Auto Liability Limits Calculator
Your limits and what you could lose
Your result will appear here
Fill in the fields and this updates as you type.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- United States — insurance is regulated state by state, so the rules behind a premium are your state's, not a federal schedule
- Rules and time period
- Premiums, limits and deductibles are the figures you enter. Health plan cost-sharing caps, Medicare amounts and state filings all reset annually.
- Scope and limitations
- Educational estimate only. Rates, required coverages and available discounts differ by where you live. Your premium is set by an insurer's own underwriting — driving record, claims history, credit-based insurance score where permitted, the property itself — and only a quote is binding. What a policy pays depends on its exclusions and limits, not on this estimate.
- Source links checked
- Sep 19, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
Primary sources
How to use
- 01
Enter your bodily injury limit per accident and your property damage limit, both from your declarations page rather than from memory. Liability limits are usually written as three numbers — per person, per accident, and property damage — and it is the per-accident figure that governs a crash that injures more than one person, which is the scenario that actually exhausts a policy.
- 02
Enter your umbrella policy limit if you carry one, or leave it at zero. An umbrella sits above the auto and homeowners policies and pays after their limits are exhausted, so the page adds it to your auto limit to give the total liability cover standing between a judgment and your own money.
- 03
Enter your net worth and your annual income. The page treats what is at risk as your net worth plus ten years of income, because future wages are garnishable in most states — a judgment against you is not settled out of today's balance sheet alone, and this is the part of the exposure people routinely leave out.
- 04
Enter what you pay now and, under Advanced options, what a higher limit was quoted at. That gives the page the two figures it needs to price the decision properly: not what higher limits cost, but what they cost per additional $100,000 of protection, which is the only way to compare them against an umbrella.
- 05
Read the exposure figure, then the cost per $100,000. The first says how much of what you own sits beyond where the policy stops; the second says what closing that distance actually costs. Liability cover is unusual in that the last dollars of it are almost always the cheapest, because severe claims are rare.
Formula
Your total liability cover = the bodily injury limit per accident + the umbrella limit, since an umbrella pays after the underlying policy is exhausted. The amount at risk = your net worth + ten times your annual income, on the reasoning that a judgment above your limits can reach both what you have and what you will earn, because wage garnishment is available to judgment creditors in most states. The exposure = max(0, the amount at risk − the total liability cover), which is what sits past the point the policy stops paying. On the pricing side, the additional premium = the quoted premium at the higher limit − your current premium, and the additional cover = the higher bodily injury limit − your current one. The cost per $100,000 of cover = the additional premium ÷ the additional cover × 100,000, which is the figure that lets you compare raising the auto limit against buying an umbrella on the same basis. Property damage limits are reported but not added into the exposure, because the bodily injury limit is what a severe claim exhausts.
Example
A driver carries a $300,000 bodily injury limit per accident and $100,000 of property damage, with no umbrella, and has a net worth of $350,000 and an income of $90,000. The page puts $1,250,000 at risk — $350,000 of assets plus ten years of wages — against $300,000 of liability cover, leaving $950,000 exposed to a judgment. Their insurer quotes $1,680 a year for a $500,000 limit against the $1,500 they pay now: $180 more, which works out at about $90 for each extra $100,000 of protection. Adding a $1,000,000 umbrella instead takes total cover to $1,300,000, past the $1,250,000 at risk, and the page reports the gap closed. The contrast with a bare-bones policy is stark: run the same driver at a $50,000 per-accident limit and the exposure rises to $1,200,000, while the cost of moving up to $500,000 works out at about $40 per $100,000 — cheaper per dollar precisely because the layers being added are the ones claims rarely reach.
Definitions
- Bodily injury limit, per accident
- The most the policy pays for all injuries in a single crash, regardless of how many people were hurt. The figure a severe claim actually exhausts.
- Property damage limit
- The most the policy pays for damage to other people's property — their car, a fence, a storefront. Separate from the bodily injury limits.
- Umbrella policy limit
- Extra liability cover sitting above your auto and homeowners policies, paying once their limits are exhausted. Sold in million-dollar layers.
- Net worth
- What you own less what you owe. One half of the exposure calculation; the other half is future income.
- Assets and wages at risk
- Net worth plus ten years of income, on the basis that a judgment above your limits can reach future earnings through wage garnishment in most states.
- Exposed beyond your limits
- The amount at risk that sits past your total liability cover. The number the page exists to show, and the one that shrinks when limits rise.
- Cost per $100k of cover
- The extra premium for higher limits divided by the extra protection it buys. The only basis on which raising a limit and adding an umbrella can be compared fairly.
- Uninsured and underinsured motorist
- Separate coverage paying when the at-fault driver has no insurance or not enough. Not part of this calculation, but worth checking for the same reason.
Frequently asked questions
How much auto liability coverage do I need?
Enough to cover what a judgment could take, which is more than most people carry. On the defaults — a $300,000 per-accident bodily injury limit, a $350,000 net worth and $90,000 of income — the page puts $1,250,000 at risk and reports $950,000 of it sitting beyond where the policy stops. The exposure figure counts ten years of future wages alongside current assets, because in most states a judgment creditor can garnish earnings, so having little saved is not the same as having little to lose.
Is my state's minimum liability coverage enough?
Almost certainly not, and the reason is arithmetic rather than opinion. State minimums were set decades ago in most states and have not tracked medical costs; a serious injury can exhaust a low per-accident limit before anyone discusses a lawsuit, and everything above it is yours. Run the page with a $50,000 per-accident limit and the exposure rises from $950,000 to $1,200,000. Every state sets its own minimum and they differ considerably, so check your own Department of Insurance for the figures that apply to you rather than assuming a number you have seen quoted.
What does raising my limits actually cost?
Far less per dollar of protection than the first layer did, and that is the point the page is built to show. On the defaults, moving the bodily injury limit from $300,000 to $500,000 costs $180 more a year — about $90 for each additional $100,000 of cover. Liability premiums are priced on expected claims, and severe claims are rare, so the upper layers are cheap. The same $180 buys far more protection than $180 of anything else on an auto policy.
Should I buy an umbrella policy instead of raising my auto limits?
Usually both, in that order: raise the underlying limits to whatever the umbrella insurer requires, then add the umbrella on top. An umbrella extends over your auto and homeowners liability at once and is sold in million-dollar layers, so it is generally the cheapest way to buy the large limits that matter in a catastrophic claim. On the defaults, adding a $1,000,000 umbrella takes total liability cover to $1,300,000 against $1,250,000 at risk, and the page reports the exposure closed. Get a quote rather than assume a price; it depends on your driving record, household drivers and property.
What does 100/300/100 mean?
Three limits in thousands of dollars: $100,000 for bodily injury to any one person, $300,000 for all bodily injury in a single accident, and $100,000 for property damage. The per-accident figure is the one that matters most in a serious crash, because a collision injuring three people runs against it rather than against three separate per-person limits. This page asks for the per-accident figure and the property damage figure for exactly that reason.
Why does the page count ten years of income as at risk?
Because a judgment that exceeds your policy limits does not stop at your current assets. Most states allow wage garnishment to satisfy a civil judgment, and a large judgment can follow you for years, so an exposure calculation based only on today's net worth understates it badly for anyone young, employed and not yet wealthy. Ten years is a conservative and commonly used span rather than a legal rule; the protections and garnishment limits vary by state, and some assets such as a primary residence or a retirement account may be shielded depending on where you live.