Would you pay $290 to meet 8 potential lifelong friends? Matchmaking apps for friendship — not love — are taking off

Alexandra Pitzer was 33 when she moved from Nashville to Honolulu for her husband’s Army job. She told the New York Times that while scrolling through Instagram, she came across an ad for a matchmaking service that promised to take the awkwardness out of making friends. After filling out a personality survey, she’d be matched with a group of women, with their get-togethers already arranged.

There was just one small detail: It cost $290.

Pitzer decided to take the chance. Before long, she was sitting at a brewery with eight other women, all of whom had paid for the same thing: the possibility of finding a friend.

“I can see most of them being lifelong friends,” Pitzer told The New York Times. “We have a genuine connection.”

Paying for friendship

A growing crop of friend-matching services is trying to make meeting people feel a little less like a dating app and a little more like being introduced by a mutual friend. Instead of endless swiping, some services arrange group meetups.

For Pitzer, she turned to the platform Real Roots, known to bring women together through organized social gatherings. In a statement to Moneywise, Real Roots explained that new members can sign up for a $25 Meet & Greet, where they’re matched with a group of seven to 10 women based on compatibility.

“If you love your group, you can continue into a six-week friendship series, but there’s zero obligation after the M&G,” the company said.

While paying to make friends might sound strange to some, these services are emerging at a time when many people are struggling to find meaningful connections.

According to a 2024 study from Harvard’s Making Caring Common Project, 67% of lonely adults experienced a form of social-emotional loneliness, including feeling disconnected from a meaningful community or group. The study also found nearly half (45%) of lonely adults struggled with knowing how to build close friendships in the first place.

Is paying for friendship worth it?

For many adults, making friends isn’t necessarily about a lack of effort. Sometimes, it’s simply not knowing where to start. Meagan Allers, head of community and partnerships at Marco Polo, says that’s part of why people are willing to pay for friendship services.

“Paying isn’t about buying friends. It buys the structure back,” Allers told Moneywise. “You are paying for someone to do the matching for you and facilitate the first awkward steps of meeting new people.”

But making an introduction is one thing. Building a lasting friendship is another.

“One dinner with strangers rarely turns into friendship,” she said. “Repeated, low-pressure contact does.”