By the Awan Insurance Team · Reviewed by Shahbaz Awan, Licensed California Insurance Agent (CA Lic #0H95098)
California 30/60/15 auto insurance requirements set the legal floor for every driver: $30,000, $60,000 and $15,000 of liability. If you're not sure what those numbers do, what changed in 2025, or whether the minimum is enough for you, you're in the right place. Here's the plain-English version.
California's 30/60/15 auto insurance requirements mean every policy must carry at least $30,000 of bodily injury liability per person, $60,000 per accident and $15,000 for property damage. Senate Bill 1107 raised the limits from 15/30/5 on January 1, 2025, and they rise to 50/100/25 in 2035. The minimum pays only other people when you cause a crash. It doesn't cover your car or your own injuries.
Most drivers never think about their liability limits until a crash makes them matter. The minimum is the number the state requires, not the number that protects you. Below: what 30/60/15 pays, the 2025 and 2035 changes, the alternatives California accepts, the cost of driving uninsured, and how UM/UIM fits in, with every legal figure linked to its source.
What Does 30/60/15 Mean in California?
30/60/15 means your policy must pay at least $30,000 for injury or death to one person, $60,000 for injury or death to two or more people in one accident, and $15,000 for damage to other people's property.
Those three numbers are the floor every standard California auto policy has to meet, and they show up on your declarations page in that same shorthand (Source: California DMV, Insurance Requirements →). It helps to read them as three separate buckets of money, each with its own ceiling:
The per-person number is the one people misread. If one person in the other car has $50,000 in medical bills, the policy pays $30,000, even though the $60,000 accident total hasn't been reached. No single person can draw more than $30,000.
And it's all liability: money paid to other people for harm you cause. That distinction drives everything else in this guide.
What Changed in 2025, and Is Another Increase Coming?
On January 1, 2025, Senate Bill 1107 doubled or tripled California's minimums from 15/30/5 to 30/60/15, and the same law schedules a second increase, to 50/100/25, for policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2035.
SB 1107 was signed in September 2022 (Chapter 717, Statutes of 2022) and amended Vehicle Code section 16056, the section that sets the minimum limits (Source: California Legislature, SB 1107 →). The new limits apply to policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025, which is why many drivers met the change at their first renewal that year rather than on New Year's Day (Source: California Vehicle Code §16056 →).
| Liability limit | Before 2025 | From Jan 1, 2025 | From Jan 1, 2035 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Injury or death, one person | $15,000 | $30,000 | $50,000 |
| Injury or death, per accident | $30,000 | $60,000 | $100,000 |
| Property damage | $5,000 | $15,000 | $25,000 |
| Cash deposit alternative | $35,000 | $75,000 | $125,000 |
The 2035 step is written into the statute as an increase of $20,000, $40,000 and $10,000 on top of today's limits, which works out to 50/100/25. The cash deposit that some owners use instead of a policy also rose, to $75,000, with a further $50,000 increase scheduled for January 1, 2035 (Source: California Vehicle Code §16435 →).
If your renewal jumped in 2025 and nothing else changed, this is a likely reason: the legal floor itself moved. Our breakdown of what drives car insurance costs in California covers the other factors that move a premium.
The 2035 increase is already law. If you carry exactly the minimum, your limits must change at your first renewal on or after January 1, 2035. Choosing limits on purpose now avoids that surprise.
What Does a 30/60/15 Policy Cover, and What Doesn't It Cover?
A 30/60/15 policy pays other people for injuries and property damage you cause, and nothing else: it doesn't repair your car, and it doesn't pay your own medical bills.
The Department of Insurance spells this out: liability coverage doesn't pay for your own injuries or those of people in your household, and damage to your own car is handled by collision and comprehensive, which are separate coverages (Source: California Department of Insurance, Auto Insurance 101 →). Here's what a minimum-only policy does and doesn't do:
| Situation | 30/60/15 liability only |
|---|---|
| Injuries to the other driver and passengers | Up to $30K / $60K |
| Damage to the other car or property | Up to $15K |
| Repairs to your own car | Not covered |
| Your own injuries | Not covered |
| Theft, fire, vandalism, broken glass | Not covered |
| Hit by an uninsured driver | Only if you carry UM |
Collision and comprehensive are optional under state law, but a lender or leasing company will almost always require them on a financed car, and the CDI notes that if you don't buy required coverage, the loan company may buy it and charge you. Our guide to full coverage vs. liability-only walks through when each one makes sense.
California is a fault-based state. When you cause a crash, your liability coverage pays the other side up to its limits, and the CDI is blunt: you're responsible for any damage beyond the limits you bought.
Can You Meet California's Requirement Without a Standard Policy?
Yes, California accepts a $75,000 cash deposit with the DMV, a $75,000 surety bond, a DMV-issued self-insurance certificate, or a California Low Cost Auto policy, though each works very differently from a regular policy.
The self-insurance certificate is available only to someone with more than 25 vehicles registered in their name (Vehicle Code §16052), so for a household it isn't a real option. Source: California Vehicle Code §16052 →
The law calls the requirement "financial responsibility," and an insurance policy is only one way to show it. The DMV lists the current alternatives (Source: California DMV, Insurance Requirements →):
- Cash deposit of $75,000. Held by the DMV. It isn't insurance: no claims handling, no legal defense.
- Surety bond of $75,000. Issued by a company licensed to do business in California.
- Self-insurance certificate. Issued by the DMV. The DMV Insurance Unit handles the details.
- A California Low Cost Auto policy. An income-qualified state program with its own, lower limits (below).
One thing does not count: the DMV says collision or comprehensive coverage alone doesn't meet the requirement.
The California Low Cost Automobile Insurance Program is the alternative most families should know about. Its limits are 10/20/3: $10,000 per person and $20,000 per accident for bodily injury, and $3,000 for property damage, with optional uninsured motorist and medical payments coverage (Source: California's Low Cost Auto Insurance Program →). The program says a CLCA policy lets you drive legally even though its limits sit below 30/60/15. Our California Low Cost Auto program guide covers who qualifies and how to apply.
What Happens If You Drive Without Insurance in California?
Driving uninsured in California can bring a $100 to $200 fine plus penalty assessments, a possible vehicle impound, a suspended registration, and, after a reportable crash, a license suspension of up to four years.
Here's how each piece works, so you know exactly what's at stake:
- Fines. A first conviction for failing to show proof carries a $100 to $200 fine plus penalty assessments. A repeat conviction within three years is $200 to $500 plus assessments, and the court may order the vehicle impounded for good cause (Source: California Vehicle Code §16029 →).
- Proof on demand. You have to show proof of financial responsibility when a peace officer asks and after a collision, and you can show it on your phone (Source: California Vehicle Code §16028 →).
- Registration suspension. When the DMV doesn't receive proof of insurance for a vehicle, it suspends the registration, and the car can't be driven or parked on public roads until proof arrives (Source: California DMV →).
- Crash reporting. You must report a collision to the DMV within 10 days on an SR-1 if anyone was injured or killed or property damage topped $1,000, whoever caused it.
- License suspension. If you're in that kind of collision without insurance, your driving privilege can be suspended for up to four years, and fault doesn't matter. You can get it back for the last three years by filing an SR-22/SR-1P proof certificate and keeping it on file (Source: California DMV, Driver Handbook →).
The fines are the small part; the other driver's bills become your personal debt. If a suspension has already happened, our guide to SR-22 insurance in California explains how the filing works.
Don't cancel your current policy until the new one is in force. Your insurer reports your coverage to the DMV electronically, and a gap can trigger a registration suspension even if you meant to be covered the whole time.
Is the 30/60/15 Minimum Enough Coverage?
For most California drivers, no: one serious injury or one newer vehicle can exceed 30/60/15, and in a fault-based state, everything above your limits is yours to pay.
Here's an illustrative example, using hypothetical round numbers rather than real claim data. You run a red light and hit an SUV with two people inside. One passenger's medical bills and lost wages reach $85,000; the other's come to $20,000. The SUV is a total loss worth $40,000.
The second passenger's $20,000 is paid, keeping total injury payments under the $60,000 accident limit, but the per-person cap still leaves a large gap. When we review a policy with a client, these are the questions that shape the limits:
What you own
Equity and savings are what a claimant looks to once limits run out.
What you earn
Future wages can be exposed to a judgment.
What you might hit
Plenty of cars and trucks on California roads are worth more than a $15,000 property limit.
Who drives
A teen or new driver raises the odds of a big claim.
How much you drive
More freeway miles mean more chances for a multi-car crash.
Umbrella eligibility
An umbrella policy needs higher underlying auto limits before it can sit on top.
Higher limits do add to the premium, so the honest move is to price them side by side with the minimum and decide with real numbers in front of you. If you have real assets to protect, our California umbrella insurance guide explains how the layers fit together.
How Does Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Coverage Fit With 30/60/15?
Uninsured and underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage pays for your own injuries when the at-fault driver has no insurance or too little, and it matters more in California precisely because so many drivers carry the minimum or nothing.
The Insurance Research Council estimated that 20.4% of California drivers were uninsured in 2023, compared with 15.4% nationally (Source: Insurance Information Institute, citing the Insurance Research Council →). Every California bodily injury policy has to include UM coverage unless you agree in writing to delete it or lower it, and the insurer must offer UM limits matching your liability limits, up to 30/60 (Source: California Insurance Code §11580.2 →).
Here's the part people miss. Underinsured coverage pays the difference between your UM limit and what the at-fault driver's insurer already paid. If someone carrying 30/60/15 injures you and you also carry only 30/60 UM, there's no difference to pay, so your UIM adds nothing. The underinsured (UIM) part only adds protection when your limits sit above the other driver's; against a driver with no insurance at all, UM pays up to your own limits.
That's why we match UM limits to liability limits on almost every policy we write. The CDI notes that UM bodily injury limits can be the same as or lower than your liability limits, and uninsured motorist property damage has a $3,500 limit (Source: California Department of Insurance, Auto Insurance Guide, Feb. 2025 →). Our guide to uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage goes deeper on waivers, stacking and deadlines.
Want the full statewide picture? Our California auto insurance guide covers every coverage on a policy, how Prop 103 shapes rates, and where savings are real.
The Bottom Line
California's 30/60/15 auto insurance requirements are the legal minimum to drive, not a measure of how much protection you need. They rose on January 1, 2025, they'll rise again in 2035, and they cover only the other people in a crash you cause. Your car, your injuries and any losses above the limits fall outside them.
If you're carrying the minimum today, it's worth an honest look at what you own, who drives your cars, and whether your UM/UIM limits actually protect you. Our team can walk through your current declarations page, show you what higher limits cost through Farmers and the other carriers we work with, and help you choose on purpose. Start with our California auto insurance page or the quick form below.
Related Questions
Can I show proof of car insurance on my phone in California?
Yes. California Vehicle Code section 16028 lets drivers show proof of financial responsibility on a mobile electronic device when a peace officer asks or after a collision. An officer can't stop you just to check for insurance, but if you're stopped for something else or involved in a crash, you'll be asked for it.
How much is the cash deposit instead of car insurance in California?
The DMV currently accepts a $75,000 cash deposit, or a $75,000 surety bond from a company licensed in California, in place of a liability policy. Vehicle Code section 16435 sets that amount from January 1, 2025 and adds $50,000 on January 1, 2035. A deposit isn't insurance: there's no legal defense or claims handling, and you're personally responsible for losses beyond it.
Will my policy have to change for the 2035 minimum limits?
If you carry exactly 30/60/15, yes. Vehicle Code section 16056 raises the minimum to 50/100/25 for policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2035, so your limits will need to meet the new floor at that renewal. If you already carry 50/100/25 or more, your liability limits won't need to change.
What does 15/30/5 mean on an older California auto policy?
15/30/5 was California's old minimum: $15,000 per injured person, $30,000 per accident and $5,000 for property damage. It applied to policies issued or renewed before January 1, 2025. If you still see those numbers on a document, it's an old declarations page; any standard policy issued or renewed since then must carry at least 30/60/15.
Does a minimum California auto policy include uninsured motorist coverage?
By default, yes. California Insurance Code section 11580.2 requires uninsured motorist coverage on every bodily injury liability policy unless you agree in writing to delete it or lower it. Many drivers sign that waiver without realizing it. Check your declarations page: if uninsured motorist bodily injury isn't listed, you probably signed one.
Last reviewed October 2026 by Shahbaz Awan, Licensed California Insurance Agent (CA Lic #0H95098). Limits and penalties checked against the California DMV, the Department of Insurance and the Vehicle and Insurance Codes in October 2026.