A couple splits a bottle of wine, calls a rideshare home, and never once mentions the number quietly stacking up behind the evening.
That number now has a price tag attached to it. A new financial index just measured exactly what a single night of courtship costs, start to finish.
The figure is bigger than most daters would guess, and it climbed fast in just twelve months. It also explains why so many singles are changing how, and how often, they go out at all.
Why the bill is bigger than the receipt ever shows
The jump is not really about one entree getting pricier. New survey data shows Americans spend $189 on an average date, a 12.5% increase from 2025. That figure stacks several hidden extra costs on top of each other, not just the meal.
That figure includes transportation, getting ready and the actual cost of the date, such as food, drinks or tickets. Tip culture and ride pricing have become part of the normal math of a night out, on top of whatever the menu says.
BMO’s own researchers frame the shift as outpacing everyday costs. A lot of Valentine’s Day staples have spiked: the candy and chewing gum price index increased 10% from a year ago in December, indoor plants and flowers increased 7.2%, and food away from home increased 4.1%. Dating costs climbing 12.5% in a single year, against those much smaller increases in everyday categories, is what BMO points to when it says the romance economy is inflating faster than the rest of the household budget.
None of those shifts shows up on a single line of a receipt. That is exactly why the hidden surcharges feel invisible until someone finally adds them up, line by line, after the night is over.
What a typical night out actually buys today
Picture the evening itself rather than the receipt. A dinner reservation, a round of drinks, a shared dessert, then a phone pulled out to call a car instead of risking a late train.
That scene now repeats less often than it used to. On average, Americans who dated went out about 12 times in the past year, down from around 14 in 2025. Fewer nights out, at a higher price per night, is the new default pattern.
Multiply the frequency by the price and the yearly total becomes hard to ignore. Americans spent an average of $2,323 on dates over the past year. That is more than many households spend on a used appliance or a short vacation.
The spending is not even across age groups. Millennials reported the highest average cost per date, at $252, followed by Gen Z at $205. Younger daters, already managing rising job worries, are absorbing some of the steepest increases of any generation tracked.
Where this figure comes from and who it is changing
The numbers trace back to a large, recurring consumer survey rather than a single anecdote. According to the bank’s own release, the research was conducted by Ipsos among 2,501 U.S. adults between December 29, 2025, and January 27, 2026.
That scale is what lets the report claim a national average rather than a guess from one city. Behavior is already shifting in response to the figure.
Half say they have gone on fewer dates or chosen less expensive activities due to rising costs, and Americans who dated went out about 12 times in the past year, down from around 14 in 2025. That is roughly one in two daters actively rationing their nights out, not a small fringe group skipping dinner.
For singles specifically, the math is starting to sour the whole premise of dating. According to the survey, cost pressures are taking a toll: nearly half, 47%, of singles say dating is simply not financially worth it. Couples already paired off are adapting differently, leaning on each other instead. 58% of people in serious relationships say they are financially dependent on their significant other, up from the 40% who said the same just a year ago.
The complication: not every dater is cutting back the same way
It would be simple to say everyone is pulling back equally, but the data does not support that. Some daters are genuinely spending less, while others keep spending freely regardless of the headline number.
Researchers tracking this pattern describe it as a split rather than a uniform retreat. BMO’s Paul Dilda described it this way: responses to the steep price of going out are leading to what looks like a K-shaped dating economy, where some people slash expenses by skipping date night entirely or swapping the restaurant for a home cooked meal. He added that on the other end, some are deciding an expensive date is worth the dent in their wallets.
Even so, 14% of Americans say the average date costs them nothing, up from 12% a year ago. A free walk or a home cooked meal has become a legitimate first date again for a growing slice of singles.
Yet the financial goals being disrupted are not trivial ones. 50% of Gen Z and 40% of Millennials say the cost of dating gets in the way of reaching their financial goals, a dollar figure shaping decisions well beyond one single evening.
What the $189 figure means going forward
None of this means dating is disappearing, but it is clearly being renegotiated. Singles are not abandoning romance so much as redesigning the evening around what they can actually afford to repeat.
That shows up in simpler dates, shared rides, and fewer but more deliberate outings. It also echoes a broader pattern of spending habits shifting under financial pressure across everyday life, not just courtship.
So the open question is whether $189 becomes the new normal or keeps climbing. For now, the number gives daters something they rarely had before, a clear price tag for a night that used to feel priceless.
