are looking for a serious relationship." The homepage headline is "For serious daters."

The 91% and the homepage claim of over 150 million matches made are the company's own figures, and neither is audited. The North America app shows 500K+ downloads on Google Play (that listing only, since the worldwide app is a separate listing). No gender ratio or age split is published.

Who Coffee Meets Bagel is for

The app suits singles who want a committed relationship and a short daily list in place of endless swiping. It asks upfront what members are looking for, and profiles show relationship goal and family plans.

The terms add a condition: members must be "Unattached," which they define as willing to enter a new romantic relationship and without "an established monogamous romantic partner." Open relationships are not mentioned, so the open relationship app picks are the place to look for that. No couples-profile feature is described (the site footer has a "CMB Couples" entry for stories). Couples will find the wider field in dating apps for couples.

Sign-up asks for gender and gender preference. A help article titled "Is your app LGBTQIA+ friendly?" exists, but its content is not covered here, so the sign-up fields are all that can be stated. The LGBTQ hookup and dating app list sorts apps for people who want an LGBTQ-focused one.

Dating or hookup

Coffee Meets Bagel is a dating app for relationships, and its pages say so in several places. The store listings ask "Looking for something casual?" and answer "You're welcome to join, but you won't find that here." That is all the listings say about casual use: casual daters may sign up, and the app tells them they will not find casual dating there. Nothing in the sources read calls the app sex-positive.

For a search on hookup apps or one night stand apps, the app's own account puts it in the wrong category. The hookup app picks and the casual dating app list start from apps that say they are for it, while relationship searches can use the best dating apps.

Matching and messaging

A batch of profiles called Suggested arrives around noon each day, according to the help center. Both people can like or pass for free, and a mutual like is a match. The terms say the algorithm considers "your specific preferences, who you like or pass on, who is available in your area, and also whether you are someone else's type."

Two other places add profiles. Discover lets you browse more of them and send flowers, which are bought with beans, the app's in-app currency. Likes You collects the people who liked you. Free members see a limited number of likes in the queue each day, and the help center does not give the number.

Matches can start a conversation for free in the Chats section. A chat is open for an initial 7 days and stays open while the conversation is active, and the store listings call this the Seven-Day Chat Limit. A closed chat can be reopened with beans for 30 days. Icebreakers help start conversations, and Read Receipts need a subscription. Video chat and voice messages are not mentioned, and disappearing messages are not described. The help text was read through an archived copy dated October 13, 2025, so details may have changed.

Search and filters

Free preferences cover gender, age, distance, ethnicity, religion and relationship goals, and any preference can be set as a dealbreaker. Subscribers add what the help center calls Premium Preferences: height, education, family plans, kids, marital status, smoking, drinking and exercise. Which subscription tier carries them is not stated in the pages checked. Discover has its own search filters. Other apps with this feature are collected under dating apps with advanced filters.

Location

Distance is one of the free preferences, and Google Play's data label says the app "Shares Location." The privacy policy says that, with permission, the app collects device GPS location at registration or when location services are on. How distance is displayed is not stated, and no travel feature is mentioned. Other apps are compared under location-based matching and travel mode.

Privacy and incognito

Incognito mode belongs to CMB Platinum. Google Play describes it as "Flip on Incognito mode to only get shown to people you've liked first." Private photos are not mentioned.

The privacy policy, last updated September 4, 2025, lists what the app collects: email, zip code, birthday, gender and preferences, photos, device ID and, with permission, GPS location. Facebook login lets it use public profile photos and friends to show common friends, and profile data is shared with other users to make matches. The policy says it does not sell personal information, and it also says third parties may collect data through the service for business and advertising purposes. Requests for access and correction are supported, as are deletion requests.

The Google Play data safety label reads "No data shared with third parties," which differs from the policy's description of sharing with service providers and advertising partners. The wider picture is in the dating app privacy guide and the discreet dating app picks.

Verification and safety

Photo verification is not a badge every member carries. The terms say "We do not routinely verify the identity of our Users," though the company may verify by selfie or government ID as part of fraud prevention. The privacy policy says "In certain circumstances, Coffee Meets Bagel may require you to verify your profile photo," and names the vendor Persona and a scan of facial geometry for it. Other apps that check profiles are listed under profile verification.

Members can report a profile (the app calls it a bagel) from the app, and the terms describe reporting by support ticket. A Safety Policy and Community Guidelines exist, but the Safety Policy article named in the terms could not be read. For general caution with strangers, see the safety guide and dating app scams.

Free version

Google Play says "Coffee Meets Bagel is a free dating app, but you can always subscribe for special features." A free member gets:

• the daily Suggested batch
• free likes and passes, with a limited number of likes visible in the queue
• free matches and chats, inside the 7-day chat window
• free preferences for gender, age, distance, ethnicity, religion and relationship goals

Paid plans add seeing all your likes, Bonus Bagels, flowers, Boosts and more, and Read Receipts and Incognito mode also sit behind a subscription. Dating apps you can use without paying compares the alternatives.

Pricing

All prices below come from iPhone App Store listings, checked on November 5, 2026. On the US App Store, CMB Premium is listed at USD 34.99 and USD 39.99 for 1 month and USD 74.99 for 3 months. On the same US App Store, CMB Platinum is listed at USD 46.99 and USD 54.99 for 1 month and USD 99.99 for 3 months, so the lowest listed price is USD 34.99, for CMB Premium (1 month).

On the Canadian App Store, CMB Premium is listed from CAD 42.99 for 1 month and CMB Platinum from CAD 59.99 for 1 month. Coffee Beans are sold separately, and Google Play and web prices are not covered. The full breakdown, including why some items show two prices, is on the Coffee Meets Bagel pricing page.

Cancelling and deleting

A subscription is cancelled through the store or payment provider it was bought with, Apple App Store or Google Play. The terms say the cancellation "will be effective at the end of the then-current Subscription period." Purchases are final and non-refundable, except where the law or section 20 of the terms allows a refund. The steps for any app are in cancelling a dating app subscription.

An account can be deleted, or put on hold, in the app or by creating a support ticket. Deleting is the only way to end the agreement, and a store subscription has to be cancelled separately. The privacy policy adds that deletion may be done by deactivating the account first and then permanently deleting it. Other apps are covered in how to delete a dating app account.

Platforms and age

Coffee Meets Bagel has an iPhone app (it also lists iMessage) and an Android app, package io.cmbus.app. A web version of the dating app is not confirmed: the website offers app downloads, and accounts are created in the app with Facebook or a phone number. For options that skip the download, see dating sites without an app.

Both store listings carry the mark "(*North America & Caribbean)," and the website separately offers "the app for US/CA" and "the app for Worldwide." The iPhone listing checked here is found in 2 of 45 App Store storefronts, the US and Canada. It was not found in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Poland, Czechia, Portugal, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Turkey, Israel, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, India, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan or Vietnam. The worldwide app's listings were not read, and no official supported-country list was found.

The terms (section 2) require members to be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority where that is higher than 18. The App Store web page shows an age rating of 18+ and Google Play shows Mature 17+.

Pros and cons

Alternatives

Two head-to-head pages cover the better-known relationship apps: Hinge vs Coffee Meets Bagel and Bumble vs Coffee Meets Bagel. Apps like Coffee Meets Bagel sorts other options by need.

Coffee Meets Bagel review verdict