The average accident and illness pet insurance policy cost $836 a year for a dog (about $70 a month) and $435 a year for a cat (about $36 a month) in 2025. Those are the latest national averages from the North American Pet Health Insurance Association (NAPHIA), the trade group whose yearly report covers about 99% of the pet insurance written in the U.S. and Canada.
Your own quote can land well above or below that. The kind of plan you pick matters most, then your pet’s species, age and breed, then where you live. Below you’ll find what each plan type costs, why prices keep climbing, what changes your number, and the easiest ways to pay less.
How much is pet insurance per month?
It depends first on which of the three plan types you buy. Here’s what the average pet owner paid for each in 2025, according to NAPHIA:
| Plan type | Dogs (per year) | Dogs (per month) | Cats (per year) | Cats (per month) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accident only | $190 | about $16 | $112 | about $9 |
| Accident and illness | $836 | about $70 | $435 | about $36 |
| Accident and illness plus wellness | $1,414 | about $118 | $859 | about $72 |
Accident only
This pays for injuries: a swallowed sock, a torn ligament, a car accident, a cut that needs stitches. It won’t touch illnesses, which is where most vet bills come from, so it’s cheap for a reason.
Accident and illness
This is what most people mean by pet insurance. It covers injuries plus illnesses like infections, digestive problems and cancer. If you only buy one kind of plan, this is usually the one worth comparing.
Wellness add-ons
Wellness is an add-on for routine care such as checkups and vaccines. It raises the premium a lot. Before you add it, check whether it pays back more than it costs you each year, because routine care is a bill you can see coming.
Why pet insurance keeps getting more expensive
Pet insurance has been getting pricier every year. Here’s the average accident and illness premium over the last five years:
| Year | Dogs (per year) | Cats (per year) |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | $625 | $370 |
| 2022 | $640 | $387 |
| 2023 | $675 | $383 |
| 2024 | $749 | $386 |
| 2025 | $836 | $435 |
That’s an 11.5% jump for dogs and a 12.6% jump for cats in 2025 alone, and about 34% for dogs since 2021. Vet care keeps getting more expensive, and insurers pass it on. Your own premium usually rises at renewal as your pet gets older too, so the price you start with is rarely the price you’ll pay in year five.
What changes the price of pet insurance
Insurers price every pet on its own, so the national average is only a starting point.
The biggest single factor is whether you’re insuring a dog or a cat. Dogs cost roughly twice as much, because they see the vet more often and their treatment tends to cost more. Age comes next: older pets cost more to cover since they get sick more, and signing up while your pet is young also means fewer conditions get written off as pre-existing. Breed matters too. Breeds known for inherited joint, breathing or heart problems usually cost more than mixed breeds.
Then there’s where you live. Vet bills run higher in big cities and high-cost states, and insurers price by ZIP code, so the same pet can cost noticeably more one town over.
The last three are the ones you control when you pick a plan:
- The deductible is what you pay before the plan starts paying. A higher one lowers your premium.
- The reimbursement rate is the share of a covered bill the plan pays back after the deductible, usually 70%, 80% or 90%. A lower rate means a lower premium and a bigger share of each bill on you.
- The annual limit caps what the plan pays in a year. Lower caps cost less, but a serious illness can hit a low cap fast.
Does pet insurance cost vary by state?
Where you live changes your price because vet care costs different amounts in different places. Pet insurance is also far more popular in some states than others. Here are the ten states with the biggest share of the country’s insured pets in 2025, per NAPHIA:
| State | Share of U.S. insured pets |
|---|---|
| California | 18.1% |
| New York | 7.4% |
| Florida | 6.2% |
| Texas | 6.1% |
| New Jersey | 4.7% |
| Pennsylvania | 4.5% |
| Washington | 3.8% |
| Massachusetts | 3.4% |
| Illinois | 3.3% |
| Colorado | 3.0% |
For what pet insurance looks like where you live, and which plans are sold there, pick your state:
What you’re actually paying for
Most vet visits are for everyday problems, not emergencies. NAPHIA’s 2025 claims data lists the conditions insurers paid out for most often:
For dogs, that’s stomach and digestive problems, ear infections, skin conditions, anxiety and behavioral issues, and allergies. For cats, it’s stomach and digestive problems, dental disease, urinary tract infections, anxiety and behavioral issues, and breathing problems.
Then there’s the rare bill that changes everything. The biggest single claim NAPHIA recorded for a dog in 2025 was $66,600, for a 3-year-old Bernese Mountain Dog with a chronic illness nobody could diagnose. For a cat it was $51,600, for a 4-year-old American Shorthair with cancer. Most pets never get close to that, but that’s the kind of bill insurance is really for.
How to pay less for pet insurance
The quickest lever is the deductible. Raise it and your premium drops, as long as you could actually cover that amount if something happened. Picking a lower reimbursement rate works the same way: going from 90% to 70% lowers the premium, and you pay a bigger share of each covered bill. You don’t always need unlimited coverage either, but don’t set the annual limit so low that one surgery runs past it.
Timing helps. Sign up while your pet is young and you’ll start at a lower price, with less history that can be excluded as pre-existing.
Be picky about wellness. Add up what you spend on vaccines and checkups in a year first. If the add-on costs more than that, pay for routine care yourself.
If you have a few pets, insuring them together can save money. Our guide to the best pet insurance for multiple pets covers how that works.
And compare quotes for your actual pet. Averages are a guide, but your price depends on your pet and your ZIP code. You can compare pet insurance quotes in a couple of minutes.
Still deciding whether it’s worth paying for at all? We walk through it in is pet insurance worth it.
Frequently asked questions
How much is pet insurance a month for a dog?
The average accident and illness plan cost about $70 a month for a dog in 2025 ($836 a year), according to NAPHIA. Accident-only coverage averaged about $16 a month. Your dog’s age, breed and your ZIP code can push your quote well above or below those averages.
How much is pet insurance a month for a cat?
The average accident and illness plan cost about $36 a month for a cat in 2025 ($435 a year). Accident-only coverage averaged about $9 a month.
Why did my pet insurance premium go up?
Averages rose 11.5% for dogs and 12.6% for cats in 2025 because vet care keeps getting more expensive. Your premium can also rise at renewal as your pet gets older, since older pets tend to need more care.
Does pet insurance cover pre-existing conditions?
Usually not. Most plans won’t cover a condition your pet had before you enrolled. Some insurers will cover a curable condition once your pet has gone a set amount of time without symptoms, so check how your policy defines pre-existing before you buy.
How many pets have insurance?
Very few. About 4.27% of the 163.6 million dogs and cats in the U.S. were insured at the end of 2025, per NAPHIA. That’s about 6% of dogs and about 2% of cats.
Is pet insurance required by law?
No. No U.S. state requires you to insure your pet. It’s a personal choice about whether you’d rather pay a monthly premium or risk paying a big vet bill yourself.
Sources
- North American Pet Health Insurance Association (NAPHIA), State of the Industry Report 2026, published June 2026 and covering the 2025 calendar year. Average premiums (Section 4), insured pets by state (Section 5), most common conditions and largest claims paid (Section 6), and U.S. pet population and penetration rate, which NAPHIA takes from the American Veterinary Medical Association’s 2025 Pet Owner Survey.
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