Rhode Island Car Insurance Minimum Requirements
Rhode Island 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
Or a $75,000 combined single limit, which § 31-47-2(13)(i)(A) allows in place of the split limits. The figures are not in a chapter called "financial responsibility" — they sit inside the definition of an "owner's policy of liability insurance" in the Motor Vehicle Reparations Act. Sources that cite § 31-31-7 for Rhode Island's limits are citing a section repealed in 2021; the General Assembly moved every cross-reference to § 31-47-2(13)(i)(A) at the same time. Neither the 2025 nor the 2026 session changed the amounts.
- Bodily injury — per person
- $25,000
- Bodily injury — per accident
- $50,000
- Property damage
- $25,000
- Uninsured / underinsured motorist
- Required — equal to your bodily injury limits unless you sign for less
Section 27-7-2.1 makes uninsured and underinsured motorist bodily injury coverage part of every Rhode Island auto policy, at limits equal to the liability limits you bought. You may select lower limits in writing, but not below 25/50 — unless you are buying nothing but the compulsory minimum, in which case the limit may be cut to zero after you sign an advisory notice approved by the director of business regulation. The property damage side is different: you may reject uninsured motorist property damage in writing, it is not required at all if you carry collision, and when you do buy it there is a $200 deductible per claim. Beginning April 1, 2027, P.L. 2026, ch. 388 and 389 also require insurers to offer underinsured motorist property damage coverage; buying it stays optional.
- Personal injury protection (PIP)
- Not required — but medical payments coverage is included unless you reject it
Rhode Island has no personal injury protection benefit. What § 27-7-2.5 requires instead is that every auto policy issued in the state include medical payments coverage of at least $2,500 per person and $5,000 per accident, paid regardless of fault — and the named insured has the right to reject that coverage in writing. Once rejected in writing, an insurer need not include it in later renewals unless you ask for it back in writing.
Rhode Island sets $25,000 — higher than 23 of the 51 jurisdictions on this site. The range runs from $5,000 to $50,000.
How Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island drivers actually spend. The average premium written per insured vehicle here was $540 in 2023, 6th 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 Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island?
Required — equal to your bodily injury limits unless you sign for less.
Is PIP required in Rhode Island?
Not required — but medical payments coverage is included unless you reject it.
Is full coverage required in Rhode Island?
No. Collision and comprehensive — the two coverages people usually mean by "full coverage" — are not part of what Rhode Island law requires. A lender or leasing company will usually require them until the car is paid off.
Every statute cited for Rhode Island
What changed
April 1, 2027
Insurers must offer underinsured motorist property damage coverage (enacted, not yet in force)
P.L. 2026, ch. 388 (H 7520 Substitute A) and ch. 389 (S 2633 Substitute A), both enacted June 19, 2026, add a new subsection (c) to R.I. Gen. Laws § 27-7-2.1 requiring every insurer to offer underinsured motorist property damage coverage for private passenger automobiles, and letting it be offered together with uninsured motorist property damage coverage. Buying it stays optional — no insured is obligated to purchase it, and an insured without collision coverage may reject it in writing. The act also splits the old definition of "uninsured motorist" into separate definitions of underinsured motorist bodily injury and underinsured motorist property damage. It takes effect on April 1, 2027; nothing about the 25/50/25 liability minimums changes.
Rhode Island General Assembly — Public Law 2026, ch. 388July 14, 2021
The old financial responsibility chapter was repealed and the 25/50/25 limits moved
P.L. 2021, ch. 398 (S 0401) and ch. 399 repealed R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 31-31-4 through 31-31-21 — the security-after-accident regime that let the DMV demand a cash or bond deposit from drivers involved in a crash — along with §§ 31-47-8, 31-47-8.1 and 31-47-10. Section 31-31-7 had been the section everyone cited for Rhode Island's minimum liability limits, so the same act rewrote the cross-references in § 27-7-2.1 (uninsured motorist coverage) and § 31-34-4 (rental vehicles) to point instead at § 31-47-2(13)(i)(A) of the Motor Vehicle Reparations Act. The dollar figures did not change — 25/50/25, or $75,000 combined single limit — but any guide still citing § 31-31-7 is citing a repealed section, and the enforcement machinery it described is gone.
Rhode Island General Assembly — Public Law 2021, ch. 398
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 Rhode Island
Checked against the primary sources above on September 29, 2026. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it — what we have corrected so far is public.