Comprehensive vs. Collision Insurance: What Each Covers
Compare comprehensive vs collision insurance with everyday examples, see what each costs in our model, and learn how deductibles work and when to drop one.
Updated November 5, 2026. Figures from our model and the sources linked in the text.
Collision insurance pays to repair or replace your car after it hits another vehicle or an object, or rolls over, no matter who is at fault. Comprehensive covers most other damage to your car, including theft, vandalism, fire, flood, hail, falling objects, animal strikes and broken glass. No state requires either one, but lenders and leasing companies usually do, and both come with a deductible.
What is collision insurance?
Collision covers damage to your own car when it crashes into something or something crashes into it. California's Department of Insurance consumer guide (revised 2025) defines it as coverage for damage from contact with another vehicle or an object. Everyday examples:
- You rear-end another car, or another car hits you
- You back into a pole, fence, mailbox or garage door
- You slide off the road into a guardrail or a tree
- Your car rolls over
- A driver hits your parked car and leaves without stopping
If another driver caused the crash, their property damage liability should pay for your repairs. You can still use your own collision coverage to get the car fixed sooner. You pay your deductible, and your insurer may try to recover the money, including your deductible, from the other driver's insurer.
Collision does not pay for the other driver's car, which is what your liability coverage is for, and it does not pay for your injuries. Most policies also put hitting an animal under comprehensive rather than collision, though wording varies: the California guide, for one, lists a deer among its collision examples. Liability limits are a separate decision; see how much car insurance you need.
What is comprehensive insurance?
Comprehensive, sometimes called "other than collision" coverage, pays for damage to your car from events other than a crash. Common examples:
- Theft of the car, plus damage from a break-in, such as a smashed window
- Vandalism, such as keyed paint or slashed tires
- Fire
- Floods and other water damage
- Hail, windstorms and other weather
- Falling objects, such as tree limbs
- Hitting a deer or another animal
- A cracked or broken windshield or other glass
Comprehensive does not cover belongings stolen from inside the car; homeowners or renters insurance usually handles those. It also does not cover crash damage, wear and tear, or mechanical breakdowns.
Comprehensive vs. collision: which one covers what?
| What happened | Collision | Comprehensive |
|---|---|---|
| You rear-end another car | Covered | Not covered |
| You back into a pole | Covered | Not covered |
| Your car rolls over | Covered | Not covered |
| A driver hits your parked car and leaves | Covered | Not covered |
| You hit a deer | Usually not covered | Usually covered |
| A tree branch falls on your car | Not covered | Covered |
| Hail dents the roof | Not covered | Covered |
| Your car is stolen | Not covered | Covered |
| Your car is caught in a flood | Not covered | Covered |
| A rock cracks your windshield | Not covered | Covered |
Both coverages pay based on your car's market value, minus your deductible, as the California guide explains. If repairs would cost more than the car is worth, the insurer usually declares it a total loss and pays the car's value instead.
How much do comprehensive and collision cost?
Collision usually costs more than comprehensive, because crash repairs tend to be bigger bills. According to ISO figures published by the Insurance Information Institute (2024 data), the average collision claim in 2024 was $5,489, versus $2,306 for comprehensive. Claims were about equally common: 4.16 collision and 3.95 comprehensive claims per 100 insured cars a year (the comprehensive figures leave out wind and water losses).
In our model, the sample driver is a 35-year-old with a clean record and good credit, driving a 3-to-5-year-old mid-size sedan, at typical U.S. prices. Collision and comprehensive make up about $141 of that driver's $225 monthly estimate.
| Source | Collision | Comprehensive |
|---|---|---|
| Our model: sample driver, $500 deductibles | About $99 a month ($1,183 a year) | About $42 a month ($507 a year) |
| Insurance.com national averages (2026): 40-year-old driver, $500 deductibles | $1,075 a year | $464 a year |
| NAIC national averages (2024 data, published 2026): every insured car that carried the coverage | $516.39 a year | $283.15 a year |
The NAIC figures are lower partly because they are 2024 averages of what people actually paid, across every kind of car, deductible and driver, while the first two rows each price a single sample driver using 2026 figures.
What makes them cost more or less
- Your car. In our model, an electric vehicle instead of a mid-size sedan raises the sample driver's estimate by about $507 a year, all of it in collision and comprehensive. A sports car adds about $966 a year, mostly in those two coverages.
- Your car's age. As the car loses value, these coverages cost less. In our model, the sample driver's full-coverage estimate falls from $2,700 for a 3-to-5-year-old car to $2,058 for a 10-to-14-year-old one.
- Your deductible. A higher deductible lowers the cost of both; see the table below.
- Where you live and park. Theft, vandalism, hail and repair costs vary from place to place.
Do I need comprehensive and collision?
About 80% of insured drivers buy comprehensive and 77% buy collision, according to a Triple-I analysis of 2023 NAIC data. Whether you need them depends on your loan, your car's value and your savings.
If you have a loan or lease
Your lender or leasing company will usually require both until the loan is paid off or the lease ends. The California guide notes that if you do not buy the coverage, the lender may buy it for you and charge you.
If your car is paid off
Both become optional, and they make sense if you could not afford to repair or replace the car yourself. A common rule of thumb is to reconsider collision once it costs more each year than about 10% of the car's value. In our model, collision on a 10-to-14-year-old car costs the sample driver about $734 a year. Our guide to full coverage vs. liability works through the math.
Comprehensive only for a stored or rarely driven car
If a car sits in storage for months or you rarely drive it, you can usually keep comprehensive and drop collision. Theft, fire, flood and falling objects stay covered, and you stop paying for crash coverage you are unlikely to use. In our model, liability plus comprehensive comes to about $126 a month for the sample driver, versus $225 with collision too.
Before you remove liability from a car that stays registered, check your state's rules. In some states, including Florida and North Carolina, coverage must stay in force for the whole registration period.
How do deductibles work for comprehensive and collision?
A deductible is the part of each claim you pay before insurance pays the rest. If hail causes $3,000 of damage and your comprehensive deductible is $500, the insurer pays $2,500. You can often choose a different deductible for each coverage, such as a lower one for comprehensive and a higher one for collision.
Higher deductibles lower the premium. Here is how our model prices deductibles on both coverages for the sample driver:
| Deductible on comprehensive and collision | Estimated cost per year | Change vs. $500 |
|---|---|---|
| $250 | $2,986 | $286 more |
| $500 | $2,700 | Starting point |
| $1,000 | $2,409 | $291 less |
| $2,000 | $2,095 | $605 less |
A common rule of thumb is to pick a deductible you could pay tomorrow without borrowing. Our guide on how to choose a car insurance deductible covers the tradeoffs, and how to lower car insurance lists other ways to bring the cost down.
Common questions
Does comprehensive cover hitting a deer?
Usually, yes. Most policies treat hitting an animal as a comprehensive claim, but wording varies, so check yours. If you swerve to miss the animal and hit a tree or another car instead, that is usually a collision claim.
Is collision or comprehensive more expensive?
Collision usually costs more. In our model it is about $99 a month for the sample driver, versus about $42 for comprehensive, and Insurance.com's 2026 national averages show a similar gap: $1,075 versus $464 a year.
Can I have comprehensive without collision?
Usually, yes, as long as no loan or lease requires both. It can make sense for an older car or one you keep in storage.
Does comprehensive cover a cracked windshield?
Yes, glass damage generally falls under comprehensive. How glass claims and deductibles work varies by policy and state, so check your policy before you file.