Average Restaurant Business Insurance Cost (2026 Report)

Restaurant insurance costs can range from about $249 to $859 per month, depending on the bundle that fits your coverage needs. For most full-service restaurants, the recommended bundle includes general liability, commercial property and workers’ compensation for one employee, averaging $283 per month. If you haven’t hired staff, your cost could be lower. If you have more employees, your premium increases because workers’ comp costs about $34 per employee per month.

If your restaurant keeps refrigerated inventory or depends on walk-in coolers, freezers, ovens and other key equipment, consider adding food spoilage and equipment breakdown coverage. That brings the full-service operations bundle to about $463 per month. If you also own a vehicle for deliveries, catering or supply runs and rely on online orders or digital payments, the expanded bundle costs about $859 per month.

These figures are modeled averages based on quotes for restaurants with one to four employees across all 50 states, before discounts. Your actual premium can vary based on your state, claims history, and coverage limits, but these benchmarks give you a realistic range for evaluating your own quotes.

Below, I've broken down the different bundles and their corresponding costs:

Note: Equipment breakdown, food spoilage and liquor liability costs are based on external research, not our restaurant insurance cost study.

Restaurant insurance costs vary by policy type, from $34 per month per employee for workers’ compensation to $219 per month for commercial auto. The difference shows how insurers price the major parts of running a full-service restaurant, from serving customers and managing staff to protecting your kitchen, property and vehicles. Unless you run a larger restaurant with staff, alcohol sales, delivery, online ordering and more expensive equipment or inventory, you likely won’t need every coverage type below. The right mix depends on how your restaurant operates and which losses would be hard to pay for yourself.

I've put together a table that helps you determine how much your ideal coverage mix could cost:

A business owner’s policy (BOP), which bundles general liability and commercial property, costs restaurants around $224 per month, or $2,692 per year. I got the rates by combining the average cost of these two coverage types for full-service restaurants, then applying a 10% bundling discount. That represents the lower rate insurers quote restaurants compared with buying general liability and commercial property separately.

Our data shows that BOP costs for restaurants are highest in California at about $318 per month, nearly twice the average rate in West Virginia at $173 per month. California’s higher rate likely reflects the cost of insuring restaurants in larger, busier markets, where customer claims, legal costs, equipment repairs and property replacement can be more expensive. West Virginia has a more affordable insurance environment, with smaller dining markets and lower repair or replacement costs.

On average, restaurants spend around $137 per month, or $1,645 per year, for general liability insurance. You need this coverage when customers, vendors or other visitors come into your restaurant because one injury or damaged item can turn into a claim against your business. For example, it can help if a guest slips near the entrance, a vendor gets hurt in a service area or a customer’s belongings are damaged while they’re dining.

General liability costs about $91 per month for restaurants in West Virginia, likely due to the state’s smaller dining markets, less dense customer traffic and lower-cost claims environment. If you're located in California, you’ll spend about $224 per month for the same coverage, roughly 2.5 times West Virginia’s rate. California has busier metro and tourist markets, where customer injury claims, property damage claims and legal defense can cost more to insure.

A commercial property policy costs around $112 per month, or $1,346 per year, and covers your restaurant if a fire, theft, water leak or storm damages items you rely on to operate. Your premium depends partly on the value of your kitchen equipment, furniture, fixtures, inventory and upgrades you made to the space. Costs can also rise if those items would be expensive to repair or replace.

My analysis of commercial property costs found that restaurants in New York see a monthly average of about $133, while those in North Dakota spend $35 less at $98. Commercial property is tied more directly to the items you insure, such as kitchen equipment, furniture, fixtures, signage, inventory and leasehold improvements. New York’s higher repair and replacement costs still push rates up, but your restaurant’s own property value usually matters more than location.

Most states require this coverage once you have employees, so check your workers’ comp requirements before hiring. Based on our study of restaurants with fewer than five employees, workers’ compensation costs about $34 per month per employee, but your total premium increases as your crew grows. Without it, you could be left handling medical costs or wage-related claims from injuries such as kitchen burns, knife cuts, slips, lifting strains or cleanup accidents.

Workers' comp costs average around $79 per month per employee if your restaurant's based in California, since operate in a higher-cost claims environment, where medical care, wage replacement and claim handling can cost more. The state’s $16.90 minimum wage in 2026 also contributes to its higher payroll-based premiums, helping make California the highest per-employee state in our dataset. In Indiana, you’ll pay about 76% less at $19 per month per employee. The state follows the $7.25 federal minimum wage, which can help keep payroll-based premiums lower. Your final rate still depends on how many servers, cooks, bartenders and dishwashers you employ, what they do on the job and your restaurant’s claims history.

Expect to spend about $104 per month, or $1,253 per year, for cyber insurance, which helps with costs tied to data breaches, hacked accounts, payment fraud or system outages. Not all restaurants need this coverage, but consider adding it to your policy mix if you use online ordering, delivery apps that store customer information, reservation platforms or POS systems. If your digital vendors or contracts require coverage, check your cyber insurance requirements to make sure your limits are high enough.

At the state level, you'll pay about $129 per month for full-service restaurants in Washington, D.C., which reflect how restaurants operate in a dense city. More customers may mean more card payments, online orders, reservations, delivery app transactions and POS activity. While these tools make service easier, they also create more ways for customer payment data or business records to be exposed. In North Dakota, cyber insurance costs about 31% less at $89 per month. Smaller dining markets may mean fewer daily digital transactions, but your final rate still depends more on your own setup, including how you take payments, store customer data and protect your systems.

If your restaurant uses a business-owned vehicle for deliveries, catering, supply runs or other business driving, you’ll need commercial auto insurance. It costs about $219 per month, or $2,625 per year, on average. Check your commercial auto requirements if your restaurant vehicle is covered by a lease, lender agreement, delivery contract or local rule.

The average cost for commercial auto insurance ranges from $109 per month in Pennsylvania to $418 per month in Michigan. While it’s one of the costlier coverage types you can add to your bundle, you’ll only need it if your restaurant owns a vehicle for deliveries, catering, supply runs or other business use. Michigan’s auto insurance market's more expensive because policies include no-fault benefits, including personal injury protection, which can make injury-related claims cost more to insure.

Depending on how you run your restaurant, you may face risks tied to alcohol service, expensive food inventory, refrigeration, cash handling or employee management. In those situations, you may need specialized policies beyond the five common restaurant coverages.

I researched these specialized restaurant coverages and broke them down in the table below. The cost ranges aren't from our insurance cost study, but they’re based on external research and can help you estimate how these add-on policies affect your total cost.

Serving customers in a full-service restaurant involves more than food and tables, and each part of your operation can affect your premium. Some factors are specific to how your restaurant runs, such as your dining room, kitchen equipment, food storage, staff, payment systems and extra services. Others are more general and apply to any business, such as your location and claims history.

I’ve broken down restaurant insurance cost factors into two categories and explained each below:

These factors aren’t unique to restaurants, but they still apply and are worth considering when you’re budgeting for coverage. I’ve explained each below:

The recommended restaurant business insurance bundle averages about $283 per month, but that figure works best as a reference point. Your actual rate can shift based on your restaurant type, employee count, state and coverage mix.

To help you put context into any quote you get, I suggest you start with these three questions:

1. Where do you fall in the distribution? Compare your quote with the benchmarks that match your coverage and state. A quote near the average may make sense for one profile but look high or low for another.
2. Is your quote consistent with your risk profile? A quote far above or below the benchmarks deserves a closer look. The gap may come from limits, exclusions, claims history, bundled coverage or risks that the average does not capture.
3. Which cost drivers apply to your business? Not every factor matters equally for every restaurant. A full-service restaurant with table service and alcohol has a different cost profile than a takeout-focused restaurant with fewer on-site exposures.

The value of these benchmarks doesn't lie in knowing whether your quote is above or below average, but in understanding what explains the difference. Use this page as context for reading your own quote, not as the exact price your business is expected to pay.

If you’re still sorting out what applies to your restaurant, start with matching coverage types with setup, exposure or contract requirements. Once that’s clear, the amount of coverage you need usually follows from your lease, staff, equipment, service model and customer-facing risks.

If you’re ready to compare options, focus on value instead of price alone. That means looking at which providers price well for your restaurant profile and how to lower costs without removing protection your operation still needs. You can read more about the best restaurant business insurance carriers in this resource:

• Best Restaurant Insurance Companies

Our restaurant business insurance cost calculator below gives you more personalized estimates so you can accurately compare rates. After getting a benchmark, you can request for a quote from your the providers MoneyGeek matches you with based on the business details you enter.