Washington Car Insurance Minimum Requirements

Washington requires at least 25/50/10 liability coverage. That is $25,000 for injuries to one person, $50,000 per accident and $10,000 for property damage.

Shorthand: 25/50/10
RCW 46.30.020 requires liability limits of at least the amounts in RCW 46.29.090, which has not changed since 1980. Property damage is $10,000, not the $25,000 many states use.
Bodily injury — per person: $25,000
Bodily injury — per accident: $50,000
Property damage: $10,000
Uninsured / underinsured motorist: Included by default; rejectable in writing
Every auto liability policy must include underinsured motorist coverage (which also covers uninsured, hit-and-run and phantom vehicles) with bodily injury limits matching the liability coverage (the same-amount rule does not extend to property damage), unless a named insured or spouse rejects all or part of it in writing (RCW 48.22.030(2)–(4)).
Personal injury protection (PIP): Must be offered; rejectable in writing
Insurers must offer personal injury protection with every new or renewed policy. A named insured may reject it in writing, and the rejection binds everyone who would have been covered (RCW 48.22.085).
PIP minimum limit: $10,000
Minimum PIP that must be offered: $10,000 medical and hospital, $2,000 funeral, $10,000 income continuation (up to $200 a week) and $5,000 loss of services (up to $200 a week) (RCW 48.22.095). Applies only if PIP is not rejected.

Property damage minimum — where Washington sits

Washington sets $10,000 — higher than 1 of the 51 jurisdictions on this site. The range runs from $5,000 to $50,000.

How Washington 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 $10,000 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 1 state on this site sets a lower floor. Whatever the repair or replacement actually costs above $10,000 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 Washington drivers actually spend. The average premium written per insured vehicle here was $373 in 2023, 36th 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 Washington 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 Washington?

Included by default; rejectable in writing.

Is PIP required in Washington?

Must be offered; rejectable in writing.

Is full coverage required in Washington?

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

Every statute cited for Washington

What changed

July 28, 2019
Motorcycles brought under the mandatory liability insurance law
2019 c 60 amended RCW 46.30.020 so that motorcycle riders must carry liability coverage and proof of insurance. Mopeds, motor-driven cycles and wheeled all-terrain vehicles remain outside the mandatory insurance chapter.
Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner

Why the rule looks like this

More on Washington

Checked against the primary sources above on September 22, 2026. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it — what we have corrected so far is public.