Nerdy takeaways
- Expect to pay an additional $186 per month for adding a teen driver to a policy with two adults.
- State Farm often has the cheapest car insurance for parents who add a teen driver to a policy, though it depends on the car they drive and their age.
- It’s almost always cheaper to add a teen driver to an existing car insurance policy than it would be for them to get their own policy.
- Many car insurance companies offer discounts tailored toward young drivers that lower the cost of a policy.
How we found the cheapest car insurance for teens
NerdWallet analyzed Quadrant car insurance rates from 119 auto insurance companies in all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C. We analyzed rates for hypothetical male and female drivers ages 16 through 19 with no recent tickets or traffic violations. We also considered whether the teen drivers were added to car insurance policies held by either one or two adult drivers.
Our sample teen drivers did not qualify for discounts for good grades, living away from home or participating in a safe driving program.
For one-adult families, we used a 50-year-old male adult. For two-adult families, we used a 50-year-old male adult and a 45-year-old female adult.
Rates were then analyzed for teenagers driving their own 2013 Toyota Camry L with minimum coverage, or sharing a parent’s or guardian’s 2020 Toyota Camry LE with full coverage. Data analysis was done in May 2026.
You can view our full methodology at the bottom of this page for more details about how we found the cheapest car insurance for teen drivers.
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Cheapest car insurance companies for teen drivers
You’ll pay more for car insurance if you’re a parent or guardian and you add a teen driver to an existing policy.
Because of this we recommend comparing car insurance quotes from a few insurers before buying a policy. You’ll find that rates can vary widely from insurer to insurer depending on the age of the new driver, their record and the discounts they qualify for.
The following table lists the large insurers with the best rates for a teen who shares a car with their two parents. If this doesn’t match your family’s situation, you can check out the other tables we have below for more rates.
| Age of teen driver | Cheapest large insurer | Median monthly rate |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | $548 | |
| 17 | $505 | |
| 18 | $472 | |
| 19 | $339 |
These are the cheapest rates for teens who join an existing policy. Our teen driver shares a 2023 Toyota Camry LE with two parents.
Cheapest for a teen with two parents who drives their own vehicle
| Age of teen driver | Cheapest large insurer | Median monthly rate |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | $507 | |
| 17 | $477 | |
| 18 | $434 | |
| 19 | $390 |
These are the cheapest rates for teens who join an existing policy. Our teen driver uses a 2013 Toyota Camry L that has no comprehensive or collision coverage.
Cheapest for a teen sharing a family vehicle with one parent
| Age of teen driver | Cheapest large insurer | Median monthly rate |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | $468 | |
| 17 | $454 | |
| 18 | $398 | |
| 19 | $262 |
These are the cheapest rates for teens who join an existing policy. Our teen driver shares a 2023 Toyota Camry LE with one parent.
Cheapest for a teen with one parent who drives their own vehicle
| Age of teen driver | Cheapest large insurer | Median monthly rate |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | $422 | |
| 17 | $393 | |
| 18 | $355 | |
| 19 | $278 |
These are the cheapest rates for teens who join an existing policy. Our teen driver uses a 2013 Toyota Camry L that has no comprehensive or collision coverage.
What’s the best way to get car insurance for young drivers?
Your best option depends on your family’s situation and whether your teen driver gets their own car insurance or joins the family’s policy.
Most of the time, an insurer will require you to add any licensed driver to your policy. Depending on your state, you could exclude them from driving the family car at all. If you exclude them, they would be uninsured if they tried to drive the family car.
This means that for many families, the most straightforward way to cover a teen is to add them to your policy. However, this will make your car insurance more expensive, regardless of whether they share the family car or drive their own.
What’s the best way to get cheaper rates for a teen driver?
If you’re focused on saving money after adding a young driver to your policy, the best way to ensure you get affordable rates is by comparing quotes before buying or renewing a policy. We also recommend looking for insurance discounts. Many insurers lower the cost of insurance for teens who:
- Maintain a B grade point average or better in high school or college.
- Attend school more than 100 miles away and don’t keep a car.
- Complete a defensive driving or new driver training course.
- Participate in a usage-based program and show safe driving behavior.
Young drivers can also prevent their costs from rising too steeply by avoiding accidents, tickets and other driving violations. Rates often fall over time as a teen driver gains more experience on the road, but only if their driving record stays clean.
Cost of car insurance for teens
On average, the cost of a car insurance policy that covers a teen and two parents who share the same vehicle is $479 per month or $5,747 per year. That’s significantly higher than the cost of car insurance for one 35-year-old driver, which is $2,300 per year.
That said, the cost of car insurance after adding a teen driver depends on how many other licensed drivers live in the house and which car the teen uses, as well as other factors like where the teen lives, their age and even their gender.
Car insurance cost for teens in a two-adult household
On average, car insurance for a teen and their two parents costs $499 per month when the teen drives their own car, and $479 if the teen shares the family car. But that average shifts with the teen’s age.
| Age | Average monthly rate, teen drives older car | Average monthly rate, teen shares family car |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | $595 | $580 |
| 17 | $579 | $560 |
| 18 | $532 | $512 |
| 19 | $466 | $450 |
| For comparison, the average cost to insure two adults is $293 per month, according to our analysis of full coverage rates for a 50-year-old male driver and 45-year-old female driver sharing one policy. | ||
Car insurance cost for teens in a one-adult household
Car insurance for a teen and one parent costs an average $388 per month when the teen drives their own car, and $392 if the teen shares the family car. Again, that average changes with the teen’s age.
| Age | Average monthly rate, teen drives older car | Average monthly rate, teen shares family car |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | $480 | $498 |
| 17 | $466 | $477 |
| 18 | $421 | $428 |
| 19 | $357 | $363 |
| For comparison, the average cost to insure one adult was $175 per month in July 2026, according to our analysis of full coverage rates for a 50-year-old male driver. | ||
Car insurance for teens based on gender
Car insurance tends to be more expensive for young male drivers than for young female drivers. We found that newly licensed female drivers pay an average of $426 per month for car insurance compared to an average of $459 per month for male drivers.
The reason a driver’s age and gender affect rates comes down to how insurers rely on statistics to estimate someone’s risk. That risk assessment is used to set insurance rates. While insurance is expensive for teen drivers, it’s even higher for teenage male drivers because this group is involved in the most crashes.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, teens ages 16 to 19 cause nearly three times as many fatal accidents as adults 20 and older . The rate of deaths per miles traveled was higher for teenage male drivers than female drivers of the same age.
Car insurance for a teen sharing a family vehicle with two parents
| Age of driver | Female driver | Male driver |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | $580 | $635 |
| 17 | $553 | $600 |
| 18 | $511 | $546 |
| 19 | $438 | $472 |
Car insurance for a teen with two parents who drives their own vehicle
| Age of driver | Female driver | Male driver |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | $578 | $613 |
| 17 | $563 | $595 |
| 18 | $519 | $545 |
| 19 | $454 | $477 |
Car insurance for a teen sharing a family vehicle with one parent
| Age of driver | Female driver | Male driver |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | $468 | $527 |
| 17 | $448 | $506 |
| 18 | $401 | $454 |
| 19 | $342 | $383 |
Car insurance for a teen with one parent who drives their own vehicle
| Age of driver | Female driver | Male driver |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | $463 | $497 |
| 17 | $450 | $482 |
| 18 | $407 | $435 |
| 19 | $345 | $369 |
In this article, we use the term “gender.” We recognize that this is different from sex. Gender is how you identify within society, while sex refers to certain biological attributes.
Some insurers don’t recognize this distinction and use the terms interchangeably. This means that when you apply for car insurance, they may ask for your gender when they really mean sex.
They may also ask for identification that doesn’t reflect your gender accurately. For instance, a company may want the gender you list on your insurance application to match the sex listed on your driver’s license.
We nerd out on car insurance
Our goal is to give you what you need to make smart decisions about your car insurance.
Here’s why you can trust NerdWallet:
- We do our homework. We regularly evaluate and review many of the insurance companies we write about. And all of our content is fact-checked before publication. This means the star ratings you see on our reviews are accurate and up-to-date.
- We analyze the data. We update our average car insurance rates every month. To do that, we analyze more than 500 million rates from across the country. These rates are provided by Quadrant Information Services.
- We are unbiased. NerdWallet’s content is never influenced by our business partners and advertisers. Learn more about how we write in our editorial guidelines.
Methodology
NerdWallet analyzed rates based on public filings obtained by pricing analytics company Quadrant Information Services. We examined rates for male and female high-school students for all ZIP codes in all of the 50 states and Washington, D.C. Although it’s one of the largest insurers in the country, Liberty Mutual is not included in our rates analysis due to a lack of publicly available information.
All rates we analyzed pertained to “good drivers,” meaning they had no moving violations on record. Our “good” and “poor” credit rates are based on credit score approximations and do not account for proprietary scoring criteria used by insurance providers.
In our analysis, “teen” profiles include drivers ages 16 to 19. We worked under the assumption that the drivers for these teen profiles would have no credit history and wouldn’t qualify for any discounts for their grades, participating in a usage-based program or living away from home. Some profiles we analyzed had good student and student out of state discounts.
For a single-parent household, we used a 50-year-old male “good driver” with good credit driving a 2023 Toyota Camry LE with full coverage as the parent or guardian profile. When drivers share a vehicle, the teen uses this car 20% of the time.
For a two-parent household, we used a 50-year-old male “good driver” with good credit driving a 2023 Toyota Camry LE with full coverage and a 45-year-old female “good driver” with good credit driving a 2020 Toyota RAV4 with full coverage as the parent or guardian profiles.
When a young driver drives their own car, we used rates for a 20130 Toyota Camry L with no comprehensive or collision coverage.
These are median rates, and your rate will vary based on your personal details, state and insurance provider.
Sample drivers with “full coverage” policies had the following coverage limits:
- $100,000 bodily injury liability coverage per person.
- $300,000 bodily injury liability coverage per crash.
- $50,000 property damage liability coverage per crash.
- $100,000 uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage per person.
- $300,000 uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage per crash.
- Collision coverage with $1,000 deductible.
- Comprehensive coverage with $1,000 deductible.
In states where required, minimum additional coverages were added.
For drivers with minimum coverage, we adjusted the numbers above to reflect only the minimum coverage required by law in the state.
These are rates generated through Quadrant Information Services. Your own rates will be different.
Article sources
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- 1. IIHS. Teenagers. Accessed Jul 1, 2026.
