How to Tell if Someone Is a Member on Match.com

Match.com offers two membership options: free and paid. Both membership levels include customizable profiles and receive matches. However, only current paying subscribers, and users redeeming a several-day free trial subscription, may correspond with potential matches or send “winks.” If a member cancels their subscription but does not terminate her membership, the profile reverts to a free membership and still appears in search results. Although your dazzling email may entice a free member to subscribe, paid members may write back quickly. Spot paid members through a process of elimination and careful inspection of their profile and your account.

Scan the profile for the “Last Login” date. Although some profiles with weeks-old login dates may belong to earnest members waiting for communication, months-old dates usually alert you to abandoned memberships.

Check your "Connections" list. When a member sends a wink or responds to an email, he appears as a Connection. Find Connections on the upper toolbar in on your Match.com account page. Click on "All Connections." Each connection displays a photo and lists whether he or you initiated contact. For example, the note may read, "He winked at you." If the other member initiated contact, he holds a paid membership.

Read the profile carefully for verbiage encouraging email contact or specifying the preferred tone. Members with messaging ability sometimes pepper their description with references such as, “I answer all emails,” or “Email me; let’s talk,” or “Please don’t email me if you are just here to waste time.”

Watch for return receipts. Match.com offers an Email Read Notification Feature as an upgrade. If a member opens your message, she holds a current paid subscription. Members sent to free trial members also appear here, but their correspondence ends after several days unless they subscribe.

Gravitate toward highlighted profiles. Not all subscriber profiles are highlighted in green, but all of these eye-catching profiles require a paid upgrade. Thus, the feature always calls attention to a current subscriber.