According to NerdWallet analysis, the short answer to “How much does travel insurance cost?” is that it’s typically 7% of your overall trip cost. For a $1,000 trip, travel insurance will cost you roughly $70.

However, depending on your provider, travel insurance costs can range from 4%-16% of your trip cost. That means for that $1,000 trip, you might find coverage for as little as $40 or up $160 on the high end.

Costs vary across providers, level of coverage and factors like your age and destination. Let’s take a look at the different types of travel insurance, what influences its cost and the average cost of travel insurance.

Average cost of travel insurance by trip cost

The Nerds dove deep into over 50 real world coverage price points to get a clearer sense of typical travel insurance costs in 2024.

On average, travelers should expect to pay 6.87% of their total trip cost for travel insurance. The minimum you might expect to pay is 4.15%, but it can go as high as 15.8%.

How did we determine these ballpark travel insurance prices?

We broke it down by looking at four individual providers' cheapest basic plan and most expensive basic plan for two traveler age demographics: a 30 year old and a 60 year old.

The Texas-based travelers are taking a 10 day trip to Florida in the summer. Included providers in our analysis were:

Allianz Global Assistance.

Travel Guard by AIG.

USI Affinity Travel Insurance Services.

Travel Insured International.

World Nomads.

Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection.

Travelex Insurance Services.

Seven Corners.

IMG.

AXA Assistance USA.

AAA.

Tin Leg.

TravelSafe.

HTH Insurance.

According to the U.S. Travel Insurance Association, a national association of insurance carriers, the amount you can expect to pay for travel insurance will vary between 4% to 8% of your overall trip. This falls in the general range of our analysis, too.

If your vacation was $5,000, you’d be looking at somewhere between $200 and $400 for insurance. NerdWallet findings corroborate this range, with the average travel insurance cost for a trip at this price point being about $350.

Of course, as we describe below, the type of coverage you choose can greatly affect the cost of your insurance.

Factors that affect travel insurance cost

So, how much is travel insurance? Several factors will influence the cost, like:

Type and extent of coverage.

The length of your trip.

Your destination.

The age of the policyholder.

Total trip cost.

Let’s say that you chose to purchase an insurance policy to cover any health care expenses you incur while traveling. This will reimburse you in the event you need to see a doctor, require hospitalization or have a variety of needs related to health care.

However, let’s say that you also chose to insure some of your trip costs; this means that, if need be, the policy will reimburse you for nonrefundable trip costs in case of a covered event. This will drive up the price of your policy overall.

Another factor that will affect the cost of your travel insurance is the coverage limits of your policy. These limits dictate how much you’ll be reimbursed in the event you need to use your insurance; the higher the amount, the more expensive your insurance.

More example costs of travel insurance

Here are some sample costs of travel insurance for a seven-day trip in the United States for two travelers ages 34 and 36. Full trip costs are estimated to be $2,000, and trip bookings have yet to be paid in full.

Policies include trip interruption coverage, travel delay coverage (up to $500) and emergency medical coverage.

Types of travel insurance

In addition to the cost of travel insurance, we also need to talk about the different types of travel insurance. This is because the price you’ll pay will depend on the insurance you choose. Some policies — like those that allow you to cancel for any reason — can be more expensive than other, more limited, policies.

Common types of travel insurance include:

Lost luggage insurance.

Trip interruption insurance.

Trip cancellation insurance.

Rental car insurance.

Cancel For Any Reason insurance.

Health insurance.

Accidental death insurance.

Emergency evacuation insurance.

Different types of insurance will cover various things. Trip cancellation insurance, for example, will allow you to recoup a portion of nonrefundable costs when you’re forced to cancel your trip for a covered reason.

How to buy travel insurance

It’s simple to purchase travel insurance; you’ve probably seen dozens of ads for insurance whenever booking a flight or rental car.

However, it’s a better idea to get multiple quotes for policies. Insurance policy aggregators, such as Squaremouth, allow you to search a variety of different providers at once. You can then compare the coverage and price of each policy before choosing one that suits your needs.

Credit cards with travel insurance

If you’re looking into purchasing travel insurance, you may want to check which credit card you’re using to book your trip. Many of today’s popular travel credit cards offer complimentary travel insurance.