Canstar publishes average annual pet insurance premiums by breed. PetSure publishes average claim costs by breed. Neither publishes anything by age, and nor does any Australian insurer we could find.
That is a strange gap, because age moves the number more than breed does. A Cavoodle and a French Bulldog are separated by roughly $1,800 a year in Canstar's figures. The owner-reported data below suggests the same dog can move further than that across its own lifetime.
What owners report paying
Monthly premiums as reported by Australian owners, August 2026. Click any column heading to sort.
| Age of dog | Reported monthly premium | Notes as reported |
|---|---|---|
| 9 weeks | $110+ | Quotes for a new puppy, same breeder and breed as a 4 year old quoted at $74 |
| 14 months | Just under $30 | $250 excess, 90% reimbursement |
| 2 years | About $80 | Staffy cross, $37 per fortnight |
| 2 years | $89 | French Bulldog, $500 excess. Quoted $159 without the excess |
| 3 years | $58 | Reported as having no sub-limits, one annual pool |
| 3 years | $75 | Was $70 the previous year |
| 3 years | About $93 | Large crossbreed, $43 per fortnight |
| 4 years | $74 | Blue cattle dog, 90% reimbursement, zero excess |
| 5 years | $165 | Renewed from $110. No health concerns reported |
| 6.5 years | $171 | German Shepherd |
| 7.5 years | $280 | Started at $80. Insurer had paid out over $50,000 |
| 9 years | $175 | Beagle, same dog as the two rows below |
| 10 years | $225 | Beagle, same dog |
| 11 years | $300 | Beagle, same dog |
For cats, the same discussion produced far fewer figures and a much narrower range: around $25 to $40 a month for a single cat, and about $130 a month across four cats.
The three same-dog progressions
Cross-sectional figures mix breeds, insurers and excesses, so they are noisy. Three owners reported the same dog at more than one age, which holds all of that constant and is the most reliable evidence on this page.
| Animal | Reported change | Implied rate |
|---|---|---|
| Beagle, ages 9 to 11 | $175 to $225 to $300 a month | Around 30% a year |
| Dog, puppy to 7.5 years | $80 to $280 a month | Roughly 3.5x over the period |
| Dog, age 4 to 5 | $110 to $165 a month | 50% in one renewal |
| Dog, age 4 to 5, different insurer | Increase of $5 a month | Around 5% |
That last row matters as much as the others. One owner reported an increase of about $5 a month across the same age transition where another saw 50%. Repricing at a given age is an insurer decision, not a market constant.
The shape of the curve
Taken together the reported figures suggest three phases rather than a straight line.
Ages 1 to 4: flat and cheap
Most reported figures sit between $30 and $95 a month. Increases in this band appear small, in the order of a few dollars a year. One reported figure sits outside this pattern: a nine week old puppy quoted above $110, higher than a four year old of the same breed from the same breeder. Puppies chew things, and insurers price for it.
Ages 5 to 8: the step change
Reported figures roughly double, to between $165 and $280. This is where the discussion that produced these numbers started, because a 50% jump at age five is what prompted the original question. Several owners independently described five or six as the point where the increases became noticeable.
Ages 9 and over: acceleration
Reported figures reach $225 to $300 a month. The beagle progression above shows roughly 30% a year compounding at this stage.
Across the full range, from around $30 a month at one year to around $300 at eleven, the reported spread is close to tenfold. Comparing the more typical figures, roughly $75 at age three against $300 at eleven, gives about fourfold.
Why the increases accelerate
Three mechanisms compound, and only the first is obvious.
1. Claim likelihood rises
The straightforward one. Older animals claim more often and for more expensive conditions, and premiums are repriced to match.
2. Age-based excesses appear
Several owners reported that an additional excess, tied to the animal's age, is applied on top of the standard excess once the pet passes a threshold. Where this applies, the effective cost rises even where the headline premium looks stable, because the reimbursement is smaller.
3. The ability to shop disappears
This is the mechanism most owners describe discovering too late, and it is the one that turns a rising premium into a trap.
Most Australian insurers will not write a new accident and illness policy for a dog beyond about eight or nine years of age. Separately, anything already recorded in the animal's veterinary history is treated as pre-existing by any new insurer. By the age at which premiums are climbing fastest, most owners have neither option: they cannot take a new policy elsewhere, and even where they can, the conditions the policy would be needed for are excluded.
One owner in the discussion described exactly this, having switched insurer to chase a lower price and then having a claim declined over a note a previous vet had made years earlier.
What owners in the discussion did about it
Reported, not recommended. What follows is a summary of the approaches Australian owners described, and their outcomes as they reported them.
- Called and asked. One owner reported a premium falling from $138 to $86 a month plus three months free, after a single phone call. Retention teams generally have discretion the renewal notice does not mention.
- Raised the excess. One owner reported $159 a month falling to $89 by electing a $500 excess on the same $30,000 cover. This trades day to day claims for catastrophe cover.
- Cancelled and self-funded. The most common response reported, usually somewhere between ages five and ten, with the former premium redirected to a savings account. Several owners who did this reported still being ahead after subsequently paying large bills. Others reported the opposite.
- Kept it regardless. Owners who had claimed heavily, in several cases $20,000 to $50,000 for cancer treatment, generally reported keeping the policy through the increases.
The disagreement in that discussion was not about the facts. Everyone agreed premiums rise steeply. They disagreed about whether the premium buys something worth having, which depends on circumstances no comparison table can see.
Common questions
Method and limitations
We would rather publish weak data honestly labelled than strong-looking data we cannot stand behind. Here is exactly what this is.
- Source. Figures reported by Australian owners in a public online discussion during August 2026, on a thread specifically about a pet insurance premium increase.
- These are not quotes. We did not obtain them from insurers. They are self-reported, unverified, and subject to recall error.
- Nothing is held constant. Breed, insurer, excess, reimbursement rate, annual limit, state and policy vintage all vary between rows. The same-dog progressions are the exception and are the strongest evidence here.
- Self-selection. People post about premium increases when the increase is annoying. Owners whose premiums rose modestly are less likely to comment, which probably biases the figures upward.
- Small sample. Fourteen dog figures and a handful for cats. This indicates a shape, not a market average.
- No published alternative exists. We checked. Canstar publishes by breed, PetSure publishes claims by breed, and neither publishes by age. Figures circulating elsewhere, such as "10 to 20% a year after five", trace back to content sites rather than a primary source, so we have not used them.
For sourced figures on breed rather than age, see our cost by dog breed page, which uses published Canstar and PetSure data.
Summary
Age moves an Australian pet insurance premium further than breed does. The reported figures indicate roughly fourfold growth between a young adult dog and one aged eleven, with the curve flat to about four, stepping up at five to six, and compounding at around 30% a year from nine. The mechanism that matters most is not the price itself but the loss of alternatives: by the age at which premiums climb fastest, most owners can neither switch insurer nor obtain new cover for anything already in the veterinary record.