Home / Insurance / What Dog Insurance Costs
Ask ten owners what dog insurance costs and you will get ten numbers, all of them true, because the price is built from the dog and the settings rather than read off a shelf. This page gives you the two things that make quotes make sense: the industry averages, published by NAPHIA from the premiums owners actually paid, and a plain account of the levers that move your own price away from those averages. Where a provider publishes its own sample or average price, we quote it and name it. We do not publish invented breed premiums anywhere in this section.
| Plan type (dogs, US) | Average per year | Average per month |
|---|---|---|
| Accident only | $190 | About $16 |
| Accident and illness | $836 | About $70 |
| Accident and illness with wellness embedded | $1,414 | About $118 |
Source: NAPHIA 2026 State of the Industry Report (calendar 2025 data), average annual premium per dog, US. Monthly figures are the annual averages divided by twelve. The same report's 2024 figure for accident and illness cover was $749, so the average rose about 11.5% in a year: premiums across the market are climbing, not falling.
Read the table the right way. The $836 average is not the price of a typical new policy for a typical puppy. It is the mean of every policy in force, including senior dogs, unlimited plans and breeds with heavy claims. A new quote for a healthy young dog commonly lands below it; a quote for an older, high-risk breed commonly lands well above it. The averages are still the best anchor available, because they come from premiums actually paid rather than from advertised starting prices.
1. Breed and size. Insurers price from claims history by breed. Breeds with expensive inherited conditions, such as the French Bulldog's airway and spine problems or the Golden Retriever's cancer rates, sit at the top of the price bands; small mixed-breed dogs sit near the bottom. Size matters too, because drugs, anesthesia and surgery scale with body weight. Our cost by breed pages explain the risk profile behind the price for 54 breeds.
2. Age. A puppy is the cheapest dog you will ever insure, and the price climbs with age as claim probability climbs. Age also closes doors: Healthy Paws stops new enrollments at 14 and will not cover hip dysplasia for dogs enrolled at six or older, and Embrace offers full accident and illness cover only up to the mid-teens, with accident-only beyond that. Spot and Pets Best publish no upper enrollment age limit.
3. Location. Vet costs vary sharply by state and city, and premiums follow them. The same dog costs more to insure in a high-cost metro than in a rural area, as Embrace's own city pages show. Moving house can change your renewal price even though your dog has not changed at all.
4. Deductible and reimbursement rate. These are the dials you control. A $1,000 deductible with 70% reimbursement is the cheapest combination at every provider here; a $100 deductible with 90% reimbursement is the dearest. Remember what the dials mean in a claim: on a $4,000 bill with a $500 deductible at 80%, you pay the $500 plus 20% of the remaining $3,500, so $1,200 in total, and the insurer pays $2,800, assuming the treatment is covered and no exam-fee exclusion applies.
5. Annual limit. Unlimited cover costs more than a $5,000 cap, and the difference is the price of not having the conversation about whether treatment continues after the cap is hit. Young dogs of high-risk breeds get the most value from unlimited cover, because they have the longest time in which to use it.
At the NAPHIA average, five claim-free years of accident and illness premiums total about $4,180, close to the cost of one major surgery. That comparison cuts both ways. If your dog reaches old age without a serious claim, the savings pot ends ahead and you keep the money. If the emergency arrives in year one, the pot holds a few hundred dollars against a bill of thousands, and the policy is the only version of the plan that works. Insurance is therefore best understood as buying certainty in the early years, when you have the least saved and the dog has the most life ahead. It is not an investment and should never be sold or bought as one.
Two practical rules follow. First, if you insure, insure young: the premium is lowest, the exclusions list is empty, and orthopedic waiting periods expire while the dog is still sound. Second, set the deductible at the amount you could genuinely pay at midnight without borrowing; a policy whose deductible you cannot meet is a policy that does not work on the only night it matters.
Next steps: see how the providers rank in the best pet insurance comparison, read the review of any provider you are considering, and check the by-breed cost index if your breed is one of the six covered. For a rough personal figure, try our free insurance estimator.
NAPHIA's 2026 State of the Industry Report, covering calendar 2025, puts the average annual premium actually paid for a dog at $836 for accident and illness cover (about $70 a month), $190 for accident-only cover (about $16 a month), and $1,414 for accident and illness cover with wellness built in (about $118 a month). These are averages across every age, breed, state and plan setting, so treat them as the center of the market, not as a quote.
Because the average blends puppies with senior dogs and low-limit plans with unlimited ones. A young small mixed-breed dog on a $500 deductible can cost half the average, while an older French Bulldog on 90% reimbursement with unlimited cover can cost three times it. Breed, age, state, deductible, reimbursement rate and annual limit explain almost all of the difference.
Yes, on premium, and the trade is exact: you swap a lower monthly payment for a larger amount you must find yourself in the year you claim. Moving from a $250 to a $1,000 annual deductible typically cuts the premium noticeably at every provider we reviewed. The saving is only real if you could actually pay the higher deductible on a bad night without borrowing.
Premiums rise as dogs age, because older dogs claim more. Providers do not publish a standard age-loading table, so no honest percentage exists to quote. What you can do is enroll young, when premiums start lowest and nothing is pre-existing yet, and expect the renewal price to climb through the dog's life, steeply in the senior years.
It is the cheapest cover in the market, averaging $190 a year for dogs on NAPHIA's figures, and it pays for broken bones, swallowed objects, bites and road accidents. It pays nothing for illness, which is where most large lifetime bills come from, including cancer and chronic disease. As the only cover an older dog can still get at some providers it has real value; as a young dog's only plan it leaves the biggest risks open.
Usually yes, within limits: raising your deductible or lowering your reimbursement rate or annual limit at renewal lowers the premium at most providers. The reverse is harder. Increasing cover later can restart waiting periods for the upgraded portion, and anything diagnosed in the meantime stays pre-existing. Choose settings you can sustain rather than the richest settings you can afford this month.
This page is general information about how dog insurance works in the United States. It is not financial advice, it is not a quote, and it does not sell insurance. Premiums, waiting periods, exclusions and availability vary by state, by dog and over time, and the policy wording and sample policy on the provider's own site are the only terms that count. Always read the sample policy, including the exclusions and the definition of a pre-existing condition, before you buy.
Last updated: November 2026. Averages are NAPHIA's; sample prices are the named provider's own published figures, read November 2026. How we work: our methodology.