Idaho Car Insurance Minimum Requirements
Idaho requires at least 25/50/15 liability coverage. That is $25,000 for injuries to one person, $50,000 per accident and $15,000 for property damage.
- Shorthand
- 25/50/15
Idaho hides its minimum limits in a definition. They are not in the insurance chapter but in the definition of "proof of financial responsibility" in § 49-117, and the rest of the code points back to that one number set. The same three figures also fix the floor for uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. A vehicle owner who would rather not buy a policy may post an indemnity bond with the director of the Department of Insurance instead, guaranteeing $50,000 per accident of which $15,000 is for property damage, per vehicle, up to $120,000 for five or more vehicles.
- Bodily injury — per person
- $25,000
- Bodily injury — per accident
- $50,000
- Property damage
- $15,000
Idaho has not raised this figure. Section 49-117 has not been amended since 2022, and no bill in the 2023 through 2026 sessions touched it. $15,000 is now among the lowest property damage minimums in the country and will not cover an average new vehicle.
- Uninsured / underinsured motorist
- Both included unless rejected in writing
No motor vehicle liability policy may be delivered in Idaho without uninsured motorist and underinsured motorist bodily injury coverage in the § 49-117 limits, and each falls away only if the named insured rejects it in writing or in a signed electronic record. One rejection binds every other insured on the policy and carries forward to renewals and replacements from the same insurer or an affiliate. Before a new policy or its first renewal, the insurer must hand you a standard disclosure form approved by the director explaining both coverages and the two kinds of underinsured coverage sold in Idaho — "excess", which stacks on top of the at-fault driver's limits, and "difference in limits" or "offset", which only fills the gap up to your own limit. Which one you have changes what a claim is worth, so read the declarations page.
- Personal injury protection (PIP)
- Not required
Idaho is a pure tort state with no personal injury protection requirement. Section 49-1229 requires liability coverage and nothing else, and the Department of Insurance lists only bodily injury liability, property damage liability and the UM/UIM offer as required. Medical payments coverage is sold as an option and is not part of the state minimum.
Idaho sets $15,000 — higher than 11 of the 51 jurisdictions on this site. The range runs from $5,000 to $50,000.
How Idaho 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. $25,000 is the most the policy pays for any single person's injuries. $50,000 is the ceiling for everyone hurt in the same crash put together. Injure one person badly and $25,000 is all your insurer owes, however large the bill. Injure three people and they divide $50,000 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 $15,000 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 11 states on this site set a lower floor. Whatever the repair or replacement actually costs above $15,000 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 Idaho drivers actually spend. The average premium written per insured vehicle here was $324 in 2023, 47th 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 Idaho 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 Idaho?
Both included unless rejected in writing.
Is PIP required in Idaho?
Not required.
Is full coverage required in Idaho?
No. Collision and comprehensive — the two coverages people usually mean by "full coverage" — are not part of what Idaho law requires. A lender or leasing company will usually require them until the car is paid off.
Why the rule looks like this
- What Changed in 2026Liability minimums doubled in Hawaii, two states dropped pure comparative fault, New Hampshire stopped inspecting cars, and three crash reporting thresholds moved — a dated account of the 2026 changes, and the ones already signed for 2027 and beyond.
- Fifteen Thousand Dollars, or Two Hundred and Fifty ThousandThe legal minimum for injuring one person in a crash ranges from $15,000 in Pennsylvania to $250,000 in Michigan — and in Florida there is no bodily injury requirement at all.
More on Idaho
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.