How to Use Bumble for Free

Last Updated: April 25, 2022 References

If you're curious about Bumble but don't want to pay for a dating app, you're in luck—Bumble is free to use! While there are premium features available in Bumble's paid memberships, all of the features you'll need to find love, friends, and business contacts come with your 100% free membership. We'll give you a breakdown of everything you can do for free on Bumble, what you'll get if you upgrade, and tricks for getting premium features without paying.

Section 1 of 4:

Do you have to pay to use Bumble?

First and foremost, Bumble is free to use. You can swipe, match, exchange messages, and use audio and video chat with other Bumble users without paying a dime. While there are added features available if you choose to pay, those features are truly optional—you don't have to pay for Bumble.

Section 2 of 4:

What can I do for free on Bumble?

1
Make matches and send messages. The most important features of Bumble—the ability to swipe through profiles, match with people you're interested in, and exchange messages—are completely free. However, free users do have a swipe limit. Once you swipe through a certain amount of profiles in a single 24 hour period, you'll have to wait a day before you can swipe through more potential matches.^{[1]
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- Bumble doesn't divulge how many swipes you get per day with a free account. If you're thoughtful about your swipes, you shouldn't run into the limit often.
- Both Bumble Boost and Bumble Premium subscriptions come with unlimited swipes.
2
Extend one match per day. When you match with someone on Bumble, you'll have 24 hours to send the first message (if you're a woman or part of a same-gender match), and 24 hours to reply to your match's first message. If you miss that window, you can use Extend to get another 24 hours in case you're too busy to hit the deadline. With a free account, you can use Extend once per day.^{[2]
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- If you pay for Bumble Boost or Bumble Premium, you get unlimited Extends.
3
Add Basic Info and Interest badges to your profile. Badges are a way to add interests and preferences to your profile without having to waste space in your bio. The more badges you add to your profile, the more likely you are to appear in likeminded users' searches.^{[3]
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- Basic Info badges: Looking for, height, star sign, drinking and smoking preferences, whether you have or want children, religion, political leanings, and more.
- Interest badges: Coffee, pets, wine and food preferences, pets, music, positivity, and more.
4
Set basic search filters. With a free Bumble account, you can filter your matches by gender, age, and distance.^{[4]
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Research source} This is one of the biggest differences between free and Premium accounts, as Premium account holders can narrow their searches by the information users specify in their Basic Info and Interest Badges.
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Play the Question Game. If you're not sure how to get a conversation going once you've made a match, you can use Bumble's Question Game feature without having to pay.
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Use Bumble Bizz, BFF, and Dating modes at the same time. If you're looking for friends instead of (or in addition to) dates, you can activate Bumble BFF mode, which allows you to create a separate profile just for platonic matches.^{[5]
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Research source} Similarly, you can use Bumble Bizz mode for work-related networking. You can use any or all of these modes on Bumble at any time with your free account.

Section 3 of 4:

What do I get if I were to pay for Bumble?

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Bumble has two subscription plans: Bumble Boost and Bumble Premium. The two plans include all of the standard free features, with added bonuses:
- Bumble Boost:
  - Backtrack, which is the ability to undo a left swipe.^{[6]
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  - Unlimited swipes.
  - Unlimited Extends.
  - One Spotlight per week, which features your profile at the top of the stack.^{[7]
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  - Five SuperSwipes per week.
- Bumble Premium:
  - Includes all of the features of Bumble Boost (Backtrack, unlimited swipes and Extends, five SuperSwipes, and one Spotlight).
  - Access to Advanced Filters that let you refine your searches by interest, physical descriptors, and more.
  - Travel mode, which lets you specify another location to match with people worldwide.
  - The ability to see who already liked you on your Beeline.
  - Unlimited chances to rematch with expired matches.
  - Incognito mode, which allows you to swipe privately.^{[8]
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Some paid features are available without paying for a subscription. If you don't want to make a monthly subscription commitment, there are a few features you can pay for when you need them.
- If you want your profile to be shown to more people, you can pay for Spotlight as needed without subscribing.
- If you really want to show someone you're interested, you can pay individual SuperSwipes any time you want.

Section 4 of 4:

How can I get paid features for free?

1
Sign up for a free trial. When you're new to Bumble, you'll be offered a free trial subscription of Bumble Boost or Bumble Premium after you start swiping through matches. It might take a week or so before you're offered the trial, but it'll only be offered soon after creating an account. As long as you cancel your trial before the end of the trial period, you can take advantage of the paid features without ever paying.
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Use secret tricks to access Premium features. With a free account, the only legitimate way to know who already liked you is to swipe right on someone you're interested in and hope they swiped right on you too. If you don't want to pay for Premium, try our trick for seeing your Beeline without paying using a web browser.
3
Reset your profile for another shot at a free trial. If you've already missed your chance at getting a free Boost or Premium trial, resetting your Bumble profile can bring back that free trial offer. However, don't make a habit of resetting your profile often—Bumble will issue you a warning if you delete and recreate your profile too many times.^{[9]
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