Membership and pricing

Friend in LA is for adults 18 and older who want to meet people in the Greater Los Angeles area for dating, friendship, or low-pressure social plans. If you are under 18, you cannot create or keep an account.

To get started you need a valid email you control, a US phone number you can verify by SMS/code, and a ZIP inside our Greater Los Angeles service area during onboarding. Those checks keep discovery local and reduce fake or out-of-area accounts.

After email and phone verification, you finish onboarding with photos, basics, location, and who you want to meet. Discovery unlocks once that profile setup is complete.

• You must be 18+ and use your own account — no shared or “team” profiles.
• Use a real US number and a ZIP we support; contact support if a valid LA-area ZIP is rejected.
• Read How it works and the Terms of use before you join.

Friend in LA is a local dating and social platform built for Greater Los Angeles. The idea is simple: meet people nearby for dating or social connection, not a nationwide swipe feed with no context.

Core product pieces include nearby discovery, mutual matching, messaging after a match, optional video call requests, member events, community and plan lounges, and an Elite peer circle for high-profile members who qualify.

You can start with a free account, then upgrade when you want more likes, discovery tools, or other paid features. Plans and packs are listed on Membership and managed from Billing after you sign in.

• Local-first discovery around Greater Los Angeles ZIPs and your chosen radius.
• Match → message → optional video calls, with report and block available throughout.
• Compare Free, Plus, Premium, and Elite paths on Membership.

Discovery is built around Greater Los Angeles. During onboarding you enter a ZIP and choose a radius so you mainly see people near you, not profiles across the country.

If you temporarily travel, your matching window still follows the location settings on your account. If you move permanently outside the service area, nearby discovery may stop showing useful results until you update your ZIP and preferences.

We periodically refine which ZIPs count as in-area. If you live in Greater LA and onboarding rejects your ZIP, open a support ticket with the ZIP so we can check the map.

• Set ZIP and radius in onboarding, then adjust later in profile/location settings.
• People outside your window generally will not appear in nearby discovery.
• Wrong rejections: contact support with your ZIP and city.

Direct messages open after a mutual match. That keeps DMs for people who both showed interest, instead of cold messages from strangers in discovery.

Some plan entitlements can change messaging access in limited ways; those exceptions are called out on Membership and in Billing for your current plan. Community rooms and plan lounges are separate group spaces with their own rules — they are not the same as a private DM thread.

In every conversation you can still block and report. If someone is pushy, scammy, or breaks guidelines, use those tools instead of arguing in-thread.

• Default: mutual match unlocks direct messages.
• Lounges are group spaces — follow each room’s rules and do not spam.
• Report or block anytime from the conversation tools or Report.

For account, billing, verification, or product help, open a trackable ticket from Contact support. We email you a private tracking link so you can read replies and add updates without guessing whether your message was received.

Browse this Help Center first — many questions about plans, badges, events, and safety are answered here and on related info pages. That usually gets you an answer faster than waiting on a ticket for something already documented.

Support is not an emergency line. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 911 (or your local emergency number) first, then contact us after you are safe if an account action is still needed.

• Start here: Help Center topics for common issues.
• Open a ticket at /support and keep your emailed tracking link.
• Emergencies: call 911 — then follow up with support if needed.

Free, Plus, and Premium are self-serve memberships you can start and manage from the product. They differ in daily likes, discovery tools, and other entitlements listed on Membership.

Elite is a separate peer-qualification path: a $499 non-refundable setup fee, admin approval, then $99/mo or $999/yr. Paying the setup fee never grants Elite automatically.

Feature packs (Super Likes, Spotlight, Profile Boost, verification products, etc.) may appear in Billing when your membership does not already include them. Compare the live catalog before you buy.

• Self-serve: Free, Plus, Premium — details on Membership.
• Elite: setup fee + approval + subscription — Elite info.
• Manage purchases anytime at Billing after sign-in.

Feature packs are one-time purchases such as Super Likes, Spotlight, or Profile Boost. They add a burst of visibility or actions without changing your base membership tier.

In Billing we only show packs your membership does not already include. If Premium already bundles a tool, you should not see a redundant pack for the same entitlement.

Elite members who already cleared identity requirements are not asked to repurchase Admin Identity Verification. Other packs still follow the catalog rules for your account.

• One-time add-ons, separate from monthly/yearly plans.
• Billing hides packs your plan already includes.
• Buy and review history in Billing; compare tiers on Membership.

Signed-in members cancel from Billing → Manage billing. That stops renewal at the end of the period you already paid for, unless a specific product says otherwise.

Access typically continues through the period already paid. Canceling does not automatically delete your account or remove your profile — it just returns you toward Free entitlements when the paid period ends.

Elite subscription (after approval) is managed separately from Free/Plus/Premium. Canceling Plus does not cancel Elite, and leaving Elite does not wipe a Free account. Delete the account only if you want full removal.

• Cancel renewals: Billing → Manage billing.
• Paid access usually lasts through the current period.
• Account deletion is a separate settings action if you want to leave entirely.

Membership fees are generally non-refundable once a billing period begins, except where required by law. Canceling stops future renewals; it does not usually refund days already started.

The $499 Elite setup fee is always non-refundable whether you are approved or denied. That fee pays for review, not for a guaranteed seat in the peer circle.

Verification appointments and event tickets follow their product rules and our Refund policy. Open support with invoice or ticket references if you believe a charge qualifies for an exception.

• Subscriptions: generally non-refundable mid-period except as law requires.
• Elite setup fee: non-refundable either way.
• Full rules: Refund policy; help: support.

Checkout runs through our payment processor (Stripe). Available cards and wallets depend on Stripe and your region — what you see at checkout is the live list for your session.

Friend in LA will never ask you to pay a member directly, wire crypto, or send gift cards for “verification,” “taxes,” or “travel.” Those are scam patterns. Official charges appear through Billing/Stripe flows only.

If someone claiming to be staff asks for payment off-platform, report the account and contact support. Do not send money first and ask later.

• Pay only through official Stripe checkout in Billing / product flows.
• Never gift cards, crypto, or peer-to-peer “verification” payments.
• Suspicious asks: Report and support.