If you rely on your car like many Australians, you should consider insuring it with a comprehensive policy. Unlike CTP or basic insurance, comprehensive car insurance will cover repairs to your own car if it’s damaged in a car accident, by fire, flood, thieves or even a rogue shopping trolley.
This cover doesn’t come cheap, however – last financial year, car insurance prices rose 8%, almost four times the rate of inflation.
The good news is that of all the insurances you’ll begrudgingly purchase, car insurance policies have more in common than any other insurance. So you can shop around just on price more confidently than any other insurance.
With the cost of insurance continuing to increase, it’s important to make sure you’re only insured for what you need, and for the best price possible. And comprehensive car insurance is no exception.
We crunched the numbers to see how much Australians are paying for comprehensive car insurance across the country.
Comprehensive insurance is the most extensive cover. It pays for damage you may cause to other cars or property, and your own car for theft and damage caused by accidents, natural disasters and vandalism.
Text-only accessible version
The infographic shows a map of Australia with the average quote for comprehensive car insurance superimposed over each state and territory. Based on thousands of market representative quotes collected in July 2026.
The cheapest policies below don’t necessarily provide the best cover, so compare cover details with our car insurance comparison and read the product disclosure statement (PDS) before making the switch.
We combed through thousands of quotes for 34 policies, covering a variety of market-representative scenarios to find the cheapest car insurers on average in each state. The number of quotes per product ranging from up to 82 in ACT to over 2800 in Queensland. Quotes were collected in July 2026.
We used the same method to calculate price scores that we use in our comparison. Each quote is assigned a score, with the most expensive in each scenario scoring 0 and the least expensive scoring 100. The products listed above had the highest average scores for each state.
Please note: While these are the cheapest policies overall, insurance premiums vary according to many factors including sum insured, excess and risk profiles, so they may not necessarily be cheapest for your car.
Over-50s car insurer APIA heads the list for the cheapest car insurance policy on average in the ACT, followed by AAMI. The average quote for the policies range from $793 to $1370.
Apia Car Advantage – Price score for ACT: 97%
AAMI Comprehensive – Price score for ACT: 90%
GIO Comprehensive – Price score for ACT: 87%
Suncorp Comprehensive – Price score for ACT: 84%
Hume Bank Comprehensive – Price score for ACT: 83%
Note: Price is only part of the picture – visit our insurance comparison reviews to find the best insurers for both price and cover.
New South Wales
AAMI is the cheapest car insurance policy on average in NSW, followed by Bingle. The average quote for the policies range from $1230 to $1557.
AAMI Comprehensive – Price score for NSW: 89%
Bingle Comprehensive – Price score for NSW: 85%
Apia Car Advantage – Price score for NSW: 83%
GIO Comprehensive – Price score for NSW: 81%
Note: Price is only part of the picture – visit our insurance comparison reviews to find the best insurers for both price and cover.
Hume Bank, TIO and Westpac were the cheapest car insurance policies on average in NT (although Bank of Melbourne, BankSA and St.George sell identical policies in cover and price to Westpac).
The average quote for the policies with a price score over 80% ranged from $1510 to $1860.
Hume Bank Comprehensive – Price score for NT: 93%
TIO Comprehensive – Price score for NT: 93%
Westpac Comprehensive – Price score for NT: 93%. Identical policy (cover and price) available from Bank of Melbourne, BankSA and St.George.
GIO Comprehensive – Price score for NT: 92%
National Seniors Comprehensive – Price score for NT: 92%
Note: Price is only part of the picture – visit our insurance comparison reviews to find the best insurers for both price and cover.
Queensland
AAMI heads the list for the cheapest car insurance policy on average in Queensland.The average quote for the policies range from $1067 to $1381.
AAMI Comprehensive – Price score for QLD: 90%
Apia Car Advantage – Price score for QLD: 84%
Bingle Comprehensive – Price score for QLD: 82%
Suncorp Comprehensive – Price score for QLD: 82%
Note: Price is only part of the picture – visit our insurance comparison reviews to find the best insurers for both price and cover.
South Australia
AAMI is the cheapest car insurance policy on average in South Australia. The average quote for the policies ranged from $937 to $1405.
AAMI Comprehensive – Price score for SA: 94%
Apia Car Advantage – Price score for SA: 86%
Hume Bank Comprehensive – Price score for SA: 81%
Note: Price is only part of the picture – visit our insurance comparison reviews to find the best insurers for both price and cover.
Tasmania
AAMI is the cheapest car insurance policy on average in Tasmania. The average quote for the policies with a price score over 80% ranged from $860 to $1260.
AAMI Comprehensive – Price score for TAS: 88%
Apia Car Advantage – Price score for TAS: 87%
Hume Bank Comprehensive – Price score for TAS: 87%
Westpac Comprehensive – Price score for TAS: 87%. Identical policy (cover and price) available from Bank of Melbourne, BankSA and St.George.
Great Southern Bank Comprehensive – Price score for TAS: 83%
Note: Price is only part of the picture – visit our insurance comparison reviews to find the best insurers for both price and cover.
Over 50s insurer APIA is the cheapest car insurance policy on average in Victoria, followed by AAMI. The average quote for the policies range from $1118 to $1632.
Apia Car Advantage – Price score for VIC: 93%
AAMI Comprehensive – Price score for VIC: 91%
Bingle Comprehensive – Price score for VIC: 81%
Note: Price is only part of the picture – visit our insurance comparison reviews to find the best insurers for both price and cover.
Western Australia
AAMI is the cheapest car insurance policy on average in Western Australia. The average quote for the policies range from $763 to $1277.
AAMI Comprehensive – Price score for WA: 97%
Apia Car Advantage – Price score for WA: 93%
RAC Comprehensive – Price score for WA: 83%
Note: Price is only part of the picture – visit our insurance comparison reviews to find the best insurers for both price and cover.
How to choose the right car insurance policy
It’s good to know which policy is the cheapest, but if you want real value for money, you also need to look at what’s covered by each policy. To do this yourself, you’ll need to go through the policy documents for each product and compare the points of coverage that are important to you. Or, you could simply use our Cover score.
We look at how insurers cover 74 different things, and allocate points for everything, from whether the policy allows your choice of repairer and how much they provide for legal liability to whether they’ll pay to replace child seats or for a hire car after an at-fault accident.
We then convert this to a percentage so you can easily compare the level of cover between one policy and another.
Which car insurance policies are available in your state?
Most car insurers are big national brands like QBE and Suncorp and they offer the same policies in each state. However, there are a few smaller insurers that are state-specific, and others that limit where they sell their policies.
Insurance company TIO, and the motor associations RAA, RAC, RACQ, RACT and RACV only sell motor insurance in their own states. These are smaller organisations that tend to rate well for customer service in our customer satisfaction surveys.
State-based insurers
RAA: South Australia
RAC: Western Australia
RACQ: Queensland
RACT: Tasmania
RACV: Victoria
TIO: Northern Territory
Some other insurers sell to many states, but not nation-wide. For example:
GIO doesn’t insure cars in Queensland, South Australia or Tasmania
Jane Bardell is a Content producer in the Insurance and utilities team. She writes about home, car, pet and health insurance.
Previously at CHOICE, she checked facts, figures and statistics as a Verifier with the Editorial and investigations team.
Jane has a Bachelor of Science from the University of New South Wales. LinkedIn
Jane Bardell is a Content producer in the Insurance and utilities team. She writes about home, car, pet and health insurance.
Previously at CHOICE, she checked facts, figures and statistics as a Verifier with the Editorial and investigations team.
Jane has a Bachelor of Science from the University of New South Wales. LinkedIn
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