How Much Does Business Insurance Cost? Key Factors

Data checked August 8, 2026 · Estimate method v0.2 · Next scheduled review: September 8, 2026

There is no single price for business insurance, because there is no single product called "business insurance." What you pay is set by which policies you buy, the class your work is rated in, and the state you work in — and those three produce an enormous spread. In Washington, where the state publishes its rates, the 2026 workers' compensation base premium for one full-time employee runs from about $396 a year for a computer consultant to about $13,467 for a tree-care worker. Same coverage, same state, same year: a 34-fold difference driven by the class code alone. Any number without a policy type, limits, state, business profile, and date attached is not a price — it's a headline. This page covers U.S. small trade and service businesses. What it gives you: a requirement gate, dated cost reference points by policy and by trade, published state-fund rates you can check against your own class, a transparent low/base/high method, and a checklist for quotes you can genuinely compare. Start by writing down one fixed set of business facts — state, exact operations, revenue, payroll, claims history — because every number below is only as good as the profile you put against it.

Find your situation, then plan against it. Every branch below is a starting range to quote, never a promised price:

• Solo, low physical risk, modest revenue, no claims history — plan around the low end, roughly tens of dollars a month for one basic liability policy.
• Working on customers' property with tools or equipment — plan for a middle range, because you may need tools or property coverage alongside general liability.
• Payroll, vehicles, owned property, higher-risk operations, or several policies at higher limits — plan for several hundred dollars a month or more.
• A state employment rule, a client, landlord, or venue contract, or a platform policy is driving the purchase — confirm the requirement first. Open the governing document or the official state source — start with workers' comp requirements by state — before you price anything.

Employer with payroll in Ohio, North Dakota, Washington, or Wyoming? Your workers' compensation rate is published, not quoted. Skip ahead to what workers' comp costs when the state sets the rate.

Everywhere else, read this page for drivers, not for your state's number. Only workers' compensation is priced by state here, because only the four state funds publish schedules. No general liability, property, auto, or package figure on this page is scoped to any state.

On this page

• What are you actually pricing?
• What business insurance costs by policy type
• How these numbers were checked
• What each of these policies does not cover
• What general liability can cost by trade
• What workers' comp costs when the state sets the rate
• Where your state's rate basis is set
• How to estimate your own range
• Why two businesses or two quotes cost different amounts
• Read the full price, not only the monthly number
• How to get and compare useful quotes
• When to re-estimate or re-quote
• Choosing a provider at a glance
• Business insurance cost FAQs
• Your next step

What are you actually pricing?

A cost estimate is only as good as the policy list behind it, and the policy list usually isn't up to you alone. Before you compare any numbers, identify which of these four gates applies to your business — each one can decide the policy, the limit, or both.

Gate	What sets it	What to do before you price
Legal / state	State law can require specific coverage — most visibly workers' compensation once you have employees, with triggers and exemptions that vary by state. In four states you cannot buy workers' comp from a private insurer at all.	Take the threshold and exemption question to your state's workers' compensation authority, and the licensure question to your state's licensing board — those two bodies, not an insurer, decide what you must carry. Start with workers' comp requirements by state, then check where your state's rate basis is set. Never price from a national summary.
Contract / landlord / venue / platform	A client contract, lease, venue agreement, or marketplace policy may specify policy types, limits, and endorsements — often stricter than any law.	Read the actual current document. Note the required limits, the certificate holder, and any additional-insured or waiver wording. A certificate is evidence of coverage, not a substitute for it — see how a certificate of insurance works. If the wording is broad or you cannot tell what it commits you to, that is a question for a construction or business attorney, not an insurance quote.
Payroll / employees	Hiring changes the picture: payroll is the central workers' comp pricing input, and a first hire can add a required policy to your set.	Know your projected payroll and employee count before quoting. Treat revenue, payroll, and headcount as three separate inputs — insurers do.
Operations / assets / vehicles / services	What you actually do — and what you own — determines the class you're rated in and whether property, equipment, commercial auto, or professional liability belongs in the estimate.	Write down your exact operations, owned equipment and property, business vehicle use, and any advice or professional services you sell.

If you haven't settled which policies apply to your situation, start with which policies your business may need, then come back here to price the selected set.

Read every number on this page the same way. Each figure is dated and scoped. A provider's median or starting price describes that provider's own customers over a stated period — not the U.S. market, and not your business. Policy wording, endorsements, limits, exclusions, your specific facts, and underwriting control what you actually pay and what is actually covered. A quote is needed for a price specific to your business.

First step: identify the governing requirement (if any), pick the policy types and limits it points to, and write down one consistent set of business facts — state, operations, revenue, payroll, claims history. Everything below builds on that.

What business insurance costs by policy type

All rows rechecked August 8, 2026. Each row is one provider's published figure for its own customers, shown separately on purpose. These rows are not combined into any blended figure, because they describe different customer populations, periods, and policy choices — Cover My Trade does not treat any of them as a market average.

Policy	Monthly figure (as published)	Statistic type · whose customers · role	Data period · limits and deductible published?	Status · comparability
General liability	$45 (about $538/yr, source-published)	Median, presented by the source as its average · Insureon purchasers · online agency/marketplace	Page updated Feb 6, 2026 · population level only: most choose $1M/$2M limits; typical deductible $500	Verified with limitation · Directional only
General liability	As low as $19; 45% of customers pay ≤ $45	Starting price + customer share · ERGO NEXT active customers · agency within an insurer group	Active policies as of Apr 1, 2026; customer data from the prior 12 months · not published per row	Verified with limitation · Directional only
General liability	$55 median / $79 average	Median and average · Progressive Commercial new customers · insurer group	2025 (national) · not published	Verified with limitation · Directional only
General liability	About $42 median ($44.44 also published) for $1M-limit policies	Median (50th percentile) of policies sold · Simply Business · digital brokerage	Policies sold Jul–Dec 2025 · $1M per-occurrence limit; deductible not published	Verified with limitation · Source labels the same figure two ways — see conflict 3 below
Business owner's policy (BOP)	$83 (about $990/yr, source-published)	Median, presented as average · Insureon purchasers · online agency/marketplace	Page updated Feb 6, 2026 · not published per row	Verified with limitation · Directional only
Business owner's policy (BOP)	$80 median / $127 average	Median and average · Progressive Commercial new customers · insurer group	2025 (national) · not published	Verified with limitation · Directional only
Business owner's policy (BOP)	$48 (about $576/yr, source-published)	10th percentile of policies sold, per the source's own footnote · Simply Business · digital brokerage	Policies sold Jul–Dec 2025 · not published	Verified with limitation · Source labels one figure three ways — see conflict 1 below
Professional liability / E&O	$88 (about $1,051/yr, source-published)	Median, presented as average · Insureon purchasers · online agency/marketplace	Page updated Feb 6, 2026 · not published per row	Verified with limitation · Directional only
Professional liability / E&O	As low as $19; 73% of customers pay ≤ $45	Starting price + customer share · ERGO NEXT active customers · agency within an insurer group	As of Apr 1, 2026 · not published	Verified with limitation · Directional only
Professional liability / E&O	$50 median	Median · Progressive Commercial new customers · insurer group	2025 (national) · not published	Verified with limitation · Directional only
Workers' compensation	$54	Median, presented as average · Insureon purchasers · online agency/marketplace	Page updated Feb 6, 2026 · not applicable (priced on payroll and class, not limits/deductible in the GL sense)	Verified with limitation · Private market only — not purchasable in OH, ND, WA, WY
Workers' compensation	As low as $14; 49% of customers pay ≤ $75	Starting price + customer share · ERGO NEXT active customers · agency within an insurer group	As of Apr 1, 2026 · not applicable	Verified with limitation · Private market only — not purchasable in OH, ND, WA, WY
Workers' compensation	$76 median / $121 average	Median and average · Progressive Commercial new customers · insurer group	2025 (national) · not applicable	Verified with limitation · Private market only — not purchasable in OH, ND, WA, WY
Commercial property	$108	Median, presented as average · Insureon purchasers · online agency/marketplace	Page updated Feb 6, 2026 · not published	Verified with limitation · Directional only
Commercial property	As low as $18; 40% of customers pay ≤ $45	Starting price + customer share · ERGO NEXT active customers · agency within an insurer group	As of Apr 1, 2026 · not published	Verified with limitation · Directional only
Commercial auto	$245; annual premiums from under $375 to over $16,000	Median, presented as average · Insureon purchasers · online agency/marketplace	Page updated Mar 4, 2026 · not published	Verified with limitation · Directional only · single source
Tools and equipment / inland marine	$48; annual premiums from around $150 to over $4,500	Median, presented as average · Insureon purchasers · online agency/marketplace	Page updated May 21, 2026 · not published; items over $2,500 may need separate scheduling	Verified with limitation · Directional only · single source; see conflict 4 below
Cyber insurance	$129	Median, presented as average · Insureon purchasers · online agency/marketplace	Page updated Feb 6, 2026 · not published	Verified with limitation · Directional only · single source
Commercial umbrella	$86	Median, presented as average · Insureon purchasers · online agency/marketplace	Page updated Feb 6, 2026 · not published	Verified with limitation · Directional only · single source

No figure in this table is scoped to your state. For the 36 NCCI jurisdictions and the 11 independent-bureau states, no published source in the set we reviewed breaks general liability out by state — which is why this page prices workers' compensation by state, where four state funds publish schedules, and general liability only by provider population. Treat the state as a driver you cannot read off this table.

Three reading notes, because the table's units are not interchangeable. First, these sources publish monthly figures, and none of them discloses whether installment fees are inside those figures — so treat the annual premium (shown in parentheses where the source publishes one) as the clean comparison unit. Second, a blank or "not published" cell means exactly that: it never means zero, none, or no fee. Third, ERGO NEXT's starting prices are its own representation of existing active-policy premiums as of April 1, 2026 — not guaranteed, and not what most applicants pay. Progressive's rows carry the sharpest lesson in the whole table: its 2025 general liability median was $55 while its average was $79, which tells you a minority of higher-premium policies pulls the average well above what the typical new customer paid. When a page shows you one number, always ask which one it is.

How these numbers were checked

This page's method, version 0.2: a figure is included only when it comes from the provider's own current published dataset about its own customers, or from a state fund's own published rate schedule, with a statistic type, population, and date we could verify on the source page as of August 8, 2026. Every consequential row carries one of six statuses — Verified, Verified with limitation, Partial, Blocked, Not applicable, or Superseded — plus a comparability label. Every provider row above is Directional only, because none publishes the full profile Cover My Trade's data standard requires for a true comparison: state, exact operations, revenue, payroll, claims history, fees, and issuing carrier per figure. State-fund rates are a different class of evidence and are labeled separately where they appear. Cover My Trade is collecting its own reproducible, full-profile premium samples; until that dataset and its methodology are published, nothing on this page is a benchmark. Rows are rechecked monthly (next: September 8, 2026). Cover My Trade is an independent publisher, written and maintained by the Cover My Trade editorial team — not an insurer, agency, broker, or advisor — and cannot quote, bind, certify, or recommend coverage for your specific situation. How this page is funded: Cover My Trade is supported by advertising and, on some pages, disclosed referral links. No provider has paid for placement, ordering, or inclusion on this page, and compensation never determines what is included or how it is ranked. If a compensated link is added to this page, it will be disclosed here. If a figure here no longer matches its source, tell us at hello@covermytrade.com and we will correct it and re-date it.

Four source conflicts, disclosed rather than resolved

1. Simply Business labels its business owner's policy figure three ways on one page. The heading calls $48 an average, the body text calls the set of figures median costs, and the asterisked footnote defines the displayed price as the 10th percentile of relevant policies sold between July and December 2025. A 10th-percentile figure is not an average and not a median — it is close to the cheapest tenth of what was sold. We have not resolved which label is correct; we have labeled the row with the footnote's definition, because a footnote defining the calculation is more specific than a heading describing it.

2. Insureon's population is described two ways. Insureon's cost page states its figures derive from 100,000 purchasers in its methodology note, while third-party citations of the same dataset commonly describe it as 40,000-plus policies; we use the source's own figure and treat the population as approximate.

3. Simply Business labels its general liability figure two ways. On its $1 million general liability page, $44.44 is introduced as "the average cost," while the footnote attached to that figure defines it as the median, 50th percentile, monthly premium for policies sold July to December 2025. The same page separately reports a median of about $42. We publish both numbers with the footnote's definition attached, and we do not treat either as an average.

4. Insureon publishes two very different tools-and-equipment figures. Its dedicated inland marine and tools-and-equipment cost pages report about $48 a month across all its customers, while several of its construction trade pages — carpenters, renovation contractors, installation businesses — report about $14 a month, or $169 a year, for the same coverage. Both are the provider's own figures. The likeliest explanation is a different customer mix rather than a different product, but the source does not reconcile them, so neither should you: if you are a trade buying tools coverage, quote it rather than budgeting from either number.

One further labeling point. ERGO NEXT is described on this page as a licensed agency within an insurer group, with policy obligations falling on the issuing insurer, which is how its own legal disclosures present it. Trade press covering its January 2026 rebrand describes the same organization as a digital-first carrier. Both descriptions are supportable depending on which entity in the group is meant. Ask on the quote which company is on the paper.

Who issues the policy behind each number

Cost data means more once you know what kind of company published it. Four roles matter:

Role	Who issues and bears the policy	What it changes for you
Direct carrier	The company itself underwrites the policy and pays claims.	One underwriting appetite; quote, certificate, and claims in one place; its published prices describe only its own book of business.
MGA / program administrator	Runs the program on behalf of an issuing carrier, which bears the policy.	Program-specific eligibility and pricing; confirm the issuing carrier named on the quote; certificates come from the program.
Broker / agency	Sells policies issued by separate insurers.	Its published figures describe policies it sold across multiple carriers; claims go to the issuing insurer; ask who issues your certificate and how quickly.
Comparison marketplace	Collects your details and returns quotes from multiple carriers or agencies.	Figures describe purchases across many carriers; expect your information to be routed to quoting partners; confirm which entity services the policy after purchase.

A provider's role is stated on this page only where its own current documentation supports it; otherwise treat the role as not verified and confirm it in the quote. Per their own sites: Insureon is an online agency/marketplace; ERGO NEXT is a licensed agency within an insurer group, with policy obligations on the issuing insurer; Simply Business is a digital brokerage whose policies are underwritten by third-party insurers; Progressive Commercial publishes as an insurer group (Progressive Casualty Ins. Co. and affiliates), though the issuing company can vary by product — the pages we reviewed do not identify which insurer issues its general liability and workers' compensation policies, so ask on the quote which company is on the paper.

What each of these policies does not cover

A price is meaningless without the scope behind it. Every policy priced above is set out below as a full module across three tables that share the same coverage column, so you can read one policy down or compare two across. Exclusions and their wording are set by the policy form and the endorsements attached to it, not by any provider's product page. The form numbers below are the standard ISO designations most carriers start from, and the declarations page of an actual quote lists the exact forms and editions that apply to you. That declarations page, not this table, is the controlling document.

What each policy does, and what it does not

Policy	What it does	What it does not cover	Trade-specific exclusions to check	Where to check on your own quote
General liability	Pays third-party bodily injury and property damage arising from your operations and, subject to its terms, your completed work. Its limits come in two parts: the per-occurrence limit caps what the insurer pays for any single incident, and the aggregate caps what it pays across the whole policy year, so a $1M/$2M policy can be exhausted by three bad claims	Damage to your own work and your own product — the "your work" exclusion. Faulty workmanship as such. Injury to your own employees. Professional advice or design errors. Damage to property in your care, custody, or control. Business use of a vehicle	Work at height and roof work; hot work such as welding, torching, or soldering; excavation, subsidence, and earth movement; lead, asbestos, mold, and pollution; tree work above a stated height; residential versus commercial classification, which some carriers exclude one way or the other	ISO form CG 00 01; read the exclusions section and the schedule of endorsements on your declarations page
Business owner's policy (BOP)	Bundles general liability with commercial property, usually cheaper than buying both separately	Everything general liability excludes, plus workers' compensation, commercial auto, and professional liability. Eligibility is restricted by size, revenue, and class	Trades involving work at height, hot work, or structural work — roofing, framing, exterior painting, and tree care among them — are commonly outside standard BOP eligibility. Insureon's own general contractor page notes that a BOP can average less than general liability alone precisely because only small, low-risk businesses qualify for one. Confirm your class is eligible before assuming a bundled figure applies to you	Your BOP's own coverage form and its eligibility rule; ask the underwriter in writing whether your class qualifies
Professional liability / E&O	Pays claims that your advice, design, or professional service caused a client a financial loss	Bodily injury and property damage — those belong to general liability. Most policies are claims-made, so a claim reported after the policy ends is not covered unless you buy tail coverage, which costs extra	Whether design-build or "means and methods" work is inside or outside the professional services definition; whether construction management is covered; prior-acts and retroactive-date limits for a newly formed business	Ask whether the quote is claims-made or occurrence, and what the retroactive date and tail cost are
Workers' compensation	Pays statutory medical and wage-replacement benefits to employees injured or made ill by work	Employer's liability — Part Two — is not provided by the state funds in Ohio, North Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming; it is bought separately as a stop-gap endorsement. It is not health insurance. It does not cover an owner who has not elected in where the state allows election. It does not cover a subcontractor's employees — unless the sub is uninsured, in which case they become your exposure and your premium	Classification accuracy is the exclusion risk on this line rather than policy wording: a class that does not match your operations leaves work effectively unrated and disputed at audit. Check the class where a crew does mixed work — a cleaner who also does gutter work at height is not in the same class as one who does not	Your state's workers' comp authority for the election and stop-gap rules; see what uninsured subcontractors cost you at audit
Commercial property	Pays for damage to buildings, equipment, inventory, and business personal property you own or are responsible for	The valuation basis decides what you actually collect: an actual-cash-value policy pays depreciated value, not replacement cost. Tools in transit or on a jobsite are often outside a fixed-location property policy and need inland marine or tools-and-equipment coverage. Flood and earth movement are commonly excluded	Whether stock and materials staged at a jobsite are covered at all; whether a home-based operation is within the definition of the described premises; wind and hail deductibles in coastal and hail-belt states	The valuation clause, the covered-property schedule, and the causes-of-loss form on the quote
Cyber insurance	Pays breach-response, notification, liability, and in some forms extortion and business-interruption costs after a cyber event	Losses from your own unpatched or unmaintained systems where the policy conditions required maintenance. Fraudulent-transfer losses unless social-engineering coverage is specifically added. Reputational harm outside the defined triggers	Whether stored customer payment-card data is inside the insuring agreement; whether the minimum-security conditions match what your business actually runs	The insuring agreements, the minimum-security conditions, and whether social engineering is included or an add-on
Commercial umbrella	Adds a layer of limit on top of underlying policies — usually general liability, commercial auto, and employer's liability — after the underlying limit is exhausted	Anything the underlying policy excludes. An umbrella follows form: if general liability excludes your work, the umbrella excludes it too. It does not cover a line you do not carry underneath it, and it will specify required underlying limits you must maintain	Whether the umbrella sits over employer's liability at all in a state-fund state, where Part Two comes from a stop-gap endorsement rather than a workers' compensation policy; whether height, hot work, or residential exclusions repeat in the umbrella form	The schedule of underlying insurance and the required underlying limits on the umbrella quote
Commercial auto	Covers liability and, where you buy physical damage, the vehicle itself, for vehicles used in the business — the coverage a personal auto policy will not provide for business use	Vehicles you do not own and do not schedule: employees driving their own cars on business need a hired-and-non-owned auto endorsement. Tools and cargo in the vehicle, which belong to inland marine, not auto. Damage to the vehicle at all, unless you bought comprehensive and collision rather than liability alone	Whether towed equipment — trailers, chippers, mowers, compressors — is scheduled or excluded; whether a driver with a poor record is excluded by name; whether a vehicle over a stated weight changes the rating	The schedule of covered autos, the symbols shown against each coverage, and whether hired-and-non-owned is included or an add-on
Tools and equipment / inland marine	Covers tools, portable equipment, and property in transit or at a jobsite, which fixed-location property coverage often will not reach	Wear, mechanical breakdown, and employee theft in many forms. Items over a per-item cap unless scheduled by serial number. Equipment you lease or rent unless leased/rented equipment is specifically added	Whether tools left in an unlocked vehicle overnight are covered; whether an unfenced jobsite changes the terms; whether borrowed or rented equipment is inside the schedule	The per-item and total limits, the scheduling requirement, and whether the valuation is replacement cost or actual cash value

Who requires each policy, and how it is priced

Policy	Who requires it, and on what basis	Typical trigger to buy	How premium is rated, and the two drivers that move it most	Typical limit structure
General liability	Rarely law. Commonly a contract — client, landlord, venue, or general contractor — and in some trades a licensing board condition of licensure	A contract, lease, or license application asking for proof of liability coverage	Class code and revenue, generally per $1,000 of receipts or payroll depending on the class. Drivers: operations class and revenue	$1M per occurrence / $2M aggregate is the common request; $2M/$4M where a contract demands it
Business owner's policy (BOP)	Nobody requires a BOP by name. It satisfies whatever the underlying GL and property requirements are	You need both general liability and property, and your class is eligible for the bundle	Same inputs as the two policies it bundles, priced as a package. Drivers: class eligibility and insured property value	Follows the GL limits inside it, plus scheduled property values
Professional liability / E&O	Rarely law for the trades. Commonly a contract where you sell advice, design, or a professional service	A client contract naming errors and omissions, or work that includes design or specification	Revenue and services description. Drivers: scope of professional services and revenue	Per claim and aggregate, commonly $1M/$1M; claims-made with a retroactive date
Workers' compensation	Statute, at state level, with employee-count triggers and owner/officer election rules that differ in every state. Also commonly a contract requirement, since GCs and commercial clients ask for employer's liability limits on a certificate	Your first hire. Also a contract naming employer's liability limits	Per $100 of payroll by classification in 47 jurisdictions; per hour worked in Washington. Drivers: classification and payroll, then the experience modification	Part One is statutory, no limit selection. Part Two, employer's liability, carries selected limits per accident / per disease-employee / per disease-policy
Commercial property	Rarely law. Commonly a lease condition, or a lender condition where the building is financed	You own or lease premises, or hold significant stock, equipment, or fixtures	Insured values, construction, occupancy, protection, and exposure. Drivers: insured value and location	Building and business-personal-property limits, plus a stated deductible and a valuation basis
Cyber insurance	Rarely law. Commonly a contract with a commercial client, or a platform condition	Handling customer payment or personal data, or a client contract naming cyber cover	Revenue, records held, and security controls. Drivers: records held and security posture	Per claim and aggregate, commonly $250,000 to $1M for a small business
Commercial umbrella	Never law. A contract requirement where the required limit exceeds your primary	A contract naming a combined limit your primary policies cannot meet	A factor over the underlying premiums. Drivers: underlying exposure and required limit	$1M layers over stated required underlying limits
Commercial auto	State law sets minimum liability for registered vehicles. Also a contract requirement on many jobsites	Buying, titling, or regularly using a vehicle in the business	Vehicle count, type, radius, use, and driver records. Drivers: vehicle type and use and driver records	Combined single limit is common; $1M is the usual contract request
Tools and equipment / inland marine	Never law. Occasionally a lender or lessor condition on financed equipment	Tools or equipment that travel to jobsites and are worth more than you could replace out of pocket	Total insured value, per-item values, and storage. Drivers: total insured value and where items are kept overnight	A blanket limit plus a per-item cap; items over a stated value scheduled individually

Endorsements, audit exposure, and evidence

Policy	Endorsements a contract commonly requires	Audit exposure	Evidence confidence on this page	Trigger to revisit
General liability	Additional insured — ISO CG 20 10 for ongoing operations and CG 20 37 for completed operations; waiver of subrogation CG 24 04; primary and non-contributory wording	Yes — commonly auditable on revenue or payroll, and uninsured subcontractors are commonly picked up under the appropriate payroll classification at the general liability audit	Verified with limitation · Directional only — provider medians, no state, operations, revenue, or claims profile published per figure	New contract, new operation, revenue step-up, a claim, renewal
Business owner's policy (BOP)	The same GL endorsements, where the carrier will attach them to the package form	Commonly auditable on the same basis as the GL inside it	Verified with limitation · Directional only — and the three sources conflict on statistic type	Class or revenue change that affects eligibility, property value change, renewal
Professional liability / E&O	Rarely additional insured; some contracts ask for a waiver of subrogation	Usually not auditable in the payroll sense; revenue is confirmed at renewal	Verified with limitation · Directional only	New service line, revenue step-up, a claim, renewal
Workers' compensation	Waiver of subrogation on its own workers' compensation form, not CG 24 04; alternate employer endorsement where a GC requires it; stop-gap employer's liability in the four fund states	Yes — the highest audit exposure on this page. Premium is an estimate on projected payroll, reconciled against actual payroll, and payments to subs who cannot produce their own coverage are commonly charged to you as payroll	Verified for the four state funds' rating mechanics and the 51-jurisdiction routing (agency and statutory sources, checked Aug 8, 2026) · Verified with limitation · Directional only for all provider medians	First hire, payroll change, new state, a claim, an expiring sub certificate, renewal
Commercial property	Lender's loss payable; landlord as additional insured on the property interest	Usually not auditable; values are restated at renewal	Verified with limitation · Directional only · fewer sources than GL	Buying, selling, or moving premises; equipment or stock value change; renewal
Cyber insurance	Rarely endorsed for third parties; some client contracts name a required limit	Not auditable in the payroll sense	Verified with limitation · Directional only · single source	New data handling, a new client contract naming cyber, renewal
Commercial umbrella	Follow-form additional insured where the primary carries it	Follows the underlying policies' audits	Verified with limitation · Directional only · single source	Any change in required underlying limits, new contract, renewal
Commercial auto	Additional insured and waiver of subrogation on the auto form; hired-and-non-owned where employees drive their own cars	Usually not auditable on payroll; vehicle and driver changes are reported during the term	Verified with limitation · Directional only · single source	Buying or selling a vehicle, adding a driver, changing radius or use, renewal
Tools and equipment / inland marine	Loss payee on financed or leased equipment	Not auditable; scheduled values are restated at renewal	Verified with limitation · Directional only · single source, and that source publishes two conflicting figures — see conflict 4 above	Buying or selling equipment, a change in overnight storage, renewal

Two gaps sit outside every policy on this page and catch trade owners constantly. A personal auto policy excludes business use, so a vehicle you drive for work needs commercial auto or, where you drive vehicles you do not own, a hired-and-non-owned endorsement. A homeowners policy excludes home-based business operations, so a business run from your house is not covered by the household policy — see home-based business insurance. And a bond is not insurance: a license or surety bond protects your customer and the state, and if the surety pays a claim you repay the surety. See license and permit bonds for how the three differ.

What general liability can cost by trade

All rows rechecked August 8, 2026. Each table below uses one source, one statistic, and one period — and the two tables are not comparable to each other, because the first is general liability only and the second bundles every policy a customer bought.

Trade cost rows rechecked August 8, 2026

Here is the direct answer to "what does general liability cost per month by trade": among one marketplace's purchasers, monthly general liability medians by industry run from about $29 for consulting to about $82 for construction, with cleaning and landscaping in the $48–$51 band — and each of those figures describes that provider's customers, not your quote.

General liability by trade — one marketplace's purchasers

Median monthly cost of policies purchased by Insureon customers, presented by the source as averages; page updated February 6, 2026. The workers' compensation column is where trade actually shows up: consulting and construction differ by about $53 a month on general liability and by about $214 a month on workers' comp.

Trade / industry	GL per month	BOP per month	Workers' comp per month	Why this class rates where it does — Cover My Trade's reading · status
Consulting	$29	$42	$40	Low physical risk; client-related mistakes belong to E&O, not GL. Verified with limitation · Insureon purchasers · national; not state-scoped
Food and beverage	$44	$148	$106	Customer premises and food-related injury exposure; property and equipment drive the BOP figure. Verified with limitation · Insureon purchasers · national; not state-scoped
Cleaning	$48	$76	$136	Physical work on customers' property; crew injury exposure lifts the comp figure. Verified with limitation · Insureon purchasers · national; not state-scoped
Landscaping	$51	$94	$169	Outdoor physical work; equipment use; higher injury frequency. Verified with limitation · Insureon purchasers · national; not state-scoped
Installation trades	$73	$118	$193	Work with tools on other people's property. Verified with limitation · Insureon purchasers · national; not state-scoped
Construction	$82	$98	$254	High-hazard site work; comp is the dominant line, not GL. Verified with limitation · Insureon purchasers · national; not state-scoped

Per-row limits, deductible, state, revenue, payroll, and claims profiles are not published for this table; at the population level, the source reports most customers choose $1M per-occurrence / $2M aggregate limits with a $500 deductible, and describes a customer base with fewer than five employees, annual revenue ranging from under $50,000 to more than $200,000, and five years or less in business. That's why every row is directional: a cleaning business with a crew, two vans, and a claim will not land on the cleaning row's number. No handyman-specific general liability figure appeared in the sources reviewed for this page; the installation-trades row is the closest published class, and it is not a substitute for a handyman quote — for handyman-specific coverage and quote inputs, see handyman insurance. The workers' compensation column describes private-market policies and does not apply in Ohio, North Dakota, Washington, or Wyoming; see what workers' comp costs when the state sets the rate.

Whole-account cost by industry — not a general liability price

Median monthly cost of business insurance per industry — meaning all policies each customer bought — for ERGO NEXT active customers; data updated April 2026.

Industry	Median monthly cost, all policies bought	Status · comparability
Sports and fitness	$16–$73	Verified with limitation · ERGO NEXT active customers · not comparable to the GL table
Consulting	$21–$60	Verified with limitation · ERGO NEXT active customers · not comparable to the GL table
Cleaning	$23–$116	Verified with limitation · ERGO NEXT active customers · not comparable to the GL table
Beauty	$26–$62	Verified with limitation · ERGO NEXT active customers · not comparable to the GL table
Retail and e-commerce	$32–$89	Verified with limitation · ERGO NEXT active customers · not comparable to the GL table
Construction	$36–$160	Verified with limitation · ERGO NEXT active customers · not comparable to the GL table
Restaurants, food and beverage	$36–$130	Verified with limitation · ERGO NEXT active customers · not comparable to the GL table

The width of these ranges is itself the finding. Cleaning spans $23 to $116 a month at a single provider because the range mixes solo operators holding one liability policy with employers who added workers' comp, property, and higher limits — different policy sets, not different prices for the same thing. Construction is wider still, at $36 to $160, for the same reason and to a greater degree. Never read a whole-account range as a general liability price, and never compare it to the GL table above. For what actually drives a specific trade's premium — operations wording, typical exclusions, and the quote inputs that matter — go to the owning trade page; for cleaning, see cleaning business insurance costs and quote inputs. Category-level coverage detail and shopping for the policy itself live at general liability insurance for a small business.

What workers' comp costs when the state sets the rate

In four states — Ohio, North Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming — workers' compensation for the employments the state requires to be covered is sold only by a state fund. A private insurer cannot write it, an agent cannot place it, and none of the provider figures above applies. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands operate on the same exclusive-fund model. This matters twice on a cost page. The price is set by a published schedule rather than a quote, and the state fund's policy does not include employer's liability.

The employer's liability gap. A private workers' compensation policy has two parts. Part One pays the statutory benefits to the injured worker. Part Two, employer's liability, responds to suits that fall outside the compensation bargain. The four state funds provide Part One only. To get Part Two you buy a separate stop-gap employer's liability endorsement. It attaches to your general liability policy if you operate only in a fund state, or to your workers' compensation policy if you also operate in private-market states. General contractors and commercial clients routinely require employer's liability limits on a certificate, and a fund-state employer who has not bought stop-gap coverage cannot produce them. Budget for it as a separate line.

State	Fund and authority	How premium is rated	Where the published rate basis lives	Verification status
Ohio	Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation (BWC) — exclusive state fund; limited self-insurance for qualifying employers	Per $100 of payroll, by classification. BWC assigns NCCI classifications from your application, and employers are either base-rated or experience-rated	BWC — calculating your premium and base rates and experience rates	Verified — rating mechanics confirmed on BWC pages, checked Aug 8, 2026. Per-class base rates not reproduced here; look up your own classification
North Dakota	Workforce Safety & Insurance (WSI) — exclusive state fund	Class rate applied to taxable payroll in that class, summed across classes. Payroll per worker is capped at 70% of the statewide average annual wage — the "wage cap" — reset each July 1 under N.D. Cent. Code § 65-04-04.2. Employers report payroll quarterly, so exposure is trued up during the year rather than only at year end; § 65-04-16 requires the estimate to be adjusted to actual wages at period end	WSI premium information, payroll information, and the 2026 classification manual effective July 1, 2026	Verified — agency pages and Century Code ch. 65-04 read Aug 8, 2026
Washington	Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) — exclusive state fund	Per hour worked, not per $100 of payroll — the only state that rates this way. Four component rates: accident, medical aid, supplemental pension, and Stay at Work. Employers pay all of the accident premium; employers and workers each pay half of the other three	L&I 2026 rate notice and the adopted rate lookup by risk classification	Verified — checked Aug 8, 2026
Wyoming	State fund administered by the Department of Workforce Services	Coverage is mandatory only for employments the statute designates extrahazardous, determined by NAICS code rather than by individual occupation. Every employer doing business in Wyoming must register; registration determines the NAICS code and whether coverage is required or optional. Where coverage is required it must come from the state fund. Where it is optional, an employer may elect state-fund coverage, buy privately, or carry none. The division sets classes and readjusts rates annually on an actuarial basis under § 27-14-201	Wyo. Stat. § 27-14-108 (extrahazardous employments and optional coverage), § 27-14-207 (registration), and the division's own new employer registration guidance	Verified — current statutory compilation and the division's own registration page read Aug 8, 2026

Wyoming is the exception inside the exception, and most summaries get it wrong. It is commonly described as flatly monopolistic. The statute is narrower: the monopoly binds the employments Wyoming defines as extrahazardous. An employer outside those NAICS codes has a genuine choice, including the choice to elect into the state fund under § 27-14-108(j). An employer who elects may only elect to cover all employees, and may withdraw only after the coverage has been in force at least two years. If you operate in Wyoming, the registration determination is the fact that decides your cost, not the label. The division says as much on its own new-employer page: registration is required of every employer so that the division has enough information to determine coverage status, and an employer may register and be found non-liable or optional for fund coverage.

Two funds, two opposite rules about who pays. Washington is the only state where workers pay a significant share of the premium — about 24% on average, or about 26% once retro refunds are counted — collected by payroll deduction. North Dakota runs the other way: the premium obligation sits on the employer by statute, since N.D. Cent. Code § 65-04-04 requires each employer subject to the title to pay premium and assessments into the fund, and WSI describes itself as an exclusive, employer-financed state fund. We did not locate a current Century Code provision expressly prohibiting an employer from deducting premium from wages, so we do not state one. Same product, opposite mechanics, and it changes the employer's real cost in each state.

Washington: a worked example you can reproduce

Washington publishes a composite base rate per hour worked for every risk classification, and defines a full-time employee as 1,920 hours worked in a year. That makes the arithmetic fully visible:

Annual base premium per full-time employee = published composite base rate per hour × 1,920 hours. This is the base premium at an experience factor of 1.0000 — a firm with claims history above or below average will pay more or less. It is the combined employer-and-worker premium; the worker's payroll-deducted share averages about 24% statewide. It excludes any Claim-Free Discount, which L&I states can lower an eligible employer's average base rate by 10% or more.

Applying that formula to the 2026 composite base rates L&I publishes, for classes that match the trades this site covers:

Washington risk class (2026 rates)	2026 composite base rate, per hour worked	Annual base premium, one full-time employee (1,920 hrs)
WA 2026 · 5302 Computer consulting, programming, software design, web dev	$0.2061	about $396
WA 2026 · 4904 Clerical office, NOC	$0.2223	about $427
WA 2026 · 6501 Barber, beauty, tattoo, piercing, tanning shops	$0.3995	about $767
WA 2026 · 6506 Photography studios and film print shops	$0.4715	about $905
WA 2026 · 6204 Health clubs, gyms, exercise facilities and baths, NOC	$0.4890	about $939
WA 2026 · 3905 Restaurants and taverns	$0.5126	about $984
WA 2026 · 7308 Pet grooming and boarding services, animal shelters	$0.9176	about $1,762
WA 2026 · 0601 Electrical wiring: buildings and structures	$1.4370	about $2,759
WA 2026 · 0308 Lawn care maintenance	$1.4948	about $2,870
WA 2026 · 6602 Janitorial services and pest control	$1.6799	about $3,225
WA 2026 · 0306 Plumbing	$1.8222	about $3,499
WA 2026 · 0521 Painting: buildings — interior work	$1.8962	about $3,641
WA 2026 · 0307 HVAC-R and wood stove install, service, repair	$1.9751	about $3,792
WA 2026 · 2202 Carpet cleaning	$2.1446	about $4,118
WA 2026 · 0301 Landscape construction and renovation	$2.1811	about $4,188
WA 2026 · 0516 Building repair, remodeling and carpentry, NOC	$2.9469	about $5,658
WA 2026 · 0504 Painting: buildings and structures — exterior work	$3.7129	about $7,129
WA 2026 · 0510 Wood frame building construction and alterations	$4.6938	about $9,012
WA 2026 · 0507 Roof work — construction and repair	$5.7930	about $11,123
WA 2026 · 0106 Tree care and pruning services, NOC	$7.0142	about $13,467

Source and status. Hourly rates are from L&I's published 2026 rates by business type and class code (PDF), checked August 8, 2026. Status: Verified with limitation — page 2 of that document carries a DRAFT marking, and its all-classifications figure of 4.9% matches the increase L&I announced as adopted for 2026, so the aggregate is confirmed while the individual class rates are not confirmed as final on that document. Confirm your own class in L&I's adopted rate lookup before you budget from it. The annual figures are Cover My Trade's arithmetic — rate × 1,920 — not an L&I publication, and are rounded to the nearest dollar.

What this table is for, and what it is not. It is not a price for your business and it is not a quote. It is one state's published schedule, which lets you see the shape of the cost driver that every state shares. Three things in it are worth carrying into any state. The spread between the cheapest and dearest class here is about 34-fold, and nothing but the classification produces it. That is why a loose description of your operations is expensive in either direction. The three lowest rows are desk work and the three highest are work at height or with heavy equipment, which is the pattern every rating system encodes. And the roofing row alone, at about $11,123 a year for one employee, explains more about why a roofer's total insurance cost differs from a consultant's than any national monthly average can.

For context in the other direction: L&I's all-classifications composite base rate for 2026 is $0.7885 per hour, and the agency states the average 2026 rate works out to $1.50 per $100 of payroll before retro refunds, with the year's increase costing employers and workers an average of about $71 per full-time employee before retro refunds. Of Washington's 327 risk classes, 293 have higher base rates in 2026 than in 2025.

Where your state's rate basis is set

Workers' compensation classification and loss costs are set by one of three kinds of organization, and which one governs your state decides where you go to check a class code or a rate. This covers all 51 U.S. jurisdictions — the 50 states and the District of Columbia — as four state funds, eleven independent rating bureaus, and thirty-six jurisdictions where NCCI is the advisory organization. In NCCI and independent-bureau states the bureau publishes advisory loss costs or rates; individual carriers file their own rates from them and the state insurance department approves the filing, so two carriers in the same state can quote the same class differently.

Jurisdiction	Who sets classification and loss costs	What that means for your quote
Ohio	Ohio BWC — state fund	One published schedule; no shopping the price
North Dakota	North Dakota WSI — state fund	One published schedule; payroll capped at 70% of statewide average annual wage
Washington	Washington L&I — state fund	One published schedule, rated per hour worked; workers pay a share
Wyoming	Wyoming Department of Workforce Services — state fund, required employments only	Registration decides whether you must use the fund or may buy privately
California	WCIRB — independent bureau	California class codes and rules; not interchangeable with NCCI codes
Delaware	DCRB — independent bureau	State-specific classification manual and rating rules
Indiana	ICRB — independent bureau	State-specific classification manual and rating rules
Massachusetts	WCRIBMA — independent bureau	State-specific classification manual and rating rules
Michigan	CAOM — independent bureau	State-specific classification manual and rating rules
Minnesota	MWCIA — independent bureau	State-specific classification manual and rating rules
New Jersey	NJCRIB — independent bureau	State-specific classification manual and rating rules
New York	NYCIRB — independent bureau	State-specific classification manual and rating rules
North Carolina	NCRB — independent bureau	State-specific classification manual and rating rules
Pennsylvania	PCRB — independent bureau	State-specific classification manual and rating rules
Wisconsin	WCRB — independent bureau	State-specific classification manual and rating rules
Alabama · Alaska · Arizona · Arkansas · Colorado · Connecticut · District of Columbia · Florida · Georgia · Hawaii · Idaho · Illinois · Iowa · Kansas · Kentucky · Louisiana · Maine · Maryland · Mississippi · Missouri · Montana · Nebraska · Nevada · New Hampshire · New Mexico · Oklahoma · Oregon · Rhode Island · South Carolina · South Dakota · Tennessee · Texas · Utah · Vermont · Virginia · West Virginia (36 jurisdictions)	NCCI — national advisory organization	NCCI class codes and experience rating plan; carriers file their own rates from NCCI loss costs, so shop the same class across carriers. Texas exception: Texas uses NCCI loss costs, but it is the only state where workers' compensation is elective for most private employers. The Texas Department of Insurance states that private employers can choose to carry coverage but are not required to in most cases, that carrying it limits liability if an employee sues for damages except where gross negligence results in a fatality, and that employers contracting with government must provide coverage for each employee on the project. An employer that declines is a non-subscriber and must notify its workers and file DWC Form-005 with the Division of Workers' Compensation. Whether to subscribe is a separate decision from what coverage costs; confirm current requirements with TDI-DWC. Checked Aug 8, 2026

Source and status: the eleven independent bureaus are listed as members by the Workers' Compensation Insurance Organizations (WCIO), the association to which every independent bureau and NCCI belongs, and corroborated by the Indiana Compensation Rating Bureau, itself one of them; the four state funds and the Texas exception are verified against their own agency pages as cited above. Both bureau sources read August 8, 2026. Status: Verified. If your state is inside the 36-jurisdiction NCCI row, your practical next step is the same in all of them: ask the quoting agent which NCCI class code they have assigned you and confirm the description against the work you actually do, because the carrier files its own rate from NCCI's loss cost and the class is the input you can still influence. This table routes you to the organization that publishes the classification; it does not state whether your state requires you to carry coverage or at what employee count. That is a different question with a different answer in every state — take it to workers' comp requirements by state and to your state's workers' comp authority.

How to estimate your own range

Method v0.2 — a planning range assembled from the dated rows above, with every assumption visible. It is not a quote, a rate engine, or an actuarial estimate, and it cannot tell you whether coverage is sufficient for any requirement.

1. Pass the gate first. Your policy set and limits come from the requirement gate above, not from whatever is cheapest to estimate.
2. Pick the policy set — without double-counting. A business owner's policy already bundles general liability with property coverage, so never add a BOP row and a GL row together, and never add a BOP row to a commercial property row. If you're unsure whether your real exposure is general liability or professional advice, settle that before estimating — see general liability vs. professional liability.
3. Write one profile and keep it fixed. Use the same inputs you'll later put on every quote — the full list is in the quote checklist below.
4. Pull matching dated rows. For each selected policy, take the figures above whose population is least unlike your business. If no row matches your policy or trade, the honest output is not enough verified data — not a guess. This estimator never fills gaps with hidden multipliers.
5. Price workers' compensation from a rate, not a median, wherever a rate is published. If you employ anyone in Ohio, North Dakota, Washington, or Wyoming, the provider medians do not apply at all: use the state fund's published schedule. In Washington the arithmetic is above and you can reproduce it for your own class. Everywhere else, the classification and loss-cost source in where your state's rate basis is set is the place to confirm which class you are being quoted in, and the class is the number that moves your premium most.
6. Sum annual values, policy by policy. The formula is deliberately simple and fully visible:

Planning range (annual) = the sum of each selected policy's dated sample range, shown component by component. Monthly planning equivalent = annual total ÷ 12 — a labeled planning equivalent only, which excludes installment fees, taxes, deposits, and any charges the sources don't disclose.

7. Bracket it with a low, base, and high profile. These are defined profiles, not confidence intervals — each row states exactly which inputs change:

Scenario	Defined profile	What changes versus the base	Workers' comp anchor where the state publishes a rate
Low	Solo owner, low physical risk, one basic liability policy, modest revenue, no prior claims, standard $1M/$2M limits	Fewer policies; lower-risk class	No employees, so no comp premium. For reference, a Washington desk-work class runs about $396–$427 a year per full-time employee if you do hire
Base	Trade owner doing customer-site work; general liability plus a tools/property need; no employees	Operations class and asset exposure	Still no employees. A first hire in a Washington cleaning or lawn-care class would add roughly $2,870–$3,225 a year per full-time employee
High	Employer or higher-risk operation with payroll, vehicles or equipment, several policies, higher limits or endorsements	Payroll and headcount, policy count, class, assets, limits	A Washington remodeling, exterior-painting, or roofing class runs about $5,658–$11,123 a year per full-time employee — often the largest single line in the whole estimate

Worked example — one named trade, one named state

A cleaning business in Washington, rated in class 6602 (janitorial services and pest control), is the one profile on this page where every component is either published or honestly labeled. Every dollar figure below carries its source, and none of them is a quote.

Scenario and defined profile	General liability	Tools and equipment	Workers' compensation (WA class 6602)	Annual planning total
Low — Solo, no employees, general liability only, no prior claims	About $48/mo = about $576/yr — Insureon cleaning-industry GL median, national, page updated Feb 6, 2026	Not carried	$0 — no employees, so no fund premium	About $576
Base — Solo, no employees, general liability plus tools and equipment carried to customer sites	About $48/mo = about $576/yr, same source	About $42/mo = about $504/yr — Insureon's published inland-marine figure for cleaners, page updated May 21, 2026	$0 — still no employees	About $1,080
High — Same operations, one full-time employee added	About $48/mo = about $576/yr, same source — the GL row does not move on headcount alone, though a real quote may	About $42/mo = about $504/yr, same source	About $3,225/yr — WA class 6602 base rate $1.6799/hr × 1,920 hrs, experience factor 1.0000	About $4,305

The single driver moving this spread is the first hire, not the second policy. Adding one full-time employee in Washington's janitorial class adds about $3,225 a year — roughly three times the entire no-employee estimate, and more than five times what the tools policy costs. That is the shape of the cost curve in every state; only the number changes.

Limitations on this example, stated plainly. The general liability and tools figures are monthly medians multiplied by twelve — planning equivalents, not source-published annual premiums, and they exclude installment fees, taxes, and deposits the sources do not disclose. They describe Insureon's customers nationally, not Washington specifically, and not your business. The workers' compensation figure is the only genuinely state-scoped number in the table, and it is a base premium before any experience factor or Claim-Free Discount. Real quotes for the same profile can land well outside this range in either direction.

The workers' comp column in both tables above is Washington-specific and is there to show the scale of the driver, not to price your state. Dollar outputs for the other components of the three scenario profiles will be published only once Cover My Trade's own verified samples — with complete state, operations, revenue, payroll, limits, deductible, fee, and carrier fields — exist for each one. Until then, anchor each scenario to the matching dated rows above and treat the result strictly as a planning range. A planning range is not a quote: converting it into one is work for a licensed agent or broker in your state, who is also the person to ask whether the limits you have picked actually satisfy the document requiring them. Known limitations, stated plainly: state and class effects can move a real quote far from any national row; fees and installment structures are undisclosed in the source data; provider medians hide their own spread; and a package policy can make simple addition wrong. When the inputs are incomplete, the right answer is a wider range or "insufficient verified data," never a confident total.

Why two businesses or two quotes cost different amounts

Underwriters price a specific business, not an industry label — which is why two owners in the same trade, or two quotes for the same owner, can land far apart. Ranked by how often they decide the outcome:

Operations and class. Insurers rate the work itself. A house cleaner working alone in occupied homes, a crew pressure-washing storefronts, and a company that also does gutter work at height can sit in different classes with different rates, even though all three say "cleaning." Describe operations precisely; a loose label can put you in the wrong class in either direction. The Washington table above puts a number on this: the difference between the lightest and heaviest class is about 34-fold for the same coverage in the same state.

State and location. Rates, required coverages, medical and litigation costs, and workers' comp systems vary by state, and local factors such as foot traffic, crime, and property values matter within it. A national figure tells you little about a specific ZIP code.

The policy set itself. Adding a policy adds its premium; bundling into a BOP or multi-policy package may reduce the combined cost. The biggest quote-to-quote differences often turn out to be different policy sets, not different prices.

Revenue, payroll, and employees — three separate dials. Higher revenue generally signals more activity and exposure; payroll is the direct pricing basis for workers' comp; each additional employee raises interaction, injury, and error frequency. Insurers generally consider each separately, so report each accurately rather than letting one stand in for another.

Limits and deductible. A $2M/$4M policy typically costs more than $1M/$2M; a higher deductible may lower premium but shifts real cost onto you at claim time. Only choose a deductible your business could absorb tomorrow.

Property, equipment, and vehicles. Owned buildings, tools, inventory, and business vehicle use each bring their own rated exposure — and valuation basis (replacement cost versus actual cash value) changes property pricing. Two coverage gaps hide inside this driver and cost more than any rating factor: a personal auto policy excludes business use, and a homeowners policy excludes home-based business operations. Neither gap shows up in a premium comparison; both show up at a claim.

Claims history and years in business. Prior claims often raise rates; several clean years can lower them. A new business without a track record may pay more than an established one doing identical work.

Subcontractors. Payments to subs who cannot show their own coverage are commonly charged to you as payroll at audit — the single largest premium surprise in the trades, and the subject of its own section below.

Endorsements and contract requirements. Additional-insured status, waivers of subrogation, and primary-and-noncontributory wording exist because contracts demand them — each may carry a charge and changes what the policy does. These factors interact, and none moves price in one direction for every business, which is exactly why the same profile should be quoted more than once.

What your state actually changes

"It varies by state" is true and useless on its own. Here is what actually varies, and where to check each one:

• Rate and form approval. Your state's department of insurance approves the rates and forms a carrier may use there. The same carrier files different rates in different states for the same class, so an out-of-state figure tells you about that carrier's book, not your price.
• The classification and loss-cost source. Whether NCCI, an independent bureau, or a state fund sets your class decides which manual your quote is built from, and class codes are not interchangeable between systems. Find yours in where your state's rate basis is set.
• What you are required to carry, and from whom. Employee-count triggers, owner and officer election rules, and whether coverage must come from a state fund all differ. In Ohio, North Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming the private market is closed for the employments the state requires to be covered, so the policy set changes before the price does. Texas runs the opposite way: coverage is elective for most private employers there. Confirm with your state's workers' comp authority via workers' comp requirements by state.
• Who pays the premium. Washington collects about a quarter of workers' comp premium from workers by payroll deduction; North Dakota places the premium obligation on the employer by statute. Most states are silent because the question does not arise. It changes your real cost in the states where it does.
• Medical, wage, and litigation costs. These sit underneath every loss cost in the state and are the reason two identical businesses in different states pay differently for identical coverage.

What uninsured subcontractors cost you at audit

Your workers' compensation premium is an estimate. It is calculated at the start of the policy on projected payroll and reconciled afterward against what you actually paid. That reconciliation is the premium audit, and it is a condition of the policy, not an optional review.

The rule that surprises people is about subcontractors, and it is written into the rating manuals rather than left to each insurer's discretion. Under NCCI's Basic Manual rules and their independent-bureau equivalents — the North Carolina Rate Bureau publishes its Rule 2 text, which shows how the rule reads in one state — you must furnish satisfactory evidence that a subcontractor carried their own workers' compensation covering the work they did for you, normally a certificate of insurance for the sub's own policy covering the dates of the work. For each sub who cannot produce it, additional premium is charged on your policy as though the sub's workers were yours. Three details decide how expensive that gets:

• The classification is yours, not theirs. The class applied is the one that would have applied had those individuals been your own employees doing that work, so a laborer on a roof is charged at the roofing class on your policy. In some cases the charge lands on your governing classification rather than the sub's specialty class, which can be higher still — ask the auditor which class was applied and on what manual rule.
• Your experience modification applies. The experience modification, or mod, is a multiplier applied to your manual premium from roughly three years of your own loss history: below 1.00 it lowers premium, above 1.00 it raises it. Where a mod has been established for your business it is applied to the premium developed for the uninsured sub, so a poor loss record multiplies the charge.
• No payroll records means the contract price is the basis. If the uninsured sub cannot produce payroll records, a defined portion of what you paid them is treated as payroll under the manual's subcontractor tables, which is nearly always worse than the real wage figure would have been.

Handling varies by state and by bureau, and in the state-fund states the same exposure can be set by statute rather than by a rating manual — North Dakota, for example, makes a general contractor and a subcontractor liable for the premium and penalty owed for an employee of a subcontractor or independent contractor that fails to secure coverage, at up to 100% of the amount owed on a single project (N.D. Cent. Code § 65-04-26.2, read Aug 8, 2026). A parallel rule runs on the general liability side, where uninsured or under-insured subcontractors are commonly picked up under the appropriate payroll classification at the general liability audit as well.

What to collect, and when. Before a sub starts work, not at audit:

• A certificate showing the sub's own workers' compensation in force, with dates covering the period they work for you.
• A certificate showing the sub's own general liability, with the limits your own contract or client requires.
• A re-collected certificate at each renewal or expiry date during a long job. A certificate that lapses mid-project leaves the uncovered weeks chargeable to you.

What the audit itself will ask for. Gather these before the auditor calls, not after:

• Payroll journals and your state and federal quarterly payroll tax returns for the policy period
• A profit-and-loss statement and general ledger
• A record of all subcontractor payments
• Certificates of insurance for every subcontractor paid during the policy period
• Written job descriptions with time breakdowns, if any employee's classification is likely to be questioned

Keep the certificates filed by sub and by date; the audit asks for the period, not the latest copy. If your helpers are 1099 rather than incorporated subcontractors, the classification question is separate and consequential; see independent contractor insurance. Treating an employee as a 1099 contractor to avoid payroll obligations is a different matter entirely. It is unlawful, it harms the worker, and it surfaces at audit.

When the price is not the problem

Sometimes the obstacle is not the number. Each of these has a different next move:

• No standard market will write your trade or operation. High-hazard work — roofing, tree work, work at height, and hot work such as welding or torching are the recurring examples — or a recent severe loss can put you in the surplus lines market. An admitted carrier is licensed by your state and its rates and forms are filed and approved there; a surplus lines carrier is not, which buys flexibility on terms and price at a cost. Surplus lines carriers are not backed by your state's guaranty fund, so ask what happens if the carrier becomes insolvent, and confirm the carrier is on your state's approved surplus lines list — your state's department of insurance publishes it.
• The required limits exceed what you can afford. The limit is set by the governing document, not by the insurer. The move is to renegotiate the contract term, change the scope of the work, or decline the job, not to buy a smaller policy and hope the certificate is not read.
• Your loss history has changed the answer. After claims, expect a different market rather than simply a higher price in the same one. Ask your agent which markets still have appetite and what loss-control steps would restore eligibility, and get the timeline for when the claims fall out of the experience period.
• You are operating uninsured now. Going bare exposes you personally, and in many states carries penalties, stop-work orders, and liability for an injured worker's benefits directly. Start with your state's workers' comp authority to establish what you are required to carry, then buy forward. Coverage cannot be backdated to pick up something that has already happened.
• You were non-renewed mid-project. Non-renewal notice periods are set by state law and vary widely by state and by line — New York, for example, requires at least 60 and not more than 120 days' notice for most commercial lines, and if the notice is late but delivered before expiry, coverage continues on the same terms until 60 days after it is delivered (N.Y. Ins. Law § 3426, read Aug 8, 2026). Your state's department of insurance publishes the period that applies to you, and the notice date, not the expiry date, is what starts your clock. A non-renewal is generally not curable by paying: unlike a cancellation for non-payment, it reflects the carrier's appetite rather than anything outstanding on your account, so treat the notice as a deadline to replace coverage rather than to fix it. Contact a licensed agent or broker in your state immediately, tell the certificate holder before they discover the lapse themselves, and ask whether the outgoing carrier will extend cover to a project milestone. If a claim is already open, the carrier's claims line handles it regardless of what happens to the renewal.

Read the full price, not only the monthly number

The monthly figure is where cost confusion lives, because three different things wear the same label. The annual premium is the price of the policy for its term, and it is the clean unit for comparing quotes. A monthly installment is an actual payment amount, which may include installment fees, a deposit or down payment, and taxes — confirm what's inside it on the quote. A monthly planning equivalent is annual premium ÷ 12, used for budgeting only; it excludes fees and must be labeled as an equivalent.

When you compare quotes, put annual premiums side by side first, then read the payment page: deposit or down payment, taxes and fees, per-installment charges, and cancellation terms. Two more line items deserve attention. Workers' compensation is typically auditable — the premium you pay up front is based on estimated payroll, and the insurer can adjust it after an audit of actual payroll, up or down. And endorsements or optional coverages a contract requires may each carry a charge that never appears in a headline price. Some quotes offer different pricing for paying annually rather than monthly; whether a discount exists, and whether installment fees apply, is set by the actual quote and payment terms — verify it there rather than assuming it. This page publishes no specific fee amounts because Cover My Trade has not yet captured current quote and payment documents to verify them; that evidence gap is logged, not smoothed over.

What a contract's insurance wording is actually asking for

Contracts ask for four things that sound interchangeable and are not. Three of them change your policy and can carry a charge; one changes nothing about your coverage at all. The form numbers below are the standard ISO designations most carriers begin from. The schedule of forms on your own declarations page is what actually applies to you.

What the contract says	What it actually does	Certificate or endorsement?	What to ask in the quote
"Name us as additional insured"	Extends your liability policy to cover the other party for liability arising from your work	Endorsement. A name typed onto a certificate does nothing on its own. ISO CG 20 10 covers ongoing operations; CG 20 37 covers completed operations — many contracts require both, and asking for one gets you half of what was demanded	Which endorsement forms are being attached, do they include completed operations, is it blanket or scheduled, and what does each cost?
"We must be listed as certificate holder"	Identifies who receives evidence of the policy and, depending on wording, who gets notice of cancellation	Certificate only. Confers no coverage whatsoever	Who exactly is the holder, at what address, and what cancellation-notice wording does the contract require?
"Provide a waiver of subrogation"	Gives up your insurer's right to recover its payout from the other party after a loss	Endorsement. ISO CG 24 04 on general liability; workers' compensation uses its own waiver endorsement	Is the waiver blanket or job-specific, is it available on every line the contract names, and what does it cost?
"Your coverage must be primary and non-contributory"	Makes your policy pay first, without seeking contribution from the other party's insurer	Endorsement or policy wording. Not automatic on a standard form	Is it endorsed on, does it apply to every required line, and is it reflected in the quoted premium?

One thing sits outside all four. An indemnity clause is a promise you make in the contract to cover the other party's losses, and it can be written far broader than any insurance policy will respond to, leaving the difference payable by your business rather than your insurer. Insurance and indemnity are separate obligations, and several states limit by statute how broadly a contractor may be required to indemnify: California, for one, makes a construction-contract clause that indemnifies the other party against its own sole negligence or willful misconduct void and unenforceable as against public policy (Cal. Civ. Code § 2782(a), read Aug 8, 2026). The scope of these statutes differs in every state that has one, and some states have none, so this is a question for your own state's law rather than a general rule. If a contract's indemnity wording is broad or you cannot tell what it commits you to, that is a question for a construction or business attorney before you sign, not for an insurance quote.

How to get and compare useful quotes

The single highest-leverage move in insurance shopping is boring: give every provider identical, accurate inputs. Here is the set to prepare once and reuse — it's also the profile the estimator above runs on.

Quote-input checklist

• Legal entity type and years in business
• State(s) and ZIP code(s) where you operate
• Exact operations, described the same way every time — including any work at height, hazardous materials, or hands-on services
• Annual revenue (current and projected)
• Payroll and employee count
• Subcontractor use and annual subcontractor cost
• Claims and loss history
• Policy types you're requesting, with limits and deductible
• Property, tools, equipment, and inventory values; business vehicle use
• Endorsements the governing document requires — additional insured, waiver of subrogation, primary and noncontributory
• Certificate holder name and address, if a contract requests proof
• Desired effective date

Then run the apples-to-apples test: quotes are comparable only when the inputs, policy types, limits, and deductibles match. Compare the annual total, the forms and endorsements listed, the exclusions, taxes and fees, and payment terms — not the monthly number alone. A cheaper quote that quietly excludes your actual operations, omits a required endorsement, or carries a deductible you can't absorb isn't cheaper; it's a different, smaller product. Price tells you nothing about sufficiency: whether coverage satisfies a law, a contract, or a platform rule is a question for the governing document and, where it's genuinely unclear, the right professional for that question — each named at the decision it governs above. Cover My Trade doesn't make any of those calls for any specific business.

From accepted quote to bound policy. A quote is not coverage. Binding is the moment the insurer agrees to cover you, and it normally needs completed underwriting, any endorsements the governing document requires already requested rather than added later, and the payment or deposit the quote specifies. Ask for the effective date and time in writing, confirm which company is on the paper, and don't schedule work or promise a certificate for a date before the policy is actually bound — a certificate can only evidence a policy that already exists.

When to re-estimate or re-quote

A premium is priced against a snapshot of your business; when the snapshot changes, the estimate is stale. Re-run the estimator — and usually re-quote — when any of these change:

• You hire your first employee, or payroll changes materially
• You add services, change operations, or start work in a new state or location
• Revenue steps up meaningfully
• You buy vehicles, equipment, or property, or move premises
• A new contract, landlord, or platform requirement specifies coverage, limits, or endorsements
• You have a claim
• A subcontractor's certificate is about to expire while they are still working for you
• Your renewal is approaching — review the offer against fresh quotes on identical inputs

Renewal deserves its own habit: premiums can drift as your profile and the market change, and renewal is the natural moment to check whether your coverage still matches your operations. That said, premiums don't always rise, and switching doesn't always save — sometimes the incumbent's renewal is the best offer on matched terms. What matters is running the comparison on matched inputs each year.

Choosing a provider at a glance

This page doesn't rank providers, and the companies cited above appear as cost-data sources, not recommendations. Until Cover My Trade publishes a symmetric, first-party evidence set comparing named options, the useful shortlist is defined by documented characteristics — and every pick below is an option to quote, never a promise of coverage, eligibility, or price. Named category shopping belongs on the coverage hubs, starting with general liability insurance for a small business and, for payroll-driven cover, workers' compensation for a small business.

• Best for a solo, low-physical-risk consultant or online seller pricing one liability policy: a provider that quotes your exact operations online and documents clearly whether its figure is general liability or professional liability.
• Best for a hands-on trade working on customers' property: a provider that publishes trade-specific operations and exclusion documentation and offers tools-and-equipment coverage alongside general liability.
• Best for a first hire or growing payroll: confirm the state requirement first via the requirement gate and your state's workers' comp authority, then shortlist workers' comp programs that file in your state and publish their payroll-audit terms.
• Best for an employer in Ohio, North Dakota, Washington, or Wyoming: there is no provider choice for the required coverage — register with the state fund and shop separately for the stop-gap employer's liability endorsement your contracts will ask for.
• Best for a contract, landlord, or platform deadline: open the governing document first, then shortlist providers that document their certificate-issuance workflow and additional-insured endorsement handling.

Your situation	Shortlist move	Confirm in the quote
Solo consultant or online seller with a client contract requiring coverage	Quote general liability and E&O separately from providers that document the distinction; if the contract's required coverage type is ambiguous, resolve it from the contract itself first	Is the quoted figure GL or E&O? · Which professional-services or product exclusions apply? · Does the per-occurrence limit meet the contract? · What does the additional-insured endorsement cost?
Hands-on trade working solo on customers' property — cleaner, handyman, landscaper, painter, photographer	Quote identical operations wording at two or more providers that publish trade-specific documentation	Do the operations on the quote match your actual work? · How are subcontractors and 1099 helpers treated? · Is tools/equipment coverage included, and on what valuation? · How are certificates and endorsements handled?
Any trade hiring a first employee, governing requirement not yet confirmed	Official verification path first: your state's workers' comp authority (via the requirement gate); only then quote programs that file in your state	Which class codes and payroll basis apply? · What are the audit terms? · Is the owner or officer included or excluded? · What are the deposit and cancellation terms?
Employer with payroll in a state-fund state — a roofer, remodeler or cleaning crew in OH, ND, WA or WY	Register with the fund, look up your classification in its published schedule, then quote the stop-gap employer's liability endorsement separately on your general liability policy	Which classification did the fund assign, and does it match the work? · What employer's liability limits does your contract require? · Which carrier will attach the stop-gap endorsement, and at what cost? · How is the fund's proof of coverage issued?
Any trade facing a contract, landlord, venue or platform proof deadline	Read the governing document, gather certificate-holder details, then quote with the required endorsements listed up front	Which endorsements does the document require, and at what cost? · How long from payment to a bound policy? · How fast is certificate turnaround after binding? · What cancellation-notice wording applies?
Trade using 1099 subcontractors regularly	Collect every sub's certificates before any start date, and price on the assumption that uninsured subs will be charged to you at audit rather than on the assumption that they won't	How are uninsured subcontractors treated at audit? · What evidence satisfies the carrier, and for which dates? · Is there a separate general liability sub-payroll charge? · What is the audit basis when a sub cannot produce payroll records?
Elevated-hazard trade — roofing, tree work, work at height, hot work	Expect a limited or surplus lines market; ask which markets have appetite for your exact operation before you spend time on quotes	Is the carrier admitted or surplus lines? · Is it on your state's approved surplus lines list? · What is the guaranty-fund position if it becomes insolvent? · Which height, hot-work, or operation-specific exclusions are attached?
Shop with vehicles and towed or portable equipment	Price commercial auto and tools/inland marine as separate lines rather than assumed inclusions in anything else	Which autos are scheduled, and under which symbols? · Is hired-and-non-owned included or an add-on? · Are tools scheduled by serial number, and what is the per-item cap? · Replacement cost or actual cash value?
Contractor after a claim, or non-renewed mid-project	Ask your agent which markets still have appetite for your class and loss history before you re-quote on the open market, and tell the certificate holder before they find the lapse themselves	Which markets will still write this class with this loss record? · When do the claims fall out of the experience period? · Is the replacement carrier admitted or surplus lines, and what is the guaranty-fund position? · Will the outgoing carrier extend cover to a project milestone?
Residential remodeler working directly for homeowners	Confirm your licensing board's insurance and bond requirements before pricing anything, since the board can set the floor your contract then builds on	Does the operations wording match residential remodeling? · How is the "your work" exclusion handled on completed operations? · What limits does your license class require? · Are subcontracted trades covered or excluded?

Score every option on the same card: reuse the quote-input checklist as your per-provider scorecard — identical inputs to each, then compare annual total, forms, endorsements, exclusions, and fees on matched terms rather than re-inventing criteria per provider.

Business insurance cost FAQs

How much does a million-dollar general liability policy cost?

As one dated sample: general liability policies with a $1 million per-occurrence limit sold by Simply Business from July through December 2025 had a median of about $42 per month (the source publishes $44.44 alongside it, labeled inconsistently), per its published sold-policy data — a sample of one brokerage's customers, not an average or a guaranteed quote, with state, deductible, and business profiles not published per figure. Your own state, operations, revenue, payroll, limits, deductible, and claims history set your price; full assumptions and companion figures are in the policy-type table above.

Does forming an LLC make business insurance cheaper?

No discount attaches to the letters "LLC." Business structure is one underwriting input among many, and insurers generally price the operations, revenue, payroll, and risk behind the entity rather than the entity type itself — larger LLCs often pay more simply because they do more. Just as important: an LLC's liability shield is not a substitute for insurance, and forming one doesn't satisfy any contract, platform, or state coverage requirement.

Is it cheaper to pay for business insurance annually instead of monthly?

Sometimes. Some insurers offer different terms for paying the full annual premium up front, and monthly payment plans can carry installment fees or deposits that raise the true total. But payment terms, discounts, and fees are set by the actual quote — verify them there before assuming a saving. Compare offers on the annual premium plus all disclosed fees, not on the headline monthly number.

Can I get a certificate of insurance before my policy is paid for and bound?

No legitimate certificate exists without a bound policy behind it. A certificate is evidence summarizing coverage that already exists — it doesn't create, extend, or change coverage, and binding typically requires completed underwriting plus the payment or deposit your quote specifies. Anything offering "proof" without a valid policy is a document you should not use. For how certificates and endorsements actually work, see how a certificate of insurance works.

How fast can I get a certificate of insurance once I buy a policy?

Commonly the same day to a few business days after the policy binds — but the clock is set by the slowest dependency, not the fastest marketing claim. Those dependencies: complete and accurate quote inputs, underwriting review, payment or deposit, processing of any additional-insured, waiver-of-subrogation, or primary-and-noncontributory endorsements the contract requires, and getting correct certificate-holder details from the requesting party. A certificate remains evidence of a bound policy, never a substitute for one.

Your next step

Work the sequence, not the headline number. Identify the governing requirement and the policies and limits it points to; if you have payroll, find your classification and rate basis in your own state before you price anything; complete the quote-input checklist once, accurately; request quotes with identical inputs; then compare the annual premium, fees, forms, endorsements, and exclusions — not only the monthly figure. Where a legal, contract, or platform requirement is genuinely unclear, resolve it with the governing source or the right professional before you buy. The dated rows on this page will get you a realistic planning range; only a current quote against your own facts will get you a price.

Sources and last verified date

Last verified: August 8, 2026

Next review: September 8, 2026

• Rates for workers' compensation — Washington L&I — the published 2026 class-rate schedule behind the Washington worked examples.
• 2026 rates by business type and class code (PDF) — Washington L&I — the class-level base premiums quoted on this page.
• Calculating your premium — Ohio BWC — Ohio's state-fund premium mechanics.
• Premium information — North Dakota WSI — North Dakota's published fund pricing.
• 2026 classification manual — North Dakota WSI — the fund's class definitions and rates.
• Employer resources — Texas Department of Insurance, DWC — Texas's elective workers-comp rule in the rate-authority table.
• NCCI — the advisory organization whose loss costs underlie 36 jurisdictions in the rate-authority table.
• About WCIO — Workers' Compensation Insurance Organizations — the independent-bureau structure behind the non-NCCI states.
• Basic Manual Rule 2, Premium and Payroll — North Carolina Rate Bureau — the payroll-basis and subcontractor audit rule.
• Small business insurance cost — Insureon — provider-published customer medians by policy type.
• Business insurance cost — NEXT Insurance — provider-published customer price bands by trade.
• Business insurance cost — Simply Business — provider-published sold-policy estimates.
• General liability insurance cost — Progressive Commercial — a fourth provider's published figures.
• Workers' compensation insurance cost — Progressive Commercial — the comp-line price evidence from the same provider.