The story so far
What happened to Tinychat?
Tinychat, the webcam chat-room site, closed on December 16, 2024 after about fifteen years. Paltalk had owned it since 2014. The tinychat.com domain was sold in May 2025 and now runs a different video chat. Here is the whole timeline, with sources.
The short version
- Is Tinychat still running? The original chat-room service is not; it shut down on December 16, 2024. A new random video chat now uses the tinychat.com address and the TinyChat name.
- Why? The shutdown notice did not say.
- What is on tinychat.com now? A different random video chat, run by the owner of another video chat site since May 2025.
- Can I get my account back? No. Accounts and rooms went with the old service.
Tinychat timeline, 2009 to 2025
- 2009
Launch
Tinychat goes live as a lightweight chat site. Its rooms soon carry live webcams, and in November 2009 it adds Tinychat.tv for live streaming.
- Jan 2011
Funding
Tinychat raises $1.5 million. Coverage at the time describes a fast-growing video chat room service.
- 2009 – 2014
The room years
Anyone can open a room on any topic. A room can hold a rolling maximum of 12 video and audio feeds, with a text chat running alongside.
- Dec 2014
Paltalk buys it
Paltalk, a group video chat company that had been around since the late 1990s, acquires Tinychat and keeps it running as a separate brand.
- Dec 16, 2024
Shutdown notice
A notice appears on the Tinychat website saying the service has ended and closed down. The page points visitors toward Paltalk.
- May 2, 2025
The domain is sold
The tinychat.com domain is sold to the owner of another video chat site. It now hosts a random video chat that has nothing to do with the old rooms or accounts.
What Tinychat was
Tinychat was a website for group video chat. Its defining feature was the room: anyone could create one on any subject, give it a name and share the link. Inside, up to a dozen webcams could be live at once, with a text chat running alongside. Some rooms were huge and loud. Others were a handful of regulars who had known each other for years.
It worked in the browser, which mattered a lot in 2009. There was nothing to install, and a room could be shared as easily as any other web page.
The Paltalk years
In December 2014 Tinychat was bought by Paltalk, an older company built around the same idea of group video chat rooms. Paltalk kept Tinychat as its own brand rather than folding it in, so for about ten years the two ran side by side under one owner.
When Tinychat closed, its shutdown notice pointed visitors to its parent company's own service.
Why did Tinychat shut down?
The honest answer: nobody outside the company knows for certain. The notice on December 16, 2024 said the service had ended and closed down. It did not give a reason.
Plenty of articles offer explanations, from falling numbers of users to the cost of moderating live webcam rooms. Some of those may well be part of the story. But none of them come from Tinychat or Paltalk, and we would rather leave a gap in the record than fill it with a guess presented as fact.
What is on tinychat.com now?
On May 2, 2025 the tinychat.com domain was sold to the owner of another video chat site. The address now hosts a random video chat. It uses the old name, but it is a different service: the rooms, accounts, followers and history of the original Tinychat are not there, and it is not run by Paltalk.
If you land on a site that asks for your old Tinychat password, do not enter it, and do not reuse that password anywhere else.
Where did Tinychat users go?
It depends on what they came for. Room regulars tended to look for other room-based services, or moved their group to a community server so the regulars could stay together. People who mostly enjoyed meeting someone new on camera moved to one-on-one video chat sites, which is the kind of site TinyChat.today is.
We keep a plain, dated list on Tinychat alternatives, split by rooms versus one-on-one, with notes on which ones need an account.
Where TinyChat.today fits in
TinyChat (this site, TinyChat.today) is not the original Tinychat and is not connected to it, to Paltalk or to tinychat.com. It is a small, independent one-on-one video chat that runs in the browser: you start as a guest, allow your camera and microphone, and talk to one person at a time. No rooms. Video calls use coins, and prices are shown before you buy.
If the quick webcam conversation is the part of Tinychat you miss, it might suit you. If it was the rooms, it probably will not, and the alternatives page will serve you better.
Fran · CR
Tays · IT
Paola · CO
Yazz · DO
Photos from the profiles of women who use the platform. Who is around depends on the hour.
Try a one-on-one video chat →Questions about the Tinychat shutdown
When did Tinychat shut down?
On December 16, 2024, when a notice appeared on the Tinychat website saying the service had ended and closed down.
Why did Tinychat shut down?
The shutdown notice did not give a reason. You will find plenty of guesses online, but none of them come from Tinychat or Paltalk, so treat them as guesses.
Who owns tinychat.com now?
The domain was sold on May 2, 2025 to the owner of another video chat site, and it now runs a random video chat. It is not the original Tinychat, and old Tinychat accounts do not work there.
Can I get my old Tinychat account or rooms back?
No. The accounts, rooms and friend lists belonged to a service that no longer exists. No other site, including the new one on tinychat.com and including TinyChat.today, has them.
Is TinyChat.today the new Tinychat?
No. TinyChat.today is an independent one-on-one video chat site with its own accounts and rules. It is not affiliated with Tinychat, Paltalk or tinychat.com.
Sources
Dates come from the sources above. Where they say nothing, such as the reason for the shutdown, we say nothing either. If you spot an error, write to us through the contact page.