MW Some singles now expect their dates to pay for their Ubers while gas prices are so high
By Aditi Shrikant
Dating was already expensive, but high gas prices have people narrowing their dating-app radius and taking other extreme measures
High gas prices are limiting how far singles will go for love - literally.
This year, Rachel Tabacnic made a New Year's resolution to date more, but under one condition: that she doesn't have to drive too far. All four of her dating apps are set to filter out people who live more than 10 miles from her home in Parkland, Fla. She will not go out with anyone who lives more than a 20- to 30-minute drive away, she says.
The reason? Astronomical gas prices.
"A tank of gas for me is about $50," she says. "If I try to ... date somewhere an hour away from where I live, I'll go through a gas tank in three days."
The war in Iran and disruption of oil-tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has caused fuel prices to skyrocket. As of Tuesday afternoon, the national average price per gallon of gas was $4.32, according to AAA. Last year at this time it was $3.14.
In the Miami metropolitan area, where Parkland is located, gas now costs $4.11 per gallon on average - up from $3.01 last year. When prices started to spike, Tabacnic narrowed her dating radius.
For many singles, dating is already an expensive endeavor that doesn't always yield a positive outcome. More than half of Generation Z said in a 2025 survey that they spend no money on dating in a given month, in part because they are prioritizing their financial security.
Climbing fuel prices add to the stress of seeking a potential mate and have resulted in more singles setting boundaries around how far they will go, literally, to find love.
See also: These long-distance couples are mourning the airline America loved to hate
Dating is more expensive in general
Gas prices are part of the reason John Raisor, who lives in Madison, Ind., a small town about an hour outside Louisville, Ky., stopped using dating apps.
"Hinge only ever showed me matches that were hours away from me," he says. "Ninety percent of the matches were more than two hours away. Ever since the conflict started up and prices went up, I adjusted my mileage to be under 60 miles away."
In her 10 years as a professional matchmaker, Anna Morgenstern has never seen physical distance be as much of a dealbreaker as it is today. It makes sense, given that some Americans are dipping into emergency savings to buy gas or paying for fuel with buy-now-pay-later plans.
Some people are even requesting their date pay for a ride-hailing service to and from the date. "There has definitely been a rise in women being more vocal about their expectations for men to pay for their Ubers to and from dates," she says. "I don't recall women being this vocal in the past to have their transportation provided for."
Rising food and drink prices, Morgenstern suggests, also have single people looking more closely at the cost to fill their gas tank and adding up just how much they are spending getting to and from a date. Restaurant prices, which are also affected by rising fuel costs, are up 3.8% from last year, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A recent poll put the cost of a date, including gas prices and personal grooming, at $189, up from $165 in 2025.
"This year was the first year I had to ask a client to send an Uber for a girl," Morgenstern says. "Where he wanted to meet was a bit further away for her and she said, 'I'm not spending the money on that. He can spend the money if he wants me to do that.'"
They did not go on a second date.
Coffee, not cocktails
Tabacnic also suspects that high food prices have caused people she has matched with to suggest more economical dates like coffee, as opposed to cocktails or dinner, which makes a long drive feel even more inconvenient.
"Prices for food are going up, so that's impacting dating, too," she told MarketWatch. "People don't want to go on more than just a coffee date. So am I going to drive an hour and a half just for coffee?"
In a recent viral Reddit post, one New York City dweller said his date asked him to call her an Uber to get to their third date. When he refused, she canceled.
"I could understand calling an Uber for my date at the end of the night, if it's late, there are no good subways, etc. But for a daytime date when there's an extremely easy subway trip makes no sense to me," he wrote.
Most of those who replied to his post agreed that a request for an Uber is unreasonable and that his date's motives were financial. "Yep they aren't compatible babe girl only wants a man with $$$," one reply reads.
Even though she has filters set up, Tabacnic always double-checks to make sure her matches are actually where the dating app says they are.
"The first question is, 'How are you?'" she said. "Then I say, '[The app] says you are in XYZ city. Is that where you live or are you just there for work at the moment? I don't want to waste time with people who live so far away from me."
Raisor, meanwhile, once drove to Indianapolis for a date - a round trip that cost him $100 in gas. Now he is trying his luck approaching women in real life.
"Everyone is pessimistic about dating and under the illusion that they have unlimited options," he says. "All that plus gas at $4 per gallon, and I live an hour from the city, translates to partying like it's 1999 and chatting up women in coffee shops and on the sidewalk."
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-Aditi Shrikant
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June 04, 2026 12:52 ET (16:52 GMT)
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