Extramarital Dating in India 2026: Cities & Numbers Fact-Checked

In March 2026 one set of headlines said Bengaluru leads India in extramarital dating. In June another set said it was Kanchipuram, a temple town of silk weavers in Tamil Nadu. Both were reporting real company data. They were measuring different things.

Almost every number in this space comes from the apps themselves. That does not make them false, but it changes what they can tell you. Below is what was reported in 2025–26, who reported it, and what each figure can and cannot support.

Our position, stated plainly: we run a platform in this category. We publish no user numbers, and we are not quoting anyone's figures to make the market look bigger.

The one thing to know first

None of the headline figures below is independent. User counts, city shares and growth rates come from the platforms, usually as press releases rewritten by many outlets. Nobody outside the company audits them. Surveys are typically commissioned by a platform and run by a polling firm, which is better, but the questions and framing are still chosen by an interested party.

Claims, sources and caveats at a glance

Claim	Who reported it	Caveat
Gleeden has 4 million (40 lakh) users in India	Gleeden, via Business Today, 9 Mar 2026; repeated by Global Dating Insights, 6 Apr 2026	Self-reported; "users" is not defined as active accounts
"Over 5 million" of Gleeden's Indian users are married	Free Press Journal, 3 Apr 2026	Larger than the company's own total of 4 million; see below
Gleeden "hits 40M subscribers in India"	Connected to India headline, Apr 2026	The article's body says four million; a lakh/million slip
"4.5 crore Indians" used discreet apps; "16 million" joined in a year	The Tribune, Jun 2026	No named source, platform or method for either figure
Women users up 148% in two years; about 65% men, 35% women	Gleeden, via Business Today	Percentage growth with no base figure
Bengaluru 18%, Hyderabad 17%, Delhi 11%, Mumbai 9%, Pune 7%	Gleeden, via Business Today	Share of one app's users, not a rate of anything
Kanchipuram tops Ashley Madison's India list for a second year	Ashley Madison, via Global Dating Insights and Aaj Tak, Jun 2026	Per-capita sign-ups in one month (May 2026); company calls it seasonal
53% of surveyed Indian adults admit to ever having an affair	Ashley Madison-commissioned YouGov survey, via MediaInfoline	13,508 adults across 11 countries; India sample size not published

4 million, 5 million or 40 million?

Gleeden's India figure has risen steadily in its own announcements: 2 million in January 2023, described as 20% of 10 million worldwide (DNA Hindi); 30 lakh active users in reporting from January 2025 (Oneindia Hindi); and 4 million in March 2026 (Business Today).

Then the versions split. Four million is 40 lakh. One outlet headlined it as "40M", which would be 4 crore, ten times the claim. And the Free Press Journal, in April 2026, ran with "over 5 million" of Gleeden's Indian users being married. That cannot sit alongside the company's own total of 4 million, published weeks earlier and repeated by Global Dating Insights in April with the same city shares. The FPJ piece also leans on a 2024 Gleeden survey of 1,503 married people aged 25–50 in tier-1 and tier-2 cities, which is a survey sample, not a user count. We treat 4 million as the company's figure and the 5 million as unreliable until Gleeden publishes it itself.

The 40 lakh figure also appeared in the April 2026 complaint that led the NHRC to send a notice to MeitY; The News Mill attributes it to the complainant, the Sewa Nyaya Utthan Foundation. More in is Gleeden safe?

Two further cautions. A cumulative sign-up count includes people who registered once and never came back. And the Tribune's "4.5 crore" and "16 million in a year" cite no platform, report or survey, so we have not used them as data.

Metros vs small cities: what the two datasets actually measure

If you searched for India's discreet dating cities in 2026, you found two lists that barely overlap. Here they are side by side.

	Gleeden (Mar 2026)	Ashley Madison (May 2026 data)
What is counted	Each city's share of Gleeden's Indian users	New sign-ups relative to population, for one month
#1	Bengaluru, 18%	Kanchipuram (second year running)
#2	Hyderabad, 17%	Coimbatore
#3	Delhi, 11%	Tiruvallur
#4	Mumbai, 9%	Chennai
#5	Pune, 7%	Gurugram
Where Bengaluru sits	1st	7th
Source	Business Today; Free Press Journal	Global Dating Insights; Aaj Tak; Asianet Newsable (ranks 5–10)

The Asianet list continues Noida, Bengaluru, Dehradun, Pune and Delhi at 6th to 10th. A note on names: the number three is Tiruvallur, the district next to Chennai, not Tiruppur. Global Dating Insights, Aaj Tak and Asianet all give Tiruvallur.

Share is not per-capita

A share list asks: of all our users, where do they live? Big cities win almost by default. Bengaluru and Hyderabad are large, young, online and full of people who download new apps, so they will top nearly any app's user map. Bengaluru at 18% and Hyderabad at 17% tell you mostly where Gleeden's brand has landed.

A per-capita list asks: relative to population, where did sign-ups come from? That flips the advantage to smaller places. Divide a modest number of sign-ups by a small population and you get a big rate. Divide a large number by Bengaluru's population and you get an ordinary one.

Why small cities top per-capita lists

Small denominators swing hard. A few hundred extra sign-ups in a district of a few lakh adults can move it from mid-table to first, while the same number in a metro would not register. That is what the history looks like: Kanchipuram was 17th the year before it first came top, according to WION's July 2025 report, in a list the company said also used "activity intensity and engagement data".

One-off events matter too. A local news story, an ad campaign or a single viral post can produce a short spike in one district in one month. Ashley Madison itself says the rankings are based only on sign-up activity and should be read as "an indicator of seasonal interest" rather than long-term outcomes (Global Dating Insights). A one-month snapshot is exactly where spikes show up.

The definition of "city" also shifts. The 2025 list counted Delhi as several separate districts; the 2026 list mixes districts such as Tiruvallur with metros such as Chennai. Comparing positions year to year assumes the units stayed the same, and they did not.

Both are marketing data

Neither list is a survey of behaviour. Both are a company describing its own sign-ups, released to get press coverage, which they did. Neither tells you how many people in any city are in an affair, and a registration is not an affair. Asianet's own write-up makes the same point: such data reflects what users do on the platform, not the city.

So when a headline calls Kanchipuram or Coimbatore anything's "capital", it is turning one app's monthly sign-up ratio into a judgment about the people of a town. We won't do that.

Married women on dating apps

Gleeden says female participation grew about 148% in two years and that women are about 35% of its Indian users (Business Today). Without a starting number, a percentage rise says little about scale. The male-heavy split is typical of the category, which is why free access for women is common across it.

The surveys, and who is in them

Ashley Madison / YouGov (fieldwork 24 Feb – 6 Mar 2025): 53% of surveyed Indian adults said they had ever had an affair, joint highest of 11 countries. The total sample was 13,508 adults across all countries; the India sample is not stated, and the same release mixes in a poll of 2,743 Ashley Madison members (MediaInfoline).

Gleeden / Ipsos (March 2026): 1,500 respondents in tier-1 and tier-2 cities (Global Dating Insights called them singles; Gleeden's own releases do not state marital status, see what the Gleeden–Ipsos survey actually says); 49% said they had chosen AI intimacy over a partner at least once (Global Dating Insights).

Online panels of 1,500 city dwellers can show attitudes. They cannot tell you how common something is across India.

How to read the next headline

1. Who released it? If it is the app, read it as marketing until shown otherwise.
2. Users, active users or sign-ups? These can differ several times over.
3. Lakh, million or crore? 40 lakh = 4 million. 4 crore = 40 million.
4. Share or per-capita? "18% of our users are in Bengaluru" and "Kanchipuram has the highest sign-up rate" answer different questions.
5. One month or a year? A single month invites spikes.

Parda, for what it is worth, publishes no member counts and never counts its labelled AI companions as members. Behind all these numbers are real people, often lonely ones; the statistics matter less than whether any platform you try is honest with you.

Quick answers

Which city has the most extramarital dating app users in India?

By Gleeden's share of users (March 2026), Bengaluru at 18%, then Hyderabad at 17%. By Ashley Madison's per-capita sign-ups for May 2026, Kanchipuram. They measure different things.

Why does Kanchipuram top Ashley Madison's list?

The ranking is sign-ups relative to population for one month, so smaller districts can top it with modest numbers. The company itself calls the rankings an indicator of seasonal interest.

How many Indians use Gleeden?

Gleeden said 4 million (40 lakh) in March 2026. Reports of 5 million or 40 million do not match the company's own figure.

Are these statistics reliable?

They are self-reported by the platforms and not independently audited. Treat them as company claims, not measurements of behaviour.