What Pet Insurance Really Costs by State and Breed in 2026

Two French Bulldogs, the same age, on the same insurance plan, can cost their owners wildly different amounts each month — one in Mississippi, one in Alaska. That is not a pricing glitch. Where you live and what breed you own are the two biggest levers in pet insurance pricing, and in 2026 the gap between the cheapest and most expensive combinations is more than double.

This page pulls together the best published data on what pet insurance actually costs by state and by breed — from Insurify’s analysis of more than 250,000 insurance quotes, the industry’s own NAPHIA premium figures, and breed-level pricing research from Bankrate, NerdWallet, Forbes Advisor and others. Every figure is labelled with its source, because with pet insurance the source and the assumptions behind a number matter as much as the number itself.

The national picture: $43 a month for a dog, $23 for a cat

Start with the benchmark. According to Insurify’s June 2026 rates analysis — one-year rolling medians from more than 250,000 quotes across 10+ partner insurers, through the end of May 2026 — the median monthly premium is $43 for a dog and $23 for a cat. Those medians cover accident and illness policies with annual limits from $2,500 to unlimited, deductibles of $250, $500 or $1,000, and reimbursement rates of 70–90%.

The industry’s own figures run higher. NAPHIA (the North American Pet Health Insurance Association), in its 2026 State of the Industry Report covering calendar-year 2025 data, puts the average accident and illness premium actually paid at $836 per year for dogs (about $70/month) and $435 per year for cats (about $36/month). Accident-only cover averages far less: $190 per year for dogs and $112 for cats.

Why the gap between the two sources? They measure different things. Insurify reports the median quote a shopper sees; NAPHIA averages the premiums of policies actually in force, which include older pets and unlimited plans that pull the average up. Forbes Advisor’s cost analysis, reported by PetPlace, lands between the two: a plan with $5,000 of annual coverage, a $250 deductible and 80% reimbursement averages $46/month for dogs and $23/month for cats, while unlimited coverage averages $66/month for dogs and $34/month for cats. Whichever source you use, the honest summary is the same: budget roughly $25–$70 a month for a dog and $20–$35 for a cat, then adjust for the two levers below.

Pet insurance cost by state

Your state is the first lever. Insurers price in local veterinary costs — a cruciate ligament repair simply costs more in New York than in rural Mississippi — along with state insurance regulation and local claim rates. Insurify’s state medians show how wide the spread gets.

Most and least expensive states for dogs (median monthly premium, Insurify)

Most expensive	Median	Least expensive	Median
Alaska	$66	Mississippi	$32
Massachusetts	$64	Alabama	$32
Washington, DC	$60	Oklahoma	$33
Delaware	$57	Arkansas	$34
New Hampshire	$55	Ohio	$35

Most and least expensive states for cats (median monthly premium, Insurify)

Most expensive	Median	Least expensive	Median
Washington, DC	$34	Mississippi	$11
Delaware	$32	Alabama	$15
Massachusetts	$31	Oklahoma	$15
Alaska	$30	—	—
New Jersey	$30	—	—

A few things worth noticing. Alaska and Massachusetts tie as the most expensive states overall (an average of $48/month across dogs and cats in Insurify’s data). Mississippi is the cheapest state in the country for both dogs and cats. And California — often assumed to be the priciest place to insure a pet — sits mid-pack at $49/month for dogs and $25/month for cats, well below New York ($56 for dogs). A dog owner moving from Mississippi to Alaska would see the median premium more than double without changing anything about the dog.

Want the figure for your own combination? Our pet insurance cost calculator estimates your monthly premium from your pet’s breed, age and state in about 30 seconds.

Pet insurance cost by breed

Breed is the second lever, and for dogs it can matter even more than geography. Insurers price the conditions a breed is genetically prone to: a breed that commonly needs breathing surgery, hip surgery or cancer treatment costs more to cover, because the claims are predictable. Published breed figures vary by source and coverage level, so the table below shows what each named source reports rather than a single blended number.

Dogs: what published sources report (monthly premium)

Breed	Reported figures	Basis
French Bulldog	$69 – $134	Insurify breed medians: $69 at a $5,000 annual limit, $134 with unlimited coverage. Bankrate quote research (via Spot): ~$89 for a 3-year-old at 80% reimbursement, $500 deductible, $10,000 limit.
English Bulldog	~$83	Bankrate quote research via Spot, same terms as above. CoinLaw estimates $78–$109.
Great Dane	~$88	Bankrate quote research via Spot, same terms. CoinLaw estimates $60–$85.
Rottweiler	~$85	Bankrate quote research via Spot, same terms. CoinLaw estimates $65–$110.
German Shepherd	$50 – $62	PetAutumn, from Insurify and Compare.com data (April 2026): 3-year-old male in Texas, $500 deductible, 80% reimbursement, $10,000 limit.
Golden Retriever	$59 – $115	Insurify breed medians: $59 at a $5,000 limit, $115 unlimited.
Labrador Retriever	$45 – $69	PetAutumn (Insurify/Compare.com, Texas profile above): $45–$55. Insurify state medians for the breed run $50 (Tennessee) to $69 (Missouri).
Beagle	$38 – $54	PetAutumn (Insurify/Compare.com, Texas profile): $38–$45. BestMoney sample quotes average $54 at a $20,000 limit.
Dachshund	$27 – $64	Insurify’s Missouri state median for the breed is $27; BetterPet’s breed table (crediting AdvisorSmith research) averages $64. The wide spread reflects back surgery (IVDD) risk being priced very differently by state and insurer.
Mixed breed	~$39	Bankrate research via Spot for a medium (35–40 lb) mixed breed; NerdWallet’s ASPCA quote for a 2-year-old medium mixed breed in Texas was also $39.

Cats: what published sources report (monthly premium)

Breed	Reported figures	Basis
Maine Coon	$28 – $58	NerdWallet (July 2026) sampled $28–$32 for a 2-year-old across major insurers; Spot’s own policyholder average is $36.75; Insurify medians run $30 at a $5,000 limit to $58 unlimited.
Persian	$27 – $37	NerdWallet sampled $27–$32 at age 2; its Healthy Paws quote for a 2-year-old Persian was $37. Lemonade’s own owner data bands Persians at $20–$35 depending on age.
Bengal	$30 – $45	CoinLaw estimated range; BetterPet’s breed table averages $35.
Siamese	$25 – $42	CoinLaw estimated range; BetterPet’s table averages about $30. Insurify state medians for the breed are lower still ($12 in Missouri, $17 in Tennessee) — a reminder that these are state medians, not national quotes.
Domestic Shorthair / mixed	$19 – $26	NerdWallet sampled $19–$20 for a 2-year-old across major insurers; Forbes Advisor’s analysis puts a mixed-breed cat at about $25.

Why flat-faced breeds cost so much more

The top of the dog table is dominated by flat-faced (brachycephalic) breeds, and the reason is a single expensive condition. As Insurify puts it, French Bulldog premiums are higher because the breed is prone to brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome (BOAS) and spinal deformities. PetMD prices BOAS corrective surgery at $2,000 to $5,000 or more per dog — one operation can cost more than five years of premiums, and insurers price that risk in from day one.

On identical quote terms in Bankrate’s research, a French Bulldog (~$89/month) costs more than double a medium mixed-breed dog (~$39/month) to insure. CoinLaw’s analysis adds the flip side: mixed-breed pets are often 25–60% cheaper to insure than purebreds, because they carry lower genetic risk. The same logic explains the cat table — Maine Coons (prone to the heart condition HCM, and simply large) cost roughly twice as much to insure as a domestic shorthair.

Why quotes for the same breed can differ by 2x

If the ranges above look wide, that is the honest state of the market — and it is exactly why single “average cost” numbers mislead. Four things move a quote:

• Annual limit. Insurify’s French Bulldog median nearly doubles from a $5,000 limit ($69) to unlimited coverage ($134). You are not comparing like with like unless the limits match.
• State. Insurify’s state medians for a Maine Coon run from $33/month in Missouri to $74/month in Wyoming — for the same breed, from the same dataset.
• Age. Premiums climb steeply as pets age. BestMoney’s samples for a Bengal cat average about $27/month at age 4 and $82/month at age 10.
• Deductible and reimbursement. A $250 deductible at 90% reimbursement can easily cost 40% more than a $1,000 deductible at 70% — before breed or state enter the picture.

This is also why we built our cost calculator to ask about breed, age and state together: any estimate that ignores one of the three is guessing.

How to pay less without gutting your cover

• Raise the deductible. Moving from $250 to $500 or $1,000 is the single biggest premium lever most owners control. Our complete pet insurance guide walks through the trade-off.
• Consider accident-only cover for young, healthy pets. NAPHIA puts accident-only premiums at $190/year for dogs and $112/year for cats — a fraction of full cover, though illness is excluded. We break down who it suits in our guide to accident-only pet insurance.
• Insure multiple pets together. Many insurers discount second and third pets by 5–10%; see how the maths works in our multi-pet insurance discounts guide.
• Enrol young. Premiums start lowest before any condition can be classed as pre-existing, and every vet note written before enrolment can become an exclusion later.
• Put insurance in the full budget picture. Premiums are only one line of pet ownership costs — our breakdown of the cost of owning a dog shows where insurance sits against food, vet care and supplies.

Sources and methodology

State figures and national medians: Insurify, “Average Pet Insurance Rates as of June 2026” — one-year rolling medians of 250,000+ quotes from 10+ partner insurers via Fletch Insurance Services, through the end of May 2026, covering all 50 states and DC. Breed medians by coverage limit: Insurify’s average pet insurance cost analysis (updated May 31, 2026). Industry premium averages: NAPHIA 2026 State of the Industry Report (calendar-year 2025 data). Breed quote research: Bankrate, as published by Spot Pet Insurance; NerdWallet breed sampling (July 2026), as published by Spot; PetAutumn’s breed table from Insurify and Compare.com data (April 2026); CoinLaw and BetterPet (AdvisorSmith) breed tables; Forbes Advisor’s cost analysis as reported by PetPlace. BOAS surgery costs: PetMD. Figures from different sources are reported separately and never blended; where a source does not state its coverage assumptions, we say so in the table. Prices change — treat every figure here as a 2026 benchmark, not a quote.