How much does general liability insurance cost?

What the insurers report, and why their numbers disagree

General liability has no official price statistic. No federal survey measures it, and state regulators publish market totals rather than per-policy prices. The figures below are each company’s own customers, as published on its own cost page.

Insurer- and broker-reported figures from each company’s own customers, as published on its website; not a random sample of all businesses. Figures are rounded as published.

Three of these numbers look like they conflict, but they measure different things:

1. Median versus average

   Insureon’s $45 a month is a median: half its customers pay less, half pay more. Its page uses the word “average”, but it states that “our figures are calculated using the median cost of policies sold”⁠¹. The Hartford’s $68 a month ($810 a year) is an average⁠². A small number of large or high-hazard policies pulls an average above the median. Progressive Commercial publishes both for its 2025 new customers: a $55 median and a $79 average⁠³. The average is 44% higher than the median (our calculation: 79 ÷ 55 = 1.44).

2. Different customers

   Insureon’s figures come from about 100,000 small business owners who bought through its online agency. Most have fewer than five employees, revenue from about $50,000 to just over $200,000, and five years or less in business⁠¹. The Hartford gives no sample size or date window⁠². Progressive’s figures cover new customers only⁠³. A broker selling mainly to new one-person firms can report lower prices than a carrier whose book includes restaurants and established contractors.

3. Different limits

   The Hartford’s average for a $1 million policy is $824 a year, slightly above its all-policy average of $810⁠². Progressive says a $1 million/$2 million policy typically costs more than $1 million/$1 million⁠³.

The spread inside one book is wide. Insureon reports that 22% of its customers pay under $30 a month and 41% pay $30 to $60. Annual premiums range from $265 to $3,030⁠¹. ERGO NEXT says 45% of its GL customers pay $45 a month or less⁠⁴.

By type of business

In these published figures, business type produces a far wider spread than location. The Hartford’s restaurant average ($1,352 a year) is more than three times its photographer average ($421)⁠². ERGO NEXT’s averages run from $20 a month for personal trainers to $245 for restaurants⁠⁴.

Insurer- and broker-reported figures from each company’s own customers, as published on its website; not a random sample of all businesses. Figures are rounded as published.

These are two different companies’ books, using averages, and the business types don’t match exactly. Read each column against its own publisher, not across rows. For trade-specific detail, see the general contractors and restaurants pages.

By state

Insurer- and broker-reported figures from each company’s own customers, as published on its website; not a random sample of all businesses. Figures are rounded as published.

Insureon’s state medians fall in a narrow band from $42 to $55 a month⁠¹. That narrow band does not mean location barely matters. Each state’s median reflects the mix of businesses that buy through Insureon there, and that mix varies. The Hartford and Progressive both list location as a rating factor and say more populated areas cost more⁠²⁠³.

What the policy covers

The standard commercial general liability (CGL) policy has three insuring agreements⁠⁵. ISO, Verisk’s Insurance Services Office, licenses the rules and loss costs of its General Liability Program to insurers⁠⁸; its classes and premium bases are the reference point used below⁠⁹.

• Coverage A: bodily injury and property damage. This covers your legal liability when your premises, operations or employees injure someone who is not your employee or damage their property. A customer tripping on loose flooring, or a painter leaving water running in a client’s house, are Triple-I’s examples. The policy usually pays your legal defense as well as damages, up to its limits⁠⁵.
• Coverage B: personal and advertising injury. This covers a defined list of offenses: libel, slander, false arrest, malicious prosecution, wrongful eviction or entry, invasion of privacy, using another’s advertising idea, and infringing another’s copyright⁠⁵.
• Coverage C: medical payments. This pays reasonable medical and funeral expenses for a non-employee hurt on your premises or by your operations, without any lawsuit, on a no-fault basis. The coverage is limited and includes no defense. Its purpose is prompt settlement of smaller medical claims without litigation⁠⁵.

What CGL does not cover matters just as much to the cost of your full program. Injuries to your own employees go to workers’ compensation, and claims from employees about hiring, firing or harassment go to employment practices liability. Pollution is excluded, with limited coverage available by endorsement. Without separate liquor coverage, a standard CGL policy does not cover liquor-related claims, and CGL covers non-professional activities, so professional errors may also be excluded⁠⁵. Those go to liquor liability and professional liability. You can buy CGL alone, inside a business owner’s policy, or as part of a commercial package policy⁠⁵.

Products and completed operations

Two parts of Coverage A matter most to contractors and manufacturers. Products covers injury caused by goods you made or sold, after they leave your hands. Completed operations covers injury caused by your work after you finish it, such as a deck that collapses a year after you built it. Public contracts list both explicitly. California’s sample contract clause requires coverage for “premises, operations, independent contractors, products, completed operations, personal advertising injury, and liability assumed under an insured agreement”⁠¹⁰. Rhode Island’s standard sets a separate $1,000,000 products/completed operations aggregate next to the general aggregate⁠¹¹. The two aggregates are separate amounts, so a contract can set each one.

Occurrence or claims-made

The trigger decides which year’s policy pays a claim:

• An occurrence policy pays for injury or damage that happens during the policy period, no matter when the claim is filed. If someone slips in your store during this year’s policy and sues after it expires, this year’s policy responds⁠⁶.
• A claims-made policy pays only if the claim is made during the policy period, or within an extended reporting period after it ends, and only for incidents on or after the policy’s retroactive date⁠⁶.

Contract language often takes the choice away from you. California’s sample clause says “on an occurrence form”⁠¹⁰, and San Diego’s checklist says the occurrence box on the certificate “must be (X) marked”⁠¹². The Hartford notes that occurrence policies can cost more than claims-made ones, but a claims-made policy will not meet those contracts. It also leaves claims reported after it ends uncovered unless an extended reporting period (tail coverage) applies⁠⁶.

How general liability is rated

GL is priced per unit of exposure, and each ISO classification is assigned a premium base⁠⁸⁠⁹. A Basis of Premium endorsement on the CGL policy defines each base; RSUI’s specimen form, for example, reads⁠⁷:

Payroll is the ISO premium base for most contracting and service risks; Verisk notes that exposure units range from payroll to the square footage of office space, and its own example of a growing store measures size in gross sales⁠⁸. ISO’s rating algorithm applies the class loss cost to those exposure units, and optional plans such as size-of-risk rating add a multiplicative factor⁠⁸. The Hartford and Progressive then name location, the limits and deductible you choose, and your claims history as factors that move the price⁠²⁠³.

Three practical consequences follow:

• The base grows with the business, but not proportionally. Verisk’s research for its optional size-of-risk rating plan found that the loss cost per exposure unit generally falls as a risk gets bigger. Its example: a plumber with $2 million of payroll has a lower loss cost per unit than one with $500,000⁠⁸. Insureon reports that the effect of revenue depends on the trade. Construction premiums rise noticeably as revenue grows, while office-based firms see a small increase⁠¹.
• Your class matters more than your size. ISO revises its classes: a 2021 revision added 58 classes, discontinued 249 and changed the premium base of 17⁠⁹. A wrong class code can mean the wrong base as well as the wrong rate. Check the class description on your declarations page against what you actually do.
• The exposure is a policy-year figure. The payroll and sales definitions count amounts earned during the policy period⁠⁷, so the figure on your application is an estimate. How the difference is settled after the year ends is covered in the premium audits guide.

Worked example: same business size, three exposure bases

This is our illustration. It shows how the base changes the count of exposure units, not what any insurer charges. No rates are assumed.

1. Retail store, rated on gross sales

   $600,000 of annual sales, net of sales tax. If the rate is per $1,000 of sales, that is 600 exposure units.

2. Painting contractor, rated on payroll

   $250,000 of payroll, counting proprietors’ payroll, overtime and bonuses as the definition requires⁠⁷. If the rate is per $1,000 of payroll, that is 250 exposure units.

3. Office tenant, rated on area

   3,000 square feet. If the rate is per 1,000 square feet, that is 3 exposure units.

Exposure units are not comparable across classes. Each class has its own loss cost per unit, reflecting that kind of business’s claims, so a painting contractor with fewer than half the store’s exposure units (250 against 600) can still pay more. For how rates, loss costs and modifiers combine across lines, see how premiums are calculated.

The limits contracts and leases require

Most small businesses buy $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate. Insureon says 85% of its customers choose those limits and 8% choose $2 million/$4 million⁠¹. The reason is that those are the numbers on the contracts, as these real requirements show:

Scroll the table sideways to see every column.

The federal floor is lower than the city and state standards above. An agency can still write higher limits into a specific contract, and California’s guide says actual requirements “will depend on exposures presented based on the scope of work”⁠¹⁰. California tells bidders to send the solicitation’s insurance section to their insurer before bidding: after the award, missing coverage or endorsements delay the start of work and may cost the contractor the award⁠¹⁰.

If a contract demands more than $1 million per occurrence, the alternative to a higher primary limit is a commercial umbrella on top of the GL policy⁠⁵. Umbrella pricing has been rising faster than GL: +5.3% in CIAB’s Q2 2026 survey and +7.96% on Ivans⁠¹⁴⁠¹⁵.

Additional insured: what the endorsement number means

An additional insured endorsement extends your policy to the client, landlord or general contractor for claims arising from your work. The form number decides how far it goes. ISO’s CG 20 10 07 04 covers the additional insured only for liability caused by your acts “in the performance of your ongoing operations.” It excludes injury that occurs after the work is completed⁠¹². The City of San Diego therefore accepts either the older CG 20 10 11 85, or CG 20 10 combined with CG 20 37, which covers completed operations. A blanket additional insured endorsement is also acceptable. The city also requires primary coverage “at least as broad as ISO CG 20 01 04 13”⁠¹². Ask whether your policy’s blanket wording includes completed operations before you sign a contract that requires it.

Market trend: GL is still getting more expensive

Renewal pricing for general liability kept rising through mid-2026, while CIAB brokers reported falling prices for commercial property (−6.3%) and workers’ comp (−3.2%)⁠¹⁴. Three trackers measure the change in different ways:

• CIAB (member brokers, average premium change at renewal, Q2 2026): general liability +1.8%. All lines averaged −0.3%, and small accounts across all lines −0.5%⁠¹⁴.
• Ivans (premium renewal rate change on the same policy, from agency-carrier transaction data, Q2 2026): general liability +5.44%, BOP +6.16%⁠¹⁵.
• Marsh (mostly larger client accounts, Q2 2026): U.S. casualty +7%, and casualty excluding workers’ comp +11% ⁠¹⁶.

Ivans measures the change on a single consistent policy, drawn from a large base of agencies and carriers. CIAB’s figure is a broker-reported average across account sizes, and Marsh’s reflects mostly large accounts. The market trends page has every line.

CIAB: average premium change at renewal reported by member brokers, Q2 2026 (April 1-June 30, 2026), released 18 Aug 2026. Ivans: average renewal premium change on small commercial policies, Q2 2026. Premium changes include changes in exposure as well as rates. All series and method.

For scale, official data covers the whole market. In 2025, U.S. insurers wrote $130.9 billion of direct premium in the NAIC’s “other liability” line (states and territories). The line had a direct loss ratio of 70.3%, or 79.1% including defense and cost-containment expenses⁠¹⁷. “Other liability” is a broad statutory line. It covers far more than small-business GL, and the NAIC does not split out commercial general liability. Use it to judge the size of the market, not as a price. Products liability is reported separately, at $5.7 billion in 2025⁠¹⁷.

What actually lowers the premium

• Get the class code right. Your class sets both the rate and the premium base⁠⁷⁠⁹. A business doing mostly low-hazard work but coded to a higher-hazard class overpays for the whole policy year.
• Report the exposure accurately. An inflated payroll or sales estimate raises the deposit premium. An understated one comes back as an audit bill. The definitions exclude sales tax, finance charges and tips⁠⁷.
• Buy the limits the contracts require, not more. $1M/$2M covers the public requirements above⁠¹⁰⁠¹¹⁠¹²⁠¹³. Above that, compare a higher primary limit with an umbrella quote.
• Choose the deductible deliberately. Insureon’s customers typically choose a GL deductible of $500 to $1,000⁠¹. Both The Hartford and Progressive list deductible and limits as price factors⁠²⁠³.
• Keep the claims record clean. The Hartford names claims history as a rating factor⁠². Coverage C pays small medical claims promptly, without litigation⁠⁵.
• Compare packaging. GL can be bought alone, in a business owner’s policy or in a package policy⁠⁵. Compare the bundled premium with separate quotes on the same limits.

Sources

1. 1
   Insureon, How much does general liability insurance cost? (updated March 30, 2026) Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
2. 2
   The Hartford, How much does general liability insurance cost? (updated May 20, 2026) Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
3. 3
   Progressive Commercial, General liability insurance cost Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
4. 4
   ERGO NEXT, How much does general liability insurance cost? (data updated April 2026) Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
5. 5
   Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I), Commercial general liability insurance Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
6. 6
   The Hartford, Claims-made vs. occurrence policy Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
7. 7
   RSUI Group, Basis of Premium endorsement GBA 104014 0106 (specimen, commercial general liability coverage form) Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
8. 8
   Verisk (ISO), Here’s a powerful new pricing tool for general liability insurers (Sept. 29, 2021) Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
9. 9
   Verisk (ISO), Emerging risks drive new ISO General Liability classifications (Sept. 21, 2021) Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
10. 10
    California Department of General Services, Contract Insurance Requirements: when doing business with California state government Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
11. 11
    Rhode Island Office of Accounts and Control, Risk Management, Standard insurance requirements (contracts and third-party vendors) Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
12. 12
    City of San Diego, Purchasing & Contracting Insurance Checklist (rev. Jan. 6, 2017) Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
13. 13
    eCFR, Office of the Federal Register, 48 CFR 28.307-2, Liability (Federal Acquisition Regulation) Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
14. 14
    The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (CIAB), Commercial Property/Casualty Market Index, Q2 2026 Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
15. 15
    Ivans (Applied Systems), Ivans Index Q2 2026 results released Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
16. 16
    Marsh, Global Insurance Market Index: US insurance rates, Q2 2026 Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
17. 17
    National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), 2025 Market Share Reports for Property/Casualty Groups and Companies Checked 13 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑

Spotted an outdated figure? Report an error