Auto & Driving
Boat Insurance Cost Guide
State cost tiers sourced from Progressive; value-based rate cross-confirmed via Discover Boating and HomeGuide.
Boat insurance pricing works on two separate axes at once: which state cost tier you live in, and how much your boat is actually worth.
Data sourced from Progressive, Discover Boating
Why boat insurance is priced in tiers, not per state
Progressive, one of the larger boat insurers, publishes its own boat insurance cost data grouped into three broad cost tiers rather than a per-state rate table: a low tier averaging $301/year, a medium tier averaging $400/year, and a high tier averaging $657/year, roughly a 2.2x spread between the cheapest and priciest tier.
Progressive's own methodology describes this as a policy-count-weighted average across the states in each group, which is why states are bucketed into tiers here rather than given individual numbers.
Coastal states with more hurricane and severe-weather exposure, and states with a higher concentration of boat theft or claims, tend to sit in the high tier, while inland states with less severe-weather risk tend to land in the low tier.
The boat's own value is the other half of the price
Separately from your state's tier, comprehensive boat coverage is commonly estimated as a percentage of the boat's current market value, typically around 1.5% a year, sitting in the middle of a cross-confirmed industry range that runs from about 1% up to 5% a year for higher-risk vessels.
A $30,000 boat, for example, would land around $450 a year on the value component alone, before factoring in your state's tier.
There is also a practical floor to be aware of: liability-only coverage rarely prices below about $200 a year, regardless of how inexpensive the boat itself is, since insurers have fixed underwriting and servicing costs on every policy that do not shrink with a lower-value boat.
To combine your own state and boat value into one estimate, the boat insurance cost calculator runs both factors together.
What else moves the price beyond state and value
Beyond the two factors modeled here, insurers also weigh the type of boat (a high-performance speedboat generally costs more to insure than a pontoon boat of similar value), how the boat is used (occasional recreational use versus frequent or commercial use), and the owner's boating experience and claims history.
None of those publish a clean, sourceable per-factor rate the way state tier and boat value do, so they are worth asking about directly when getting a quote rather than assumed away.
Frequently asked questions
How much does boat insurance cost on average?
Progressive groups states into three cost tiers rather than publishing per-state rates: a low tier averaging $301/year, a medium tier averaging $400/year, and a high tier averaging $657/year, roughly a 2.2x spread between the cheapest and most expensive tier.
Does the cost depend on how much my boat is worth?
Yes, comprehensive boat coverage is commonly estimated as a percentage of the boat's current market value, typically around 1.5% a year as a cross-confirmed industry rule of thumb (published ranges run from about 1% up to 5% for higher-risk vessels). A $30000-boat would land around $450/year on that basis, before any state-tier adjustment.
Is there a minimum boat insurance premium regardless of value?
Generally yes, around $200/year for liability-only coverage, since insurers have fixed underwriting and servicing costs per policy that do not shrink just because the insured boat has a low value. A very inexpensive boat is unlikely to insure for meaningfully less than that floor.
Why does Progressive group states into tiers instead of pricing each one individually?
Progressive's own published methodology describes a policy-count-weighted average across the states in each group, rather than a state-by-state rate table, which is why this data is presented as three tiers rather than 50 individual numbers.
Washington DC is excluded entirely from Progressive's data and falls back to the medium tier here rather than being guessed at.