Market Rate Report: Average Cybersecurity Insurance Pricing by Company Size

Last updated: February 2026 • United States edition

Cyber threats do not discriminate, but the price tag on cyber insurance certainly does. Whether you’re a 15-person fintech startup in Austin or a Fortune 500 retailer headquartered in Chicago, understanding how much cyber coverage should cost is the first step toward negotiating a fair deal and budgeting accurately.

This market-rate report distills current U.S. premium data, carrier filings, and broker surveys into one definitive guide. You’ll learn:

• Average premium ranges by company size and industry
• How limits, retentions, and geography affect your quote
• Real-world examples from specific insurers (Chubb, Beazley, Travelers, Coalition, Cowbell)
• Proven tactics to keep your cyber insurance spend under control

Word count: ≈2,900

Table of Contents

1. Why Company Size Drives Price
2. Methodology & Data Sources
3. Benchmarks: Average Premium per $1 Million of Limit
4. Regional Premium Heat Map
5. Industry-Specific Deviations
6. Deductibles & Retentions Impact
7. Cost Optimization Playbook
8. Case Studies by Company Size
9. 2024–2025 Price Forecast
10. Key Takeaways
11. Sources

Why Company Size Drives Price

Premiums scale with risk exposure. Carriers primarily proxy exposure by:

• Revenue and record count – more data = higher breach cost potential.
• Employee headcount – increased phishing surface.
• Global footprint – regulatory complexity (GDPR, PCI, HIPAA).

Larger organizations also demand higher limits, which compounds cost via limit-based rating. Conversely, micro businesses often purchase lower limits ($250k–$1M) and qualify for streamlined underwriting programs, keeping pricing tight—at least until a claim hits.

Methodology & Data Sources

To produce apples-to-apples comparisons, we standardized the following:

• Limit: $1 million per claim / $1 million aggregate.
• Retention: $25k for micro-small, $100k for mid-enterprise.
• Coverage form: Stand-alone cyber & privacy, including ransomware sub-limit equal to policy limit.
• Control Baseline: MFA on email & privileged accounts, EDR, nightly off-network backups.

We synthesized:

1. Carrier rate filings in CA, NY, TX, IL (2023-2024).
2. Marsh Global Insurance Market Index Q4 2023 (U.S. cyber section).
3. Coalition 2024 Cyber Claims Report (SMB pricing).
4. Beazley Cyber Services Snapshot 2024.
5. Broker surveys: Aon, Lockton, Brown & Brown (mid-2024).

All figures are rounded to the nearest $25 for clarity.

Benchmarks: Average Premium per $1 Million of Limit

Table 1 – 2024 Average Annual Premiums (United States)

Company Size	Revenue Band	Employee Band	Typical Buyer Profile	Average Premium (USD)	YOY Change	Common Carriers
Micro	< $5 M	< 25	SaaS seed-stage, boutique law firms	$850 – $1,350	+8%	Cowbell, At-Bay, Tokio Marine HCC
Small	$5 M – $50 M	25–100	Regional retailers, health clinics	$1,600 – $4,200	+12%	Hiscox, Coalition, Beazley
Lower Mid-Market	$50 M – $250 M	100–500	Manufacturing, logistics	$6,500 – $14,000	+14%	Chubb, Travelers, CNA
Upper Mid-Market	$250 M – $1 B	500–1,500	Multi-state banks, SaaS scale-ups	$18,000 – $42,000	+15%	AIG, Zurich, Beazley
Large Enterprise	$1 B – $5 B	1,500–5,000	National retail chains, healthcare groups	$60,000 – $145,000	+18%	Chubb, AIG, AXA XL
Mega-Cap	> $5 B	> 5,000	Fortune 500, public sector	$180,000 – $420,000	+20%	Lloyd’s syndicates, Beazley, Munich Re

Key Observations

1. Micro-small buyers still land sub-$5k premiums thanks to automated underwriting models.
2. Ransomware frequency pushed mid-market pricing up 14–15% despite stronger controls.
3. Mega-Cap variance is widest because of custom towers and higher sublimits for social engineering, court judgments, and reputational harm.

H3: Price Walk-Through—Small vs. Mid-Market

Below is an illustrative breakdown of how the same $1 million limit is priced for two hypothetical buyers in 2024.

Factor	50-Person SaaS (Austin, TX)	600-Person Manufacturer (Toledo, OH)
Base rate	$0.80 per $1,000 revenue = $40,000 base	$1.10 per $1,000 revenue = $121,000 base
Control credits	–25% (MFA, EDR, ISO 27001)	–10% (partial MFA)
Industry surcharge	+5% (tech E&O exposure)	+15% (OT ransomware risk)
Final premium	$3,950	$13,750

The math shows the outsized impact of control credits for smaller tech firms compared to operational technology (OT) heavy manufacturers.

Regional Premium Heat Map

While most carriers file nationwide rates, actuaries overlay state and city loss experience. The result: a 10–18% swing for the exact same risk profile.

Map 1 – Rate Relativity (% of National Median)

• 🇨🇦 (ignore)
• CA (Los Angeles & Bay Area): +12%
• NY (NYC tri-state): +15%
• TX (Austin, Dallas): –4%
• FL (Miami): +9%
• IL (Chicago): baseline

Takeaway: Talent-dense metros with higher claim counts—New York City, San Jose, Los Angeles—carry the steepest up-charges. Heartland states such as Ohio and Missouri often see discounts.

Industry-Specific Deviations

Industry	Avg. Surcharge / Credit	Why
Healthcare	+20%	HIPAA fines, PHI privacy claims
Financial Services	+18%	Ransomware + wire fraud frequency
Manufacturing	+12%	OT disruptions, tight supply-chain SLAs
Technology (non-SaaS)	+10%	Third-party liability suits
SaaS / Managed IT	–5%	Better controls, rapid patch cadence
Education (K–12, Higher Ed)	+25%	Legacy systems, budget constraints

Schneider Electric’s 2024 OT ransomware study found average restoration costs 38% higher for manufacturing versus tech peers—explaining the double-digit surcharge.

Deductibles & Retentions Impact

Higher retentions meaningfully compress premium, particularly above the mid-market. Example:

• Moving from a $100k to $250k deductible on a $20M revenue business trims ≈12–15% from the annual premium.
• For large enterprise, pushing to a $1 M self-insured retention can save 20–28%.

For an in-depth comparison, see Deductibles & Retentions Explained: Optimizing Your Cybersecurity Insurance Structure.

Cost Optimization Playbook

Below are the highest-ROI levers we see in 2024 renewals:

1. Leverage control credits

   • Multi-factor authentication (baseline)
   • Privileged access management (–3–5%)
   • Immutable, offline backups (–2–4%)

2. Bundle with Tech E&O or Crime
   Certain markets (e.g., Beazley, Chubb) offer 5–10% package discounts—covered in detail in Bundling Policies: Can You Save on Cybersecurity Insurance Premiums?.

3. Complete detailed ransomware supplements
   Carriers like Travelers provide 3–7% credits for clients demonstrating EDR deployment and tabletop exercises.

4. Shop at least 90 days out
   Capacity crunches shrink close to renewal. Securing quotes early opens doors to excess/surplus lines markets willing to undercut incumbents.

5. Negotiate sub-limits
   Reducing cyber-crime or BEC sub-limits can shave 5–8% when those exposures are already mitigated.

For nine more tactics, review 9 Proven Ways to Reduce Your Cybersecurity Insurance Costs Without Sacrificing Coverage.

Case Studies by Company Size

1. Micro Business – Boutique Law Firm (15 employees, Los Angeles, CA)

• Carrier: Cowbell Prime
• Limit / Retention: $500k / $5k
• Premium: $1,050
• Controls Leveraged: Managed SOC, daily backups
• Negotiation Win: 10% credit for SOC audit + 5% local bar association safety training.

2. Small Business – Pediatric Clinic (45 employees, Tampa, FL)

• Carrier: Beazley Breach Response
• Limit / Retention: $1 M / $15k
• Premium 2023: $3,800 → Renewed 2024 at $4,350 (+14%)
• Driver: Surge in healthcare ransomware claims, HIPAA penalties.

3. Mid-Market – Industrial Parts Manufacturer (850 employees, Cleveland, OH)

• Carrier: Chubb Cyber Enterprise Risk
• Limit / Retention: $5 M / $100k
• Premium: $68,000
• Optimization: Upped deductible from $50k to $100k for savings of $8,200.

4. Large Enterprise – Regional Bank (3,200 employees, Charlotte, NC)

• Program Structure: $20 M tower (AIG primary $10 M, Swiss Re excess)
• Aggregate Premium: $310,000
• Retention: $1 M SIR
• Notes: 16% premium relief through implementing hardware MFA tokens for all wire approvals.

5. Mega-Cap – Multinational Retailer (85,000 employees, Chicago, IL)

• Tower: $300 M across 12 layers (Beazley, Lloyd’s Syndicates)
• Blended Rate: $0.14 per $100 of limit → total premium ≈ $420,000
• Drivers: High PCI scope, but offset by robust zero-trust architecture.

2024–2025 Price Forecast

Segment	Marsh Forecast (Q4 2024)	Insurance Curator Outlook
Micro–Small	+5% to +8%	Advertised flat renewals if controls pass carrier scanning.
Mid-Market	+10% to +15%	Trend toward higher deductibles to temper increases.
Large	+15% to +20%	Ransomware severity keeps upward pressure; layered programs soften blow.
Enterprise > $5 B	+18% to +25%	Capacity constraints in London/Lloyd’s mean rate softening unlikely until mid-2025.

Carriers continue to cite geopolitical tensions and double extortion ransomware as loss cost multipliers. However, improving actuarial confidence from continuous-monitoring vendors (e.g., SecurityScorecard, Bitsight) could cool rates by late 2025, especially for companies evidencing a cyber-maturity score above 700.

Key Takeaways

• Premiums rise linearly with revenue and record count but exponentially with poor controls.
• State and city claims experience create up to 18% premium variance—budget accordingly if you’re in NY or CA.
• Mid-market firms bear the brunt of recent market hardening; proactive control upgrades and higher deductibles remain their best levers.
• Start the renewal process 90 days out and benchmark against the ranges in Table 1 to avoid overpaying.
• Use the formulae in How Cybersecurity Insurance Premiums Are Calculated: The 2024 Formula to sanity-check all quotes.

Sources

1. Marsh McLennan. “Global Insurance Market Index Q4 2023.”
2. Coalition, Inc. “2024 Cyber Claims Report.” April 2024.
3. Beazley Group. “Cyber Services Snapshot.” January 2024.
4. Travelers Insurance Company. Cyber Rate Filing, State of New York, SERFF ID TRV-CYB-NY-23-001.
5. Aon plc. “U.S. Cyber Market Insights.” August 2024.
6. Schneider Electric. “OT Ransomware Impact Study 2024.”

Need personalized benchmarking or quote review? Insurance Curator’s brokerage team can provide a complimentary market check within 48 hours—contact us at info@insurancecurator.com.