The monthly premium is the number people budget against and the number the industry publishes least often. NAPHIA's 2026 report gives 2025 in annual dollars only. Its 2025 report gave both, which is why the monthly figures below carry a 2024 date. This page sets out what the published numbers are and what dividing the newer annual figures gets you. It then adds the two costs that sit beside the premium in any budget that survives a real claim.
How much is pet insurance per month?
NAPHIA's last published monthly averages are $62.44 a month for dogs and $32.21 a month for cats on accident and illness policies, covering 2024. For 2025 the association published annual averages only: $836 for dogs and $435 for cats. Dividing those by twelve gives about $70 a month for dogs and about $36 for cats, which is arithmetic on NAPHIA's annual figure rather than a monthly rate NAPHIA itself reports.
| Source and year | Dogs | Cats | What it measures |
|---|---|---|---|
| NAPHIA, 2024 data | $62.44 a month | $32.21 a month | In-force premium, published monthly |
| NAPHIA, 2025 data | $836 a year | $435 a year | In-force premium, published annually |
| Nationwide, reported 2026 | about $81 a month | about $43 a month | One insurer's own book |
| Healthy Paws, 2025 | about $60 a month | about $30 a month | Estimate citing Pawlicy Advisor |
| Insurify, June 2025 | $516 a year | $276 a year | Quoted prices on a comparison site |
NAPHIA is the industry measure because its participants represent about 99 percent of written pet health insurance premium in North America. The comparison-site figures sit lower because they price the plans shoppers actually select, which skew toward higher deductibles and lower reimbursement percentages. Accident-only cover is the cheap tier: NAPHIA puts it at $190 a year for dogs and $112 for cats in 2025, or about $16 and $9 a month on the same division.
Should you pay monthly or annually?
Pay the way you can sustain, and judge the choice on the annual total rather than the monthly figure. Multiply the monthly quote by twelve and set it beside the annual quote on the same screen. If the two differ, that gap is what installment billing costs you at that insurer, and it is disclosed there rather than anywhere on this site.
Monthly billing wins on cash flow and loses nothing when the two totals match. Annual billing removes twelve chances to miss a payment and lapse the policy, and that risk is worth more than a few dollars of billing fee. A lapse means re-enrolling, and re-enrollment restarts the waiting periods and measures pre-existing conditions against the new start date. Anything your pet has developed in the meantime is then excluded, which is the mechanism explained in pet insurance and pre-existing conditions.
What does a realistic monthly pet budget line look like?
A working budget line has three parts, not one: the premium, a deductible fund, and routine care the policy never touches.
| Budget line | What it pays for | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Premium | The policy itself | Your dated quote, not an average |
| Deductible fund | The first $100 to $750 of a claim, plus your share of the rest | Your chosen deductible and reimbursement rate |
| Routine care | Exams, vaccines, dental, parasite prevention | AVMA household spending, divided by twelve |
The deductible line exists because US pet insurance reimburses after you pay. You settle the invoice at the clinic, file the claim, and get a percentage back. Annual deductibles commonly run $100 to $750, with $250 and $500 the usual picks, and reimbursement is normally 70, 80 or 90 percent, with a 100 percent option at Figo. On a $2,000 bill with a $500 deductible and 80 percent reimbursement, you front the full $2,000 and end up $800 out of pocket. Two insurers reduce the fronting problem: Trupanion pays participating clinics directly at checkout, and Pets Best offers a vet direct pay option, both worth confirming in your policy documents.
The routine care line is the one owners forget. AVMA's 2025 survey puts annual veterinary spending at $598 per dog-owning household and $529 per cat-owning household, which is roughly $50 and $44 a month. Standard accident and illness policies pay none of it. Billed costs vary widely by region and clinic, and a basic office visit is commonly quoted in the $50 to $150 range by publishers such as Pawlicy Advisor and CareCredit.
Which add-ons quietly raise the monthly number?
The wellness rider is the one add-on that raises your monthly price without raising your protection against a large bill. It is prepaid routine care, and it can never return more than the scheduled benefits printed in its own table. Whether it earns its price is arithmetic, and the test is worked through in wellness add-on costs.
Three settings move the monthly number more than any rider, and all three are choices you make on the quote screen.
- The annual deductible, commonly $100 to $750. Raising it cuts the premium and raises what you pay at the clinic.
- The reimbursement percentage, normally 70, 80 or 90 percent, with 100 percent offered by Figo. Lowering it cuts the premium and shrinks every payout.
- The annual limit, commonly $5,000, $10,000, $20,000 or unlimited. Lowering it cuts the premium and caps the bad year.
One setting moves the number the other way. Multi-pet discounts run 5 to 10 percent at most insurers, and the shortlist that applies them is in best pet insurance for multiple pets.
Why does the monthly number rise every year?
Your premium rises because veterinary prices climb faster than general inflation and your pet gets a year older. Veterinary services have averaged 6.5 percent annual inflation over seven years, the highest rate of any pet spending category. The same category is up 55.5 percent cumulatively since 2019, on BLS data reported in March 2026. Overall pet inflation ran 4.3 percent year over year against a 3.3 percent national CPI in the same month.
NAPHIA's own figures show what that does to policies already in force. US written premium grew 19.7 percent in 2025 while the number of insured US pets grew 9.0 percent. Premium is growing roughly twice as fast as enrollment, so existing policies are repricing rather than simply more owners buying. The renewal mechanics are in why pet insurance rates go up and the age curve is in pet insurance costs by age.
What will your own monthly price be?
We do not know yet, and the honest label for that is pending our first quote run: pending first quote run. Our own premium figures come from a dated collection run of identical pet profiles across every insurer we list, and that run has not published. Until it does, every price on this site is either NAPHIA's industry average, another publisher's figure with their name attached, or a dated sample from an insurer's own quote screen.
That is the honest limitation of this page. An average blends a nine-year-old large-breed dog in a high-cost metro with a two-year-old domestic shorthair in a low-cost county and reports the middle. Your quote can sit well above $70 a month or well below $36, and neither outcome would make the average wrong. The seven inputs that decide which side you land on are in how much pet insurance costs. The species gap is in cat versus dog insurance costs, and live pricing sits behind compare pet insurance quotes.