Disability insurance cost: what your premium buys
Enter the monthly premium and benefit on your quote, your salary and the years you expect to pay. The calculator measures the premium three ways, so two quotes can be compared on the same basis.
Example, not your result yet· change a figure to see yours
Months of claim that return all the premiums
9
$36,000 of premiums over 25 years
| Premium as a share of salary | 2.4% |
| Premium for each $100 of monthly benefit | $3.00 |
| Benefit in hand, a month | $4,000 |
| Tax saved on the premium, a year | $0 |
The site publishes no premium rates: enter the figure on your own quote or enrollment page. Premiums can change if the policy is not noncancelable.
Compiled by Radif Partners · How the figures are built · IRS rules and BLS plan data read November 7, 2026
How much disability insurance costs depends on the insurer, your age, occupation, health history, the benefit, the elimination period and the riders, and no public source publishes premium rates that a site may reproduce. Ranges found online come without a source or a date. This page does something else: it takes the premium on your own quote and measures it. A policy at $120 a month for a $4,000 monthly benefit costs 1.8% of an $80,000 salary and $3 per $100 of monthly benefit. Paid for 25 years, the premiums add up to $36,000, which a claim returns in 9 months of benefits. An individual policy bought with after-tax money pays tax-free (IRS Publication 525), so its benefit compares with take-home pay, not gross pay. Group coverage at work is usually cheaper per dollar of benefit but capped and taxable when the employer pays.
Why this page shows no price list
Search results for the cost of disability insurance offer ranges of premiums, often as a percentage of income, with no source, no date and no statement of the benefit, waiting period or contract they price. They are produced by sellers who want a quote request. Insurers file their rates with state regulators, but no federal source publishes them in a form a site may reproduce, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics survey covers whether employers offer plans and what they pay, not what individual policies cost (BLS, March 2026). Rather than repeat unsourced numbers, the calculator asks for the figure that matters: the premium on your quote.
Three ways to measure a premium
The share of income tells you what the policy takes from your budget. A premium of $120 a month is $1,440 a year, 1.8% of $80,000. The price per $100 of monthly benefit makes quotes for different amounts comparable: $3 in the example. The months of claim to break even translate the total of premiums over the years you expect to pay into months of benefit: 9 months for 25 years of premiums. A policy whose benefit runs to age 65 can pay that back many times over in a long claim, which is the event it is bought for.
None of these numbers says whether a policy is a good deal for you; they say what you are paying for. Combine them with the needs calculator, which tells you how large a benefit to buy, and the own-occupation calculator, which measures what the definition of disability is worth.
Your quote on three scales
Example, not your result yet· change a figure to see yours
Months of claim that return all the premiums
9
| Premium as a share of salary | 2.4% |
| Premium for each $100 of monthly benefit | $3.00 |
| Benefit in hand, a month | $4,000 |
| Tax saved on the premium, a year | $0 |
What moves the premium
Insurers price a disability policy from a handful of factors, each visible on the quote or the application: age at purchase, occupation class (desk work costs less than manual work), the monthly benefit, the elimination period, the benefit period, the definition of disability, and riders such as a future increase option, a residual benefit for partial work or a cost-of-living adjustment once on claim. A longer elimination period lowers the premium because the first months are yours to carry; the elimination period calculator shows what that costs in savings. Contract type matters too: a noncancelable policy fixes the premium and terms until the age stated; a renewable one must be renewed but its rates can rise for a whole class of policyholders.
Tax changes the comparison
A benefit from an individual policy you pay with after-tax money is not income under Publication 525, so $4,000 a month replaces $4,000 of take-home pay. A group benefit paid for by the employer is taxable, so a larger gross figure is needed for the same money in hand. When you compare a quote with your group plan, compare net with net; the tax calculator gives the net group figure. If you choose to pay a premium through pre-tax payroll deduction, the calculator shows the yearly tax saved and the election page what it costs on a claim.
Group plan or individual policy
Group coverage is offered to 37% of private workers for long-term disability and is usually paid by the employer. Its limits are the monthly maximum, the definition of earnings and the end of coverage when you change jobs. An individual policy follows you, can cover bonus and commission if underwritten on them, and can add an own-occupation definition. Many people hold both: the group plan as a base, an individual policy to fill the gap above its maximum.