Rule Hub · DrivingUS requirements, state by state

Hawaii Car Insurance Minimum Requirements

The Hawaii minimum: 40/80/20 since January 1, 2026 — double the old 20/40/10. That is $40,000 for injuries to one person, $80,000 per accident and $20,000 for property damage.

Shorthand
40/80/20

Hawaii doubled every liability minimum on January 1, 2026. Anything that still says 20/40/10 is quoting figures the legislature described as having gone unamended for nearly twenty-five years, and which expired at the end of 2025. The three numbers are also only the liability half of a Hawaii policy: $10,000 of personal injury protection benefits is mandatory on top of them.

Bodily injury — per person
$40,000

Raised from $20,000 by Act 138, Session Laws of Hawaii 2024 (S.B. 2342), part II of which took effect January 1, 2026.

Bodily injury — per accident
$80,000

Raised from $40,000 on January 1, 2026.

Property damage
$20,000

Raised from $10,000 on January 1, 2026. Tort liability for property damage was never abolished in Hawaii, so this is the coverage that answers an ordinary fender-bender claim.

Uninsured / underinsured motorist
Both required unless rejected in writing

Uninsured motorist coverage must be written at the statutory minimum limits — $40,000 per person and $80,000 per accident (§ 431:10C-301(b)(3)) — unless a named insured rejects it in writing. Matching it to a higher policy limit is an option the insurer must offer, not the default. Underinsured motorist coverage must be offered the same way: the offer has to be conspicuous, show its own premium next to it, and carry a signature line for rejection. Stacking is prohibited unless the insured bought the stacking option the insurer is required to offer.

Personal injury protection (PIP)
Required on every vehicle

Hawaii is a no-fault state and calls the benefit "personal injury protection benefits", not PIP-with-a-deductible. The insurer pays the provider directly, without regard to fault, for treatment that is appropriate, reasonable and substantially comparable to prepaid health care plan standards — medical, hospital, surgical, dental, optometric, chiropractic, naturopathic, ambulance, prosthetics, x-ray, psychiatric, physical and occupational therapy, and prescribed massage therapy. It reaches pedestrians, bicyclists, moped riders and electric foot scooter riders as well as the people in the car. Motorcycle and motor scooter operators and passengers are excluded unless the policy expressly covers them.

PIP minimum limit
$10,000

An aggregate limit of $10,000 per person. Unlike the liability limits, this figure was not touched by the 2026 increase — it has stood since Act 251 of 1997 created it. Insurers may sell more.

Property damage minimum — where Hawaii sits
Hawaii sets $20,000 — higher than 17 of the 51 jurisdictions on this site. The range runs from $5,000 to $50,000.$5,000$50,000

Hawaii sets $20,000 — higher than 17 of the 51 jurisdictions on this site. The range runs from $5,000 to $50,000.

How Hawaii compares with every other state

What these numbers buy you

Those first two numbers are two different walls, and drivers regularly mistake them for one. $40,000 is the most the policy pays for any single person's injuries. $80,000 is the ceiling for everyone hurt in the same crash put together. Injure one person badly and $40,000 is all your insurer owes, however large the bill. Injure three people and they divide $80,000 between them. Anything a court awards above those lines is yours to pay, and it does not go away when the policy runs out.

The $20,000 of property damage cover is the figure drivers look at last and need first. It pays for what you hit — the other car, a guardrail, a storefront — and nothing else. Only 17 states on this site set a lower floor. Whatever the repair or replacement actually costs above $20,000 is not covered by this policy, and the difference is a debt in your name rather than your insurer's.

None of this is what Hawaii drivers actually spend. The average premium written per insured vehicle here was $417 in 2023, 28th highest of 51 states and DC — and that average covers policies far above the legal floor, not the bare minimum on this page.

Carrying the minimum is legal, not safe. It is the line below which Hawaii will not let you drive — and the penalties for falling under it are on the driving uninsured page.

Common questions

Is uninsured motorist coverage required in Hawaii?

Both required unless rejected in writing.

Is PIP required in Hawaii?

Required on every vehicle.

Is full coverage required in Hawaii?

No. Collision and comprehensive — the two coverages people usually mean by "full coverage" — are not part of what Hawaii law requires. A lender or leasing company will usually require them until the car is paid off.

Every statute cited for Hawaii

What changed

Why the rule looks like this

More on Hawaii

Checked against the primary sources above on September 28, 2026. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it — what we have corrected so far is public.