Coffee Meets Bagel From a Guy’s Perspective: CMB for Men
Online dating is popular but challenging for many, especially guys navigating women-centric apps like Coffee Meets Bagel (CMB) and Bumble. Unlike Tinder or Hinge, CMB requires a different approach.
Let’s take a closer look at Coffee Meets Bagel from a guy’s perspective, including practical tips and strategies, so you can get the most out of your CMB profile and find more success on the dating app platform.
Table of Contents
What is Coffee Meets Bagel?

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of how Coffee Meets Bagel works (for guys specifically), it is important to first acquaint yourself with the site as a whole.
CMB is an online dating platform with well over 10 million active users, and it is not difficult to understand the appeal of Coffee Meets Bagel, particularly if you are a woman.
This is largely because Coffee Meets Bagel was built from the ground up to allow women to control their interactions with potential matches. With features like curated matches and personalized criteria, women can tailor their dating experience to meet their preferences and priorities, fostering a sense of empowerment and security in the online dating realm.
Learn the best time to ask someone out on Coffee Meets Bagel.
How Does Coffee Meets Bagel Work?

As mentioned, Coffee Meets Bagel stands out among the most popular dating apps in two significant ways. Firstly, its structure is heavily focused on providing its female users with the agency and empowerment that they may not find on other dating sites. Secondly, it places restrictions on various features, all of which serve to make finding a serious relationship a much more streamlined experience, leading to better dates.
User Experience on Coffee Meets Bagel
Now, how does Coffee Meets Bagel work for guys?
Every user – male users included – is either a Coffee or a Bagel. The Coffee is the individual dating profile that you control; the Bagels are the potential matches that are visible to you. Much like real bagels, the Bagels you encounter are only fresh for a certain amount of time – specifically, 24 hours. This means that users are only presented with a certain amount of Bagels per day, and only have a small window of opportunity within which to engage with them.
While some may call this structure into question (particularly Tinder users), it makes finding high-quality matches a lot more manageable, and the algorithm ensures that you are only presented with Bagels with whom you are compatible. This means that female users can effectively pick and choose who they are interested in, and not have to worry about these people wasting their time; their options are limited to people who have already expressed interest in their Coffee Meets Bagel profile.
Now, how does Coffee Meets Bagel work for females?
For female users, the experience is designed to be more controlled and focused. With the platform’s emphasis on empowering women, they can review and select from the Bagels (potential matches) that have already shown interest in them. This allows for a more curated dating experience where women can feel confident in their choices and engage with matches they find genuinely appealing.
Navigating Coffee Meets Bagel: Tips and Features
Of course, all users receive a small number of Beans, which are the platform’s main form of “currency,” for lack of a better word. Your Beans allow you to send likes to other users, as well as potentially match with them. Users can also express their interest in potential matches by using the heart icon, which serves as a quick and easy way to signal attraction and initiate connections. So whether you’re sending Beans, tapping the heart icon, or utilizing read receipts, Coffee Meets Bagel provides multiple avenues for sparking meaningful interactions and finding your ideal match.
Premium users receive a ration of coffee beans daily, which is perfect for how CMB is structured. Other users will receive Beans when they complete their CMB profile and after that must purchase more or wait for free Bean rations (which are only handed out every so often).
With a premium membership subscription, you not only gain access to daily Bean rations, ensuring a consistent ability to send likes and messages but also unlock exclusive features and benefits that enhance your overall Coffee Meets Bagel experience. Subscribing to a premium membership offers convenience and flexibility, allowing you to enjoy the full potential of the platform while optimizing your chances of finding meaningful connections. Plus, keep an eye out for special discount offers on premium memberships, which may occasionally be available, providing even greater value for your investment in finding love on Coffee Meets Bagel.
How Does Coffee Meets Bagel Work For Guys?

By now, you should be familiar with the structure of CMB. However, as a male user, you may be curious about what all of this means for you from a Coffee Meets Bagel guy’s perspective.
Male users are somewhat handicapped on CMB when it comes to navigating the dating pool. They cannot see who likes their profile, and they are limited to a specific number of Bagels per day (20 to be exact). This means that because of their limited number of coffee beans, male users must be incredibly selective about who they choose to like daily.
Unlike female users, however, male users will always be presented with the same number of CMB profiles per day. Female users will only see people who’ve already expressed an interest in them. In this case, the best way to guarantee more matches – as a guy – is to make sure that your profile is fully optimized and comprehensive.
Curious if Coffee Meets Bagel harbors fake profiles? Discover the truth here.
By being as comprehensive as possible – filling in all the fields that Coffee Meets Bagel provides, and completing your bio by highlighting your most important traits – you can increase your chances of receiving a handful of matches that align with your dating preferences and improve your success rate. It also never hurts to be funny – if you can work in a joke, your chances of people engaging with your dating profile will be much higher.

Although this CMB bio above is detailed and does a good job describing the user’s interests, it can use some more humor to keep potential matches engaged.
Luckily for ex-Tinder users, you will notice that the same best profile practices and tips still apply to Coffee Meets Bagel – do not clutter your CMB profile with selfies, diversify your selection of photos, try to work in a few jokes, etc. The Tinder similarities also extend to everything related to breaking the ice and getting a good rapport going through top-notch conversation, ultimately enhancing your success rate. If you are wondering how these sorts of conversations should play out, take a look at the examples featured down below.

This is a good example of a safe, effective conversation starter.

This one is a little raunchier and thus riskier, but openly flirting straight away can sometimes lead to some pleasing results.
Can Guys Message First on Coffee Meets Bagel?

From the outset, it is abundantly clear that Coffee Meets Bagel is designed in such a way to provide women with the agency they might be lacking on other dating sites. Despite this, guys on CMB should still not be afraid to express their interest and admiration. The site actively encourages it.
Messaging Strategies on Coffee Meets Bagel
Whenever you are presented with a profile on Coffee Meets Bagel, you are given the option of liking it. This alone will be enough to at least get your potential match to notice you (as mentioned, women are only presented with guys who have already liked their profile), but if you want to improve your chances of them matching with you, you are going to need to send them a message.
Are you failing to get replies? Here are some reasons why your CMB messages fail or disappear.
Enhancing Communication with Beans
Luckily, one of the features unique to guys on CMB is the ability to send a message along with your likes. These messages can be viewed by the women you send them to, and if they are compelling enough, they may be enough for them to like you back and match with you. Only once this has happened will the chat window be opened, allowing both of you to communicate as you please. Alternatively, you can always politely pass on a Coffee Meets Bagel profile and move on to the next. You may encounter that CMB profile again with a later batch of Bagels.
These messages cost extra Beans (which are limited in supply) to send, so you need to ensure that you only send them to people you are interested in and that they are compelling and well-written. If you need more Beans, there are a few different ways of acquiring them. By far the easiest (and cheapest) method is to sign in to your Coffee Meets Bagel account every day during your first week, which will award you with a small number of Beans every time. You can also earn more free beans by inviting your friends to the application – (they have to click on the link that you provide) – or by following Coffee Meets Bagel’s social media profiles (by following the links that they provide), including Facebook.
If you have extra money to spend, you can purchase more Beans from the in-app store in various quantities, or you can sign up for a premium account which will net you a set amount of Beans every week.

Initiating Conversations with Humor
Misdirection can be a successful conversation starter. Beginning with a strange question and segueing into something more suggestive can be very effective. Just like when setting up your dating profile and writing your bio, it never hurts to be funny. Opening with a joke can be a great way to get a conversation going.
As an additional note, try to come up with a joke that your match is forced to engage with. Knock-knock jokes are a good example of jokes that require engagement from both parties. When crafting your first message, consider incorporating humor or a playful question to spark interest and initiate a memorable conversation.
Have you experienced ghosting on Coffee Meets Bagel? Find out what to do!
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, this quick guide has provided you with an overview of how CMB works for guys. Despite Coffee Meets Bagel’s intense focus on empowering its female users, male users do not need to be afraid of this incredible and popular dating site. All the rules of engagement that you may have learned on sites like Tinder or Badoo still apply here. Coffee Meets Bagel’s unique structure actively streamlines the process for both male and female users, making it that much easier for you to find the deep long-term relationship that you have been looking for.
In the realm of modern dating, Coffee Meets Bagel stands out as a platform that prioritizes meaningful connections over casual encounters, making it particularly appealing to millennials seeking genuine relationships in a swipe-heavy landscape. With features tailored to facilitate authentic interactions, such as curated matches, icebreaker prompts, and activity reports, it offers a refreshing alternative to the superficiality often associated with other dating apps.
As a dating expert, you can also make use of our dating profile writing service to ensure that your profile is fully optimized, or our text dating app texting feedback for advice on how best to continue with a conversation.