Updated April 2026 | ValuePenguin, NerdWallet, Bankrate 2026 sourced
Liability-Only Car Insurance Per Month: $62 National Average in 2026
The cheapest legally compliant auto policy in 49 states. Vermont and Maine sit at $38 per month, Nevada at $100. The math on who liability-only actually suits, and the asset-exposure gap most aggregators do not show.
Not insurance advice. Numbers are estimates triangulated from ValuePenguin 2026, NerdWallet 2026, and Insurance Information Institute Facts and Statistics. Always get an actual quote.
What you are actually buying
A liability-only car insurance policy pays the medical bills, lost wages, and property damage of the people you injure or whose property you damage in an accident you are deemed at fault for. It does not pay for your own medical bills, your own vehicle damage, theft of your vehicle, weather damage, vandalism, fire, flood, hail, falling tree limbs, or collision with wildlife. That distinction is the entire reason liability-only is cheaper.
A typical state-minimum liability policy carries limits expressed as three numbers. The first is bodily injury per person. The second is bodily injury per accident. The third is property damage per accident. In Arizona those limits are 25/50/15, meaning $25,000 per injured person, $50,000 total per accident, and $15,000 for property damage. In New Jersey, effective January 2026, the minimums jumped to 35/70/25. In California, effective January 2025, minimums moved from the historically low 15/30/5 to 30/60/15. The trend is unambiguous: states are raising minimums to keep pace with medical inflation, and the floor of liability-only premiums is rising with them.
Even at the higher new minimums, a serious injury can blow through liability limits in a single accident. A 35/70/25 policy in New Jersey would leave you personally exposed for $40,000 if a single injured party racks up $75,000 in medical bills. That exposure goes against your house, your car, your wages, and your retirement accounts in most states.
The 10x rule for keeping liability-only
The classical decision framework taught by financial planners and echoed by the Insurance Information Institute: drop collision and comprehensive when your vehicle is worth less than ten times the annual cost of those coverages. The logic is straightforward. Collision and comprehensive carry a deductible (typically $500 or $1,000). The insurer pays out only the actual cash value of the vehicle minus the deductible. If your 2007 Toyota Camry is worth $3,800 and collision plus comprehensive is $850 per year with a $1,000 deductible, the maximum payout the insurer will ever owe you is $2,800. You are paying $850 per year for a $2,800 ceiling. Two years of premium covers more than half the maximum payout. Three years of premium nearly covers the full ceiling.
The break-even math: take your annual collision plus comprehensive premium and multiply by ten. If your vehicle value is below that number, switch to liability-only and self-insure your vehicle. Take the savings and deposit them into a high-yield savings account. In 2026, top-tier high-yield accounts pay 4 to 5 percent APY. If you save $850 per year for three years and earn 4.5 percent, the balance is approximately $2,670. That is your replacement fund.
The 10x rule has three explicit assumptions that need to hold. First, you actually deposit the savings, you do not spend them. Second, your replacement vehicle is in the same category (a $4,000 used Camry, not an upgrade). Third, you have separate emergency savings for non-vehicle expenses so the replacement fund stays intact when life happens.
States ranked cheapest to most expensive for liability-only
State-minimum premiums correlate with state population density, uninsured-driver rate, litigation frequency, and the floor of statutory minimum limits. Vermont, with the lowest uninsured-driver rate in the country (around 4 percent per the Insurance Research Council) and very low population density, ranks cheapest. Nevada, with high Las Vegas urban claim frequency and elevated theft, ranks priciest.
| State | Min coverage / mo | Min limits | Full coverage / mo | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maine | $38 | 50/100/25 | $128 | $90 |
| Vermont | $38 | 25/50/10 | $128 | $90 |
| New Hampshire | $39 | 25/50/25 | $132 | $93 |
| Idaho | $40 | 25/50/15 | $135 | $95 |
| Iowa | $42 | 20/40/15 | $139 | $97 |
| Hawaii | $43 | 20/40/10 | $143 | $100 |
| Wisconsin | $43 | 25/50/10 | $143 | $100 |
| North Dakota | $44 | 25/50/25 | $148 | $104 |
| Ohio | $44 | 25/50/25 | $148 | $104 |
| Indiana | $46 | 25/50/25 | $152 | $106 |
| South Dakota | $47 | 25/50/25 | $158 | $111 |
| North Carolina | $48 | 30/60/25 | $161 | $113 |
| Massachusetts | $49 | 20/40/5 | $163 | $114 |
| Virginia | $49 | 30/60/20 | $163 | $114 |
| Arkansas | $50 | 25/50/25 | $171 | $121 |
| Illinois | $50 | 25/50/20 | $167 | $117 |
| Wyoming | $50 | 25/50/20 | $167 | $117 |
| Alaska | $51 | 50/100/25 | $174 | $123 |
| Oregon | $51 | 25/50/20 | $169 | $118 |
| West Virginia | $51 | 25/50/25 | $170 | $119 |
| Alabama | $52 | 25/50/25 | $178 | $126 |
| Minnesota | $52 | 30/60/10 | $175 | $123 |
| Tennessee | $52 | 25/50/15 | $175 | $123 |
| Nebraska | $53 | 25/50/25 | $176 | $123 |
| Kansas | $54 | 25/50/25 | $180 | $126 |
Top 25 cheapest. See Nevada state page or the age vs state matrix for all 51.
The 10 most expensive states for liability-only
Even at minimum limits, these states cost two to three times what Vermont costs. Driver behaviour, urban density, and litigation environments are the dominant factors.
What liability-only does NOT cover (the gap list)
The cheapest policy comes with the longest exclusion list. Every gap below is a scenario where the policyholder absorbs the cost personally.
- Your own vehicle in any collision. Whether you hit a tree, get hit by another driver, or get hit by an uninsured driver, the policy pays nothing for your car. Even when the other driver is at fault, you collect from their insurance, not yours. If their limits are too low (typical state-minimum 25/15 in many states), the shortfall is yours.
- Theft. The FBI Uniform Crime Reporting program tracked over 1 million vehicle thefts in 2024. Liability-only does not pay for stolen vehicles. The 10 highest-theft metros (Bakersfield, Memphis, Albuquerque, Pueblo, Yuba City, San Francisco, Denver, Spokane, Stockton, St Louis per NICB 2024) all run elevated risk.
- Weather and natural disaster. Hail, flood, hurricane, wildfire, tornado, falling tree limbs, lightning. All are comprehensive claims. Liability-only excludes them. Colorado leads the country in hail claims. Florida and Louisiana lead in hurricane-related comprehensive. Texas and Oklahoma lead in tornado.
- Vandalism and fire. Slashed tires, keyed paint, broken windows, intentional damage, fire. All comprehensive. The post-civil-unrest comprehensive claim surges seen in some metros in 2020 to 2022 were entirely uninsured for liability-only drivers in those metros.
- Animal collisions. Hitting a deer, coyote, moose, elk. State Farm reports approximately 1.8 million animal collision claims annually nationwide. All comprehensive.
- Uninsured driver hits you. If you do not carry UM and UIM, and an uninsured driver damages your vehicle or injures you, you collect nothing from your own insurer. The Insurance Information Institute estimates 14 percent of US drivers are uninsured, peaking near 29 percent in Mississippi.
- Your medical bills (in at-fault states without MedPay). Standard liability covers the other driver's medical. Your own emergency room visit, ambulance, surgery, or rehab is between you and your health insurer in at-fault states. In no-fault states, PIP covers some of this regardless of fault.
Recommended add-ons even on a liability-only policy
If you choose liability-only to keep monthly cost low, there are three add-ons typically worth carrying even at the cost of a small premium increase. Each costs $5 to $40 per month and closes a major gap.
Uninsured Motorist Bodily Injury (UMBI). Pays your medical bills when an uninsured driver hits you. Costs $10 to $25 per month for limits matching your liability. Required in 21 states and DC, optional elsewhere. Skip this only if your health insurance is very strong and you have separate disability coverage.
Uninsured Motorist Property Damage (UMPD). Pays for your vehicle when an uninsured driver damages it. Costs $3 to $15 per month. Available in some states as an add-on, others bundle it with UMBI. UMPD is the cheapest way to get any coverage on your vehicle when you have dropped collision.
Medical Payments (MedPay) or PIP. Covers your own medical bills regardless of fault, up to the limit. Typical limits $1,000 to $10,000. Costs $5 to $20 per month. Particularly valuable if your health plan has a high deductible, or if family members ride with you who are not on your health plan.