How your insurance group affects what you pay
Quick answer
Your car's insurance group is the starting point for a quote, not the price itself. On our estimates, moving from group 1 to group 50 multiplies the typical annual cost by around 5.8× for the same driver — but age, postcode and claims history can move the final figure by more than the group does.
The group sets the baseline — you set the multiplier
It helps to think of a quote as two separate things multiplied together. The vehicle half is what the insurance group describes: how expensive this car is to repair, how fast it is, how easily it's stolen. The driver half is everything about you — age, licence history, where you live, how far you drive.
That's why a group 10 car doesn't have a price. It has a baseline, which your own profile then scales up or down. The table below shows exactly that: the same nine groups, priced across four different driver ages.
Estimated annual cost by insurance group and age
Central estimates for a 6-year-old car, medium-risk postcode, comprehensive cover. Estimates only, not quotes — produced with our published methodology, so you can see exactly how each number is derived.
| Group | Band | Driver 17–20 | Driver 25–29 | Driver 30–49 | Driver 50–69 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group 1 | Very low | £595 | £295 | £220 | £185 |
| Group 5 | Very low | £825 | £415 | £305 | £260 |
| Group 10 | Very low | £1120 | £560 | £415 | £350 |
| Group 15 | Low | £1405 | £705 | £520 | £445 |
| Group 20 | Low | £1700 | £850 | £630 | £535 |
| Group 25 | Medium | £1985 | £995 | £735 | £625 |
| Group 30 | Medium | £2280 | £1140 | £845 | £715 |
| Group 40 | High | £2860 | £1430 | £1060 | £900 |
| Group 50 | Very high | £3440 | £1720 | £1275 | £1085 |
What the table actually shows
Two patterns matter. First, the group curve is steady but not steep — each step up the scale adds a predictable amount rather than doubling the price. Second, the age columns diverge far more sharply than the group rows do. For a 17–20 year old, a group 1 car already costs more than a group 50 car does for a driver in their fifties.
The practical takeaway for a young driver is blunt: choosing a lower group helps, but it does not cancel out inexperience. That's why our cheapest cars for 17-year-olds guide covers the policy side as well as the car side — the two work together.
What else affects car insurance price
| Factor | Impact | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Your age and experience | Very high | The single biggest multiplier in most pricing models. A newly-qualified 18-year-old can pay several times what a 45-year-old pays in the identical car. |
| Postcode | High | Local claim frequency, theft rates and even traffic density feed into this. The same car and driver can differ by hundreds of pounds across a city boundary. |
| Claims and convictions history | High | No-claims discount is one of the few levers that improves every year you hold it. A recent fault claim or conviction works in the opposite direction. |
| Annual mileage | Moderate | Less time on the road means less exposure. Be honest — under-declaring mileage can invalidate a policy. |
| Where the car is kept overnight | Moderate | A locked garage or a driveway usually prices better than on-street parking. |
| Cover type and excess | Moderate | Comprehensive is often cheaper than third-party-only in the UK — counter-intuitive, but a well-documented quirk of how risk pools work. |
Try it with your own numbers
Insurance group cost estimator
Estimate only, not a quote — a transparent, documented calculation to help you compare groups.
Estimated annual premium
£415 – £650
Central estimate: £520/yr
Where to go from here
If you already own the car, the group is fixed — your wins are on the policy side, covered in how to lower your car insurance costs. If you're still choosing, the group is the one cost you can lock in before you buy: see checking the group before you buy and the cheapest insurance groups.
Comparing insurance group prices across the whole scale
The matrix above is the detailed answer, but it is worth saying plainly what it is and is not. There is no official source for insurance group prices in the UK — the Group Rating Panel assigns ratings, it does not publish premiums, and no regulator collects average insurance group costs per group either. So every set of car insurance group prices you will find online, including ours, is an estimate. The difference is whether the estimate shows its working.
Ours does. Each figure comes from the documented methodology: a base rate per group, then published multipliers for age band, postcode risk, car age and cover type. That makes these insurance groups prices genuinely useful for the comparison most people want — group 12 against group 25, or group 30 against group 45 — and deliberately unsuitable as a prediction of your own renewal.
If you came looking for insurance groups and prices in a single table rather than a matrix, the insurance group prices table lists all fifty groups in one place with a typical range for each. For the question underneath most searches for insurance groups costs — “is this car going to be expensive?” — start instead with what counts as a good insurance group, which sets a sensible target band for your own age and experience.
Frequently asked questions
How much does insurance group affect your premium?
A lot in relative terms, but it's never the whole price. Moving from a group 1 car to a group 50 car roughly multiplies the vehicle-driven part of the premium several times over — but your age, postcode and claims history can swing the final figure by more than the group does.
Does a higher insurance group always mean a higher premium?
Generally yes, but not strictly and not in a straight line. A group 30 car is not three times the price of a group 10 car. Insurers apply their own claims data on top of the group, so the curve varies between providers and between driver profiles.
What is the average car insurance cost by insurance group?
There is no official published average per group. The table on this page shows our own transparent estimate, calculated with the documented methodology we publish — it's a like-for-like comparison tool, not a quote.
Is it worth dropping one insurance group when buying a car?
A single group rarely moves the needle much on its own. Dropping five or ten groups — usually by choosing a smaller engine or a lower trim of the same car — is where the saving becomes meaningful.
Can I get cheap insurance on a high group car?
It's harder, but the other levers still work: build no-claims, raise your voluntary excess, keep mileage realistic, park securely and compare properly at renewal. See our guide to lowering your costs.
Why do two insurers quote such different prices for the same car?
Because the group rating is advisory, not binding. Each insurer layers its own claims experience over the top, so the same group-18 car can be priced very differently depending on whose book it lands on.
Check your car's insurance group free
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Check my insurance group →Sources & further reading
- Thatcham Research — The motor insurers' automotive research centre. Co-runs the Group Rating Panel that sets UK insurance groups, and publishes the Vehicle Risk Rating (VRR) framework.
- Association of British Insurers (ABI) — The trade body for UK insurers. Co-runs the Group Rating Panel behind the 1–50 insurance group scale.
- DVLA — Get vehicle information — The official GOV.UK service for vehicle details by registration. Our checker uses the DVLA's Vehicle Enquiry Service API, the same underlying record.