Average Car Insurance Cost UK 2026: £600 a Year
The average car insurance cost in the UK is around £600 a year in 2026 for comprehensive cover. The headline is unchanged this quarter, and so is the direction: the Confused.com Price Index eased 0.8% (£6) to £713 in Q3 2026, after Q2’s first rise since the December 2023 peak of £995, leaving quoted prices 3% (£22) cheaper than a year earlier and close to the £711 low of Q1 2026. The latest ABI paid premium is £566 (Q2 2026). This UK car insurance cost index breaks the average down four ways: by driver age, by UK region, by vehicle insurance-group band, and by quarterly trend. For the question-led explainer see how much is car insurance in the UK; region-by-region deep dives sit in the regional cost indexes.
Compare your situation with the UK average
Pick the three things that move a premium most. We show what our index says for each, against the UK average of £600. These are indicative planning figures — not a quote.
Age and regional figures come from published ABI and Confused.com benchmarks combined with published Quotezone averages. Insurance-group figures are Car Insurance Expert estimates built on Thatcham Research group ratings. Latest published anchors: ABI £566 paid (Q2 2026) and Confused.com £713 quoted (Q3 2026). We show a range rather than one figure because the age and regional series are published on different bases and cannot honestly be multiplied together.
Where the average UK car insurance cost sits in autumn 2026
Two authoritative trackers anchor this index. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) Motor Insurance Premium Tracker — built from roughly 28 million live policies — puts the average paid comprehensive premium at £566, its latest published reading (Q2 2026), up £6 (1%) on the previous quarter’s £560. The Confused.com Price Index, which measures the prices drivers are quoted across more than 6 million quotes a quarter, recorded £713 in Q3 2026, down 0.8% (£6) on Q2. Quoted prices run ahead of the discounted rates most renewing drivers actually pay, so taken together the two series still put the typical 2026 comprehensive premium at around £600 — the figure we use as the average car insurance cost throughout this site.
The story of 2026 so far is a market that has stopped falling rather than one that has turned. Prices fell for nine consecutive quarters after the £995 record of December 2023, to £711 in Q1 2026. Q2 2026 brought the first quarterly rise since the end of 2023, to £719, and Q3 2026 gave most of it back at £713 — 3% (£22) cheaper than a year ago and 17% cheaper than two years ago, yet only £2 above the Q1 low. Claims costs are the reason the fall has stalled. The average accidental-damage claim reached £3,699 in Q1 2026, up 8% in a single quarter; of £2.9bn paid out that quarter, £1.9bn went on vehicle repairs, 3% more than in Q4 2025; and the average paid claim has risen 42% since 2020, from £3,842 to £5,464. Add repair labour up around 40% since 2022, parts and paint climbing roughly 16% a year, Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) recalibration that can turn a £300 bumper job into a £1,500 claim, and Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) frozen at 12%, and 2026 now looks like the floor rather than a staging post on the way down.
Average car insurance cost by age (UK)
Age is the single biggest pricing factor in this index. The youngest drivers pay more than three times what a driver in their fifties pays, because telematics and claims data still show new drivers at far higher risk: Confused.com’s Q3 2026 index puts 18-year-olds at £2,083, the most of any age, against £545 for drivers in their fifties. Young-driver prices are also the fastest-falling part of the market — the 17–20 band is down about 8% year-on-year (£2,031 to £1,860), 17-year-olds pay £253 (13%) less than a year ago, and roughly 78% of 17–20s pay less on a black-box policy. This index reports band averages only. See our full guide to 17-year-old car insurance costs for age-specific pricing, the cheapest cars to insure and the ways to bring the number down, or our wider breakdown of car insurance costs by driver age.
Source: Confused.com Price Index Q3 2026 (17–24 band: Q2 2026); ABI Motor Insurance Premium Tracker Q2 2026 (latest published).
| Age band | UK average | vs. UK mean |
|---|---|---|
| 18 years | £2,083 | +247% |
| 17–20 band | £1,860 | +210% |
| 17–24 band (Q2 2026) | £1,533 | +156% |
| 25–34 years | £805 | +34% |
| 35–44 years | £620 | +3% |
| 45–64 years | £440 | −27% |
| 65+ years | £385 | −36% |
Sources: Confused.com Price Index Q3 2026 (published September 2026) — age 18 £2,083 and the 17–20 band £1,860 against a £713 all-ages quoted average; the 17–24 band (£1,533) is the Q2 2026 figure, as Q3 did not republish it; ABI Motor Insurance Premium Tracker Q2 2026 (latest published). Young-driver rows are taken directly from the published Confused.com age figures; the 25+ bands are moved each quarter by the published Confused.com quarterly change (−0.8% in Q3 2026) and rounded to the nearest £5. “vs. UK mean” is benchmarked to the £600 UK average car insurance cost. Age-specific detail lives in our 17-year-old car insurance guide.
Average car insurance cost by region (UK)
Where you park overnight can swing your premium by more than £300. London leads on theft, traffic density and uninsured-driver rates — there are over 1 million uninsured drivers on UK roads, funding a Motor Insurers' Bureau levy of roughly £15 per policy. The South West is the cheapest part of England, and Central and North Wales the cheapest area of all on Confused.com’s quoted figures (£517). The stand-out move is still Northern Ireland, where the Q3 2026 index shows quoted prices up £209 (25%) in a year to £1,059 — far faster than anywhere else in the UK, although on the paid-premium basis of this index (CompareNI’s £625 average) it still sits below the North West and West Midlands. Inner London is falling fastest: still the most expensive area at £1,079 quoted, but down £70 (6%) year-on-year, with Outer London and the North West also down 6%. Regional detail for each nation and English region is in our regional cost indexes.
Source: Confused.com Price Index Q3 2026 (regional); ABI Motor Insurance Premium Tracker Q2 2026.
| Region | UK average | 17–24 drivers | vs. UK mean |
|---|---|---|---|
| London (Inner) | £805 | £1,405 | +34% |
| North West | £660 | £1,210 | +10% |
| West Midlands | £630 | £1,150 | +5% |
| Northern Ireland | £625 | £1,385 | +4% |
| Scotland | £505 | £980 | −16% |
| Wales | £490 | £935 | −18% |
| South West | £475 | £910 | −21% |
| North East | £475 | £905 | −21% |
Sources: Confused.com Price Index Q3 2026 (regional); ABI Motor Insurance Premium Tracker Q2 2026 (latest published). Quoted Q3 2026 reference points: Inner London £1,079 (−£70, −6% year-on-year, the biggest fall), Northern Ireland £1,059 (+£209, +25% year-on-year), South West England £550 (the cheapest English region), Central and North Wales £517 (the lowest of any area). Blended figures here are moved by the Confused.com Q3 2026 national quarterly change (−0.8%) — Northern Ireland is the CompareNI Price Index paid-premium average (£625, 17–24s £1,386, Q1 2026) used on our Northern Ireland index — restated on a paid-premium basis and rounded to the nearest £5.
How much the car itself moves the average cost
After age, the vehicle is the biggest lever on the average car insurance cost. Every car is placed into one of 50 insurance groups by the Group Rating Panel, administered by Thatcham Research for the ABI, and cars first registered from 1 August 2024 also carry a Vehicle Risk Rating (VRR) from 1 to 99 scoring performance, damageability, repairability, safety and security. This index reports the picture at band level only: the six ten-point bands below show how far the £600 UK average stretches once vehicle risk is priced in, from around £430 at the bottom of the scale to about £1,295 at the top — a spread of roughly three times.
Every band has its own detailed guide — see car insurance groups 1-50, or jump to group 1, group 10, group 20, group 30, group 40 or group 50. Those pages carry the model lists and the figures for a single group; use the table here for the whole-market view, and compare individual cars in our insurance cost by vehicle hub. If you are not sure where your car sits, the insurance group checker will tell you.
| Insurance group band | Typical car | UK average |
|---|---|---|
| Groups 1–5 | Hyundai i10, Kia Picanto, VW up! | £430 |
| Groups 6–10 | Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall Corsa | £505 |
| Groups 11–20 | VW Golf, Ford Focus, Audi A3 | £610 |
| Groups 21–30 | BMW 3 Series, Tesla Model 3 | £785 |
| Groups 31–40 | Audi A5, larger SUVs | £980 |
| Groups 41–50 | Performance / luxury models | £1,295 |
Sources: Thatcham Research / ABI Group Rating Panel 2026; Quotezone Q2 2026 age-band and regional average premiums; moved by the Confused.com Q3 2026 quarterly change (−0.8%) and rounded to the nearest £5. Band averages are indicative for a 35–44 driver on comprehensive cover and are published at band level only — for the figures on a single group, use the car insurance groups 1-50 guides.
UK average premium: December 2023 peak to Q3 2026
After the December 2023 record of £995, the Confused.com quoted-price index fell for nine consecutive quarters to £711 in Q1 2026. Q2 2026 brought the first quarterly increase since the end of 2023, to £719, and Q3 2026 eased back to £713 (−0.8%) — around 28% (£282) below the peak and 3% (£22) cheaper than a year earlier, so 2026 remains a cheaper year than 2025 overall. The ABI paid-premium series tells the same story more gently, easing about 11% from its 2024 high to £566 in its latest published quarter (Q2 2026), up £6 on the £560 recorded in Q1 2026; its Q3 2026 reading is not yet published. The table tracks both series so editors can cite the measure that matches their context.
Source: Confused.com Price Index (WTW) December 2023 to Q3 2026; ABI Motor Insurance Premium Tracker to Q2 2026.
| Period | Confused.com (quoted) | ABI (paid) | YoY change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 2023 (peak) | £995 | £635 | +25% |
| Q4 2024 | £834 | £600 | −16% |
| Q4 2025 | £726 | £565 | −13% |
| Q2 2026 | £719 | £566 | −5% |
| Q3 2026 (latest) | £713 | not yet published | −3% |
Sources: Confused.com Price Index (WTW) December 2023–Q3 2026; ABI Motor Insurance Premium Tracker 2024–Q2 2026. Q2 2026 was the first quarterly rise (about 1%) since December 2023; Q3 2026 eased 0.8% to £713, −3% (£22) year-on-year. ABI 2024 figures interpolated to a paid-premium basis; the ABI Q2 2026 tracker reports £566 paid, up £6 on Q1 2026, and its Q3 2026 figure is not yet published.
The cost drivers behind the 2026 average
The headline premium is the sum of pressures that mostly point upward, even in a falling market. Claims inflation is the biggest, and it is what has stopped the fall in 2026: the average accidental-damage claim reached £3,699 in Q1 2026, up 8% in a single quarter, of the £2.9bn the ABI reports paid out that quarter £1.9bn went on vehicle repairs (3% more than in Q4 2025), and the average paid claim has risen 42% since 2020, from £3,842 to £5,464. UK motor claims hit a record £9.9bn in 2023, with repair labour up around 40% since 2022 and parts and paint climbing roughly 16% a year. Modern safety tech cuts crashes but raises bills — recalibrating the cameras and radar behind an ADAS windscreen can turn a £300 job into a £1,500 one.
Theft is the other accelerant. Keyless-entry relay attacks helped push theft payouts to £669m, up 35%, concentrated in high-value SUVs and EVs. Fraud and the 1 million-plus uninsured drivers on UK roads add a Motor Insurers' Bureau levy of about £15 to every honest policy. On top of the risk price sits Insurance Premium Tax at 12% — a flat surcharge the driver pays regardless of claims experience.
Your own record then scales the base price. A single SP30 speeding endorsement typically adds 10–25%; a DR10 drink-driving conviction can double the premium and pushes most drivers to a specialist broker; an IN10 for driving uninsured loads premiums heavily for four years; and a TT99 totting-up ban means specialist cover on return to the road. The fastest levers in your control are vehicle choice (a lower-rated vehicle band), mileage, where the car is kept overnight, and — for under-25s — telematics. Explore the full picture by conviction type or browse our guides hub.
How the Cost Index is compiled
This index blends two published UK benchmarks. The ABI Motor Insurance Premium Tracker reports the average premium drivers actually pay, drawn from roughly 28 million policies and published quarterly. The Confused.com Price Index (compiled with WTW) reports the cheapest premium drivers are quoted, from more than 6 million quotes each quarter; quoted figures sit higher than paid figures, which is why both are shown. Age and regional splits combine these with published averages from Quotezone; the insurance-group bands are Car Insurance Expert estimates built on Thatcham Research group ratings. All figures are comprehensive cover, private use, and exclude quotes above the 99th percentile. Age, regional and vehicle-band figures are restated each quarter by the published Confused.com quarterly change and rounded to the nearest £5. The £600 headline is the blended figure we use consistently across this site for cross-page comparability; it is unchanged for Q3 2026 because the ABI paid series has not moved since its Q2 reading (£566) and the quoted index eased only 0.8%. Group-by-group detail is published on our car insurance groups pages rather than here, so this index stays a single whole-market view of the average car insurance cost. This dataset is free to cite for editorial use with attribution to “Car Insurance Expert UK Cost Index, 2026”.
UK car insurance cost: common questions
Our sources
- ABI Motor Insurance Premium Tracker (Q2 2026, latest published) — average paid comprehensive premium of £566, up £6 (1%) on Q1 2026; £2.9bn of claims paid, £1.9bn of it vehicle repairs; average accidental-damage claim £3,699 (up 8% on the quarter); the ~11% fall from peak.
- Confused.com Price Index / WTW (Q3 2026, published September 2026) — quoted average of £713, down 0.8% (£6) on Q2’s £719 and down 3% (£22) year-on-year; 17% below two years earlier; the quarterly series from the £995 December 2023 peak; age figures (18-year-olds £2,083, the 17–20 band £1,860); regional figures including Inner London £1,079 (−6% year-on-year) and Northern Ireland £1,059 (+25%).
- Quotezone (2026) — age-band and regional average premiums (Quotezone publishes no per-group premiums; the group bands are Car Insurance Expert estimates).
- Thatcham Research / ABI Group Rating Panel — the 1–50 insurance groups and the new Vehicle Risk Rating (VRR) 1–99 scale.
- gov.uk & HM Treasury — Insurance Premium Tax held at 12%.
- Motor Insurers' Bureau (MIB) — 1m+ uninsured drivers and the ~£15 per-policy levy.
Reviewed by the Car Insurance Expert editorial team
Figures blend the ABI paid-premium tracker (Q2 2026, latest published) with the Confused.com quoted-price index (Q3 2026) to a £600 blended average used consistently across the site; reviewed for accuracy by the Car Insurance Expert editorial team.