Kentucky Car Insurance Minimum Requirements

Kentucky requires at least 25/50/25 liability coverage. That is $25,000 for injuries to one person, $50,000 per accident and $25,000 for property damage.

Shorthand: 25/50/25
Kentucky also lets you satisfy the same requirement with a single combined limit of $60,000 for bodily injury and property damage together. Whichever you pick, the policy must also carry $10,000 of basic reparation benefits — Kentucky's version of PIP — unless the vehicle is a motorcycle.
Bodily injury — per person: $25,000
Bodily injury — per accident: $50,000
Property damage: $25,000
Raised from $10,000 by 2017 Ky. Acts ch. 157 (SB 114) for policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2018. Guides that still describe Kentucky as a 25/50/10 state are quoting the pre-2018 figure.
Uninsured / underinsured motorist: UM included unless rejected in writing; UIM on request
Uninsured motorist coverage must be written into every Kentucky auto policy at the bodily injury limits of KRS 304.39-110 — that is 25/50 — and you can go without it only by rejecting it in writing; the rejection binds every insured on the policy. Underinsured motorist coverage is different: the insurer only has to make it available on request, up to the limits you carry on your own vehicle.
Personal injury protection (PIP): Required unless you reject your tort limits
Kentucky calls PIP "basic reparation benefits" (BRB). Every owner or operator of a vehicle registered or driven here must continuously carry it, and it pays whoever is hurt regardless of fault. The one way out is the Kentucky No-Fault Rejection Form: file it with the Department of Insurance before a crash and you keep full tort rights, but you also give up the right to collect basic reparation benefits, except in the narrow cases KRS 304.39-060(9) and 304.39-140(5) preserve.
PIP minimum limit: $10,000
$10,000 per injured person per accident for all economic loss combined, however many people or insurers are involved. Inside that cap, work loss, replacement services and survivor's benefits are limited to $500 a week and funeral, cremation and burial charges to $5,000 — both figures raised by 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 149 (HB 627) for benefits issued or renewed on or after July 15, 2026, from $200 a week and $1,000. The same Act capped each medical charge at the workers' compensation fee schedule under KRS 342.035. The $10,000 overall ceiling itself did not move.

Property damage minimum — where Kentucky sits

Kentucky sets $25,000 — higher than 23 of the 51 jurisdictions on this site. The range runs from $5,000 to $50,000.

How Kentucky 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 $25,000 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 2 states on this site set a higher one. Whatever the repair or replacement actually costs above $25,000 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 Kentucky drivers actually spend. The average premium written per insured vehicle here was $358 in 2023, 39th 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 Kentucky 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 Kentucky?

UM included unless rejected in writing; UIM on request.

Is PIP required in Kentucky?

Required unless you reject your tort limits.

Is full coverage required in Kentucky?

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

Every statute cited for Kentucky

What changed

July 15, 2026
No-fault benefits got their first real increase since 1974 — $500 a week instead of $200
2026 Ky. Acts ch. 149 (HB 627), which became law without the Governor's signature on April 14, 2026 and took effect July 15, 2026, rewrote three sections of the Motor Vehicle Reparations Act. KRS 304.39-130 now caps work loss, survivor's economic loss, replacement services loss and survivor's replacement services loss at five hundred dollars ($500) a week, up from the two hundred dollars ($200) set in 1974. Inside the definition of medical expense in KRS 304.39-020, the allowance for funeral, cremation and burial charges rose from $1,000 to $5,000. The same Act capped each medical charge a reparation obligor pays at the workers' compensation fee schedule established under KRS 342.035 — with a floor at the schedule in effect on July 15, 2026 — gave providers 180 days to submit a charge, and barred them from balance billing the insured or reporting the balance to credit bureaus. What did not change is the figure most guides quote: the overall ceiling on basic reparation benefits is still $10,000 per person per accident. Section 7 of the Act limits all of this to basic and added reparation benefits issued or renewed on or after July 15, 2026, so a policy written before that date keeps the old $200 weekly limit until it renews.
2026 Ky. Acts ch. 149 (HB 627) — enrolled text, Legislative Research Commission
January 1, 2018
The property damage minimum went from $10,000 to $25,000 — Kentucky is 25/50/25, not 25/50/10
2017 Ky. Acts ch. 157 (SB 114), section 1, amended KRS 304.39-110(1)(a)1. to raise the required property damage liability limit from ten thousand dollars ($10,000) to twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000). Section 3 of the Act provided that the change applies to policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2018, so although the Act's effective date was June 29, 2017, the requirement reached drivers at renewal. The bodily injury limits (25/50) and the $60,000 single-limit alternative were untouched, and section 2 conformed the definition of proof of financial responsibility in KRS 187.290(11) by pointing it at the statute instead of restating the dollar figures. Comparison sites and older state guides that still list Kentucky as a 25/50/10 state are quoting a minimum that has been wrong for eight years.
2017 Ky. Acts ch. 157 (SB 114) — enrolled text, Legislative Research Commission

Why the rule looks like this

More on Kentucky

Checked against the primary sources above on September 27, 2026. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it — what we have corrected so far is public.