Raya 2026: how it works, what it costs, who it suits

Raya is a members-only app for dating, friendship and professional networking. You apply, a committee reviews you, and the App Store listing says that takes "days to months". We found no free tier. Membership starts at $24.99 or 219 kr. The quoted 8% acceptance rate and 100,000 waitlist are attributed to one 2018 newspaper article. We have not used Raya.

Updated October 6, 2026

Price

Membership from $24.99 / 219 kr

Platforms

iOS

Countries

US, SE

Owner

Raya App, Inc.

Launched

2015

This page rests on reading, not use: Raya’s App Store listings in the US and Sweden, the admission page and terms on rayatheapp.com, press coverage from 2018 to 2025 and a thread on Mumsnet, a British parenting forum, all read on October 6, 2026 unless another date is given. We have not used Raya and did not apply. Its US listing calls it “a private global community” for “dating, friendship, or professional networking” (App Store US, 2026). The acceptance and waitlist figures most pages quote date from 2018.

How it works

Raya admits members by application only, and a committee decides who gets in. Its admission page says applications are “assessed based on algorithmic values as well as input from hundreds of committee members spread throughout the world”, who are anonymous to each other. A decision can take “anywhere from a day to a few months”, the page says, and the US listing puts it as “days to months” (Raya admission page, 2026; App Store US, 2026).

Who you know counts, by Raya’s own account. The admission page says “applications require referrals”, so that a trusted source can vouch for the applicant. Raya’s terms, updated December 5, 2023, name “the extent of the applicant’s connection to existing members” as one factor the committee considers (Raya terms, 2023). The same admission page also says that “NASA scientists, cancer researchers, poets, painters” have “found us with no affiliation or anyone to vouch for them”. Both lines are Raya’s, and the page does not say how they fit together.

Raya frames the whole process as a guest list: “If you were hosting an intimate dinner party with 10 people around a table, and wanted to create a memorable evening full of interesting, lively, and respectful conversation, who would you invite?” Its practical advice is one line: “Instagrams, websites, blogs, etc are very helpful in understanding how you see the world.” The page also says who is not invited: anyone under 18, which Raya says it often checks by asking for ID, and anyone with “consistent displays of excessive shows of wealth” (Raya admission page, 2026).

Inside, the listing names “Daily Recommendations, Maps, and Directory” as the ways to find people nearby or elsewhere (App Store US, 2026). The terms describe a “social mode” that members can toggle on and off (Raya terms, 2023). The networking side goes back years. TechCrunch wrote in March 2018: “And it’s for professional networking as well as dating, with parallel profiles for each.” Work contacts could then be filtered by “‘Entertainment & Culture,’ ‘Art & Design’, and ‘Business & Tech’ buckets” (TechCrunch, 2018). Bustle reported in May 2021 that you applied with Instagram and that the handle showed on your profile (Bustle, 2021). Both details are as reported then.

Raya’s terms forbid “(vii) taking screenshots or otherwise copying, disclosing or sharing content from the app” (Raya terms, 2023). TechCrunch reported in 2018 that members who took screenshots got warnings, and Wikipedia says repeated screenshots lead to the account being terminated (Wikipedia, 2026). TechCrunch also quoted the message the app showed members: “This is an intimate community with zero-tolerance for disrespect or mean-spirited behavior. Be nice to each other.” The listing says accounts “may be suspended or terminated for behavior that does not reflect our community guidelines”, and we could not read the guidelines page, which loaded empty on October 6, 2026. The admission page says Raya “only receives reports in about 1 out of 11,000 connections”, a company figure with no date or method.

Bustle also reported in May 2021 that matches expire after 10 days if neither person starts a conversation (Bustle, 2021). It is the only rule we found that bears on ghosting, which means going silent on a match. It applies before the first message, and we found nothing that confirms it for 2026.

Raya is iPhone only and English only, according to the US listing, which requires iOS 17.0 or later and was updated in early October 2026. We found no Google Play listing when we searched on October 6, 2026. Wikipedia says Daniel Gendelman created Raya in 2014 and that it launched in early 2015 (Wikipedia, 2026). The seller in both App Stores is Raya App Inc.

How to get on Raya, and the waitlist

Raya publishes its process, and we found no acceptance or waitlist numbers from it. Every acceptance rate and waitlist size that we found traces back to a newspaper, so the table sorts the claims by who made them and when.

The 8% and the 100,000 are both attributed to one New York Times article in June 2018, which we could not read, and every later page we found repeats them (Global Dating Insights, 2018). Women’s Health wrote in April 2024 that “As of 2018, only about eight percent of applicants were accepted to Raya”. The Conversation in September 2022 put it in the present tense: “The New York Times reports only about 8% of applications are accepted” (Women’s Health, 2024b; The Conversation, 2022). Whether the figures came from Raya or from the reporting, we do not know. Global Dating Insights summarized a Wall Street Journal report from August 2025 that put the waitlist at 2.5 million and the membership in the low six figures. We could not read that article either (Global Dating Insights, 2025).

We have no tips on getting accepted. Applicants not admitted go on a waitlist that the terms say “is continually reviewed by a dedicated team”, and the admission page says “every day people are removed from it, and welcomed to the community” (Raya terms, 2023; Raya admission page, 2026). Addison Aloian wrote in Women’s Health on March 30, 2024 that she was accepted within a few days of applying (Women’s Health, 2024a). That is one case.

A Mumsnet thread started on January 2, 2022, with about 12 replies, asked: “What are the men like on Raya, nice, entitled?” A reply the same day: “You have to be a certain ‘type’ of person to be accepted to use the app. High earner, very good looking, well known or have a big social media following.” Later that day the poster added: “Don’t know if everyone on there is just a poser or genuine and looking for something serious.” (Mumsnet, 2022). Raya’s admission page says money “isn’t the currency here”. The reply listed it first.

What it costs

We found no free tier on Raya. The admission page says “every new member is asked to pay their monthly membership fees” once admitted. The terms say accepted applicants “will be required to select a subscription option from among various prices and durations” (Raya admission page, 2026; Raya terms, 2023). These are the App Store list prices read October 6, 2026. No line carries a billing period (App Store US, 2026; App Store Sweden, 2026).

The listing says “Accepted members may choose a 1, 6, or 12 month membership”, but none of the ten lines Apple shows in the US store names a period. Women’s Health gave $113.99 as the six-month price in April 2024 (Women’s Health, 2024b). The listing does not say so, and we do not turn any line into a monthly price. According to Aloian’s Women’s Health piece, Raya+ adds seeing who likes you, more daily recommended profiles, doubled map and directory results, unlimited likes and unlimited travel plans (Women’s Health, 2024a).

What “Skip the Wait”, “Direct Request” and “Travel Plan” do is not explained on any Raya page we could read. “30 Extra Likes” suggests that standard members have a like limit, and Raya does not say what it is.

Two lines on Raya’s own pages matter before you pay. The terms say “we do not offer refunds for any reason other than as set forth in the Terms of Use” (Raya terms, 2023). The admission page says that after a membership expires, “you may be asked to reapply as automatic renewal and/or readmission are not guaranteed”. Letting it lapse may mean applying again.

Prices in the press have climbed. TechCrunch gave $7.99 a month in March 2018, Bustle $9.99 a month in May 2021, and Women’s Health $24.99 a month in April 2024 (TechCrunch, 2018; Bustle, 2021; Women’s Health, 2024b). The US App Store showed the same $24.99 for the entry membership on October 6, 2026, with no period. By the press figures alone, the monthly price rose about threefold from 2018 to 2024.

The Swedish listing says, in Swedish, that Raya App Inc has identified itself as the app’s trader and confirmed that the product complies with applicable EU law, the opposite of what Feeld’s Swedish listing says about Feeld (App Store Sweden, 2026).

What users report

These are other people’s accounts, one at a time, and we have not checked them against the app. Much of the coverage we read leads with famous people reportedly seen on it, and we leave the names out.

On October 6, 2026, Raya had 4.0 from 16K ratings in the US App Store and 4.4 from 458 in the Swedish one, and the US listing ranked it #198 in Lifestyle (App Store US, 2026; App Store Sweden, 2026). Two US reviews read that day speak to the pool. One reviewer wrote on July 26, 2020: “if you don’t live in LA, NY, or any large populated city this app will not work.” In a review from June 2026 titled “Basically instagram but looks like Tinder”, one reviewer wrote: “there’s also some people I’ve already seen that are on hinge that are also on this app.” They are single reviews.

The only long first-person account we read is Aloian’s in Women’s Health in March 2024, cited above, and it is one writer’s experience. The Student Room, a UK student forum, has no Raya thread we could find. We found no lawsuits, regulatory action or published moderation data about Raya.

Who it suits, and who it does not

Raya is members-only by design. Its terms weigh connection to existing members and its admission page asks for referrals, so it should suit people whose network is already on it. Professional networking is half the pitch. The listing names it next to dating and friendship, and TechCrunch described parallel profiles for each in 2018. If meeting people in your field matters as much as dates, that is what the product is built around.

Android users are out, since Raya is iPhone only and we found no Google Play listing, and so is anyone who wants an app in a language other than English. We found no member count, so we cannot promise a large local pool. If you want to know what you are paying for before you apply, the periods are unlabeled and three of the paid extras are not explained. Tinder is the volume option, Hinge asks for a sentence first, and our best dating apps guide compares the field.

Raya is listed in the Swedish App Store, with EU trader status on the listing. We found no member count by country, so we cannot say how many members there are in Sweden. The Swedish store showed 458 ratings.

Here is what the scores rest on. Serious is 3, and preliminary. We found no outcome data, the listing pitches dating, friendship and professional networking side by side, and a vetting committee decides who gets in, not what anyone is looking for. Cost is 1. We found no free tier, and membership started at $24.99 or 219 kr in the US and Swedish App Stores on October 6, 2026, with Raya+ at $49.99 or 489 kr. Three paid extras go unexplained, no line names its period, and press prices rose from $7.99 a month in 2018 to $24.99 a month in 2024. Pool is 1, and preliminary. We found no member count from Raya itself, the app is iPhone only and English only, the stores showed 16K US ratings and 458 Swedish ones on October 6, 2026, and the one membership figure we found is the low six figures in Global Dating Insights’ August 2025 summary of a Wall Street Journal report. Women is 3, and preliminary. Committee vetting, the zero-tolerance message TechCrunch quoted in 2018, the screenshot ban in the terms and termination for guideline breaches count in its favor. Raya says it receives reports in about 1 out of 11,000 connections, an undated company figure. We found no safety or gender data, and we tested nothing. Ghosting is 3, and preliminary. Bustle reported in 2021 that matches expire after 10 days without a first message, and we found no rule on unanswered chats.

Scores

How we score