Minimum Auto Insurance Requirements by State (2026)
Every state except New Hampshire requires drivers to carry liability insurance, but the legal minimum varies by an order of magnitude. Florida sets bodily-injury liability at $10,000 per person; Maine demands $50,000. The 25/50/25 split — $25,000 BI per person, $50,000 per accident, $25,000 property damage — is the most common floor, but a dozen states sit below it and several sit well above. This guide lists 2026 minimum car insurance by state for all 50 states, identifies the no-fault PIP jurisdictions, and explains why the legal minimum is rarely the right amount of coverage. To skip the legal minimum and get a recommendation based on your actual assets, use our how much car insurance do I need calculator.
How state minimums are written
Liability limits are typically expressed as three numbers: bodily injury per person / bodily injury per accident / property damage per accident. A state listed as 25/50/25 requires at least $25,000 to cover injury to any one person, $50,000 total for all injured people in a single crash, and $25,000 for damaged property such as the other driver's car. Some states add uninsured motorist (UM) and underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage to the mandatory list, and roughly a dozen require personal injury protection (PIP) under no-fault rules.
Full table — All 50 states
| State | BI per person | BI per accident | PD per accident | UM/UIM or PIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $25,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | — |
| Alaska | $50,000 | $100,000 | $25,000 | — |
| Arizona | $25,000 | $50,000 | $15,000 | — |
| Arkansas | $25,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | PIP $5,000 (offer) |
| California | $30,000 | $60,000 | $15,000 | — |
| Colorado | $25,000 | $50,000 | $15,000 | — |
| Connecticut | $25,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | UM/UIM 25/50 |
| Delaware | $25,000 | $50,000 | $10,000 | PIP $15,000 |
| DC | $25,000 | $50,000 | $10,000 | UM/UIM 25/50 |
| Florida | $10,000 | $20,000 | $10,000 | PIP $10,000 (no-fault) |
| Georgia | $25,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | — |
| Hawaii | $20,000 | $40,000 | $10,000 | PIP $10,000 |
| Idaho | $25,000 | $50,000 | $15,000 | — |
| Illinois | $25,000 | $50,000 | $20,000 | UM/UIM 25/50 |
| Indiana | $25,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | — |
| Iowa | $20,000 | $40,000 | $15,000 | — |
| Kansas | $25,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | PIP $4,500 (no-fault) |
| Kentucky | $25,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | PIP $10,000 (no-fault) |
| Louisiana | $15,000 | $30,000 | $25,000 | — |
| Maine | $50,000 | $100,000 | $25,000 | UM/UIM 50/100 |
| Maryland | $30,000 | $60,000 | $15,000 | UM/UIM 30/60 |
| Massachusetts | $20,000 | $40,000 | $5,000 | PIP $8,000 (no-fault) |
| Michigan | $50,000 | $100,000 | $10,000 | PIP unlimited (no-fault) |
| Minnesota | $30,000 | $60,000 | $10,000 | PIP $40,000 (no-fault) |
| Mississippi | $25,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | — |
| Missouri | $25,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | UM 25/50 |
| Montana | $25,000 | $50,000 | $20,000 | — |
| Nebraska | $25,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | UM/UIM 25/50 |
| Nevada | $25,000 | $50,000 | $20,000 | — |
| New Hampshire | not required* | not required* | not required* | — |
| New Jersey | $25,000 (std) | $50,000 (std) | $25,000 (std) | PIP $15,000 (no-fault) |
| New Mexico | $25,000 | $50,000 | $10,000 | — |
| New York | $25,000 | $50,000 | $10,000 | PIP $50,000 (no-fault) |
| North Carolina | $30,000 | $60,000 | $25,000 | UM/UIM 30/60 |
| North Dakota | $25,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | PIP $30,000 (no-fault) |
| Ohio | $25,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | — |
| Oklahoma | $25,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | — |
| Oregon | $25,000 | $50,000 | $20,000 | PIP $15,000 + UM/UIM |
| Pennsylvania | $15,000 | $30,000 | $5,000 | PIP $5,000 (no-fault) |
| Rhode Island | $25,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | — |
| South Carolina | $25,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | UM 25/50 |
| South Dakota | $25,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | UM/UIM 25/50 |
| Tennessee | $25,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | — |
| Texas | $30,000 | $60,000 | $25,000 | — |
| Utah | $25,000 | $65,000 | $15,000 | PIP $3,000 (no-fault) |
| Vermont | $25,000 | $50,000 | $10,000 | UM/UIM 50/100 |
| Virginia | $30,000 | $60,000 | $20,000 | UM/UIM 30/60 |
| Washington | $25,000 | $50,000 | $10,000 | — |
| West Virginia | $25,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | UM 25/50 |
| Wisconsin | $25,000 | $50,000 | $10,000 | UM 25/50 |
| Wyoming | $25,000 | $50,000 | $20,000 | — |
*New Hampshire does not mandate liability insurance for most drivers but requires drivers to demonstrate financial responsibility after an at-fault crash. Virginia eliminated its uninsured-motorist fee in 2024 and now requires liability for all registered vehicles.
For state-specific registration costs that often run alongside insurance verification, see California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Georgia, and Ohio.
No-fault states
Ten states operate under no-fault rules for personal injury: Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Utah. In these jurisdictions the driver's own personal injury protection (PIP) policy pays medical bills and lost wages after a crash regardless of who caused it. The trade-off is restricted access to lawsuits — in pure no-fault states a driver typically cannot sue the at-fault party unless injuries cross a serious-injury threshold or a dollar amount.
Michigan is the only state that mandates unlimited lifetime PIP medical coverage, though a 2019 reform let drivers select tiered caps as low as $50,000. Florida requires only $10,000 PIP and $10,000 PD, one of the lowest-coverage mandates in the country. New York's $50,000 PIP is among the most generous. Kentucky and Pennsylvania use a "choice no-fault" model where drivers can opt out of the lawsuit limitation by selecting full tort coverage.
UM and UIM coverage
Roughly twenty states require uninsured motorist (UM) and underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage as part of the legal minimum. UM pays the policyholder's injuries when the at-fault driver carries no insurance; UIM kicks in when the at-fault driver's limits are exhausted. The Insurance Research Council estimates one in seven US drivers is uninsured, with rates exceeding 20% in Mississippi, Michigan, Tennessee, New Mexico, and Washington, which makes UM coverage practically essential even where it is optional.
The distinction between UM and UIM matters more than most drivers realize. If a driver with a 25/50/25 minimum policy hits you and your medical bills come to $80,000, their bodily-injury limit covers only the first $25,000. UIM on your own policy can pay the gap up to your own limit, but only if you carried it. Many states that "require" UM let drivers reject UIM in writing, and carriers often default new policies to the bare minimum unless the buyer asks. Reading the declarations page line by line is the only way to confirm both coverages are actually on the policy rather than waived at signup.
Florida's motorcycle exception
Florida is the only state that does not require motorcycle riders to carry liability insurance to register a bike, though riders must show financial responsibility ($10,000 per person / $20,000 per accident BI plus $10,000 PD) after an at-fault crash or be subject to license suspension. Every other state requires liability coverage at the same time as motorcycle registration. See the motorcycle registration fee guide for the registration side.
Why state minimums are usually inadequate
State minimums were written decades ago and have not kept pace with the cost of medical care or vehicle repair. The average new-car transaction price in 2026 sits above $48,000. A single emergency-department visit with a brief admission routinely exceeds $30,000, and an ICU stay can reach six figures within days. A driver carrying California's 30/60/15 minimum who causes a crash that injures two people in a $50,000 SUV will exhaust property-damage limits before the tow truck arrives and bodily-injury limits within hours of admission.
The shortfall does not vanish when limits are exhausted. The injured party's attorney pursues the at-fault driver's personal assets — wages, savings, home equity. A judgment can follow a driver across state lines for years. Carrying minimum limits to save $10-$20 a month exposes the household to a six-figure personal liability that the policy was supposed to absorb.
Recommended coverage: 100/300/100
Most independent insurance analysts point to $100,000 BI per person, $300,000 BI per accident, and $100,000 property damage as the practical floor for a working adult with any meaningful assets. Moving from a state minimum to 100/300/100 usually adds 10-25% to the premium, often $15-$40 a month, which is small next to the jump in protection. Drivers with significant net worth usually layer an umbrella policy on top, which generally requires 250/500/100 underlying limits.
Required vs recommended in plain terms
Required is what avoids a registration suspension and a citation. Recommended is what protects the household from a liability judgment. The two are not the same and have never been the same. Treat the state minimum as a legal floor for keeping plates valid, not as a budget for a real crash.
One way to picture the gap: the state minimum answers the question "what does the DMV demand before it lets me register?" while the recommended limit answers "what stands between my paycheck and a plaintiff's lawyer if I cause a serious crash?" Those are different questions with very different price tags. A driver who only ever asks the first one is buying a registration sticker, not protection. The smarter starting point is to size the policy to what you could lose in a judgment, then check whether the state floor happens to clear that bar — it almost never does.
Penalties for driving uninsured
Every state penalizes uninsured driving, and penalties have stiffened in 2026. The first-offense fine ranges from roughly $25 in Tennessee to $5,000 in Massachusetts; the median sits between $250 and $500. License suspension is common — California suspends for one year on a second offense, Florida suspends until SR-22 filing, and New York suspends for the duration of the lapse plus reinstatement fees. Vehicle impoundment is authorized in California, Florida, Georgia, and several others. Repeat offenders face misdemeanor charges and possible jail time in Michigan, New Jersey, and West Virginia.
An insurance lapse triggers an SR-22 or FR-44 filing requirement in most states, which the carrier reports directly to the DMV for three to five years. SR-22 filings raise premiums by 30-80% on average and follow the driver across state lines. Drivers without a vehicle who still need to keep an SR-22 active typically buy a non-owner SR-22 policy to maintain the filing.
Once the SR-22 period ends and a clean driving record is restored, drivers can usually return to standard rates. Until then, the same risk profile produces wildly different quotes between carriers — see high-risk car insurance for non-standard carrier comparisons and cheapest car insurance by state for state-by-state averages.
Compare auto insurance quotes
Insurance pricing turns on the individual driver. The cheapest carrier for one person is rarely the cheapest for the next, so the same coverage can vary by hundreds of dollars a year between companies. Comparison platforms pull live quotes from dozens of carriers in a few minutes, which is the fastest way to confirm whether a 100/300/100 upgrade actually costs more than a few dollars a month.
Sources
- National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Auto Insurance Database
- Insurance Information Institute (III) state minimums tables
- Insurance Research Council Uninsured Motorist Study
- State Departments of Insurance and Motor Vehicles (All 50 states)
- Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles
- Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services
- National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)