Trupanion Pet Insurance Review (2026)

Trupanion Managers USA, Inc. sells Trupanion policies. It is the managing general agent (the firm that sells and runs policies for an insurer) of American Pet Insurance Company (APIC, NAIC 12190). APIC is a Trupanion subsidiary and underwrites Trupanion policies in Florida and California. In some other states the underwriter is ZPIC Insurance Company. In California APIC has filed two more programs: Trupanion for Chewy Health and Aflac Pet Insurance powered by Trupanion (CDI files 22-1075 and 22-14, 2022).

The main point: Trupanion fixes your pet’s age in the price at enrollment, but the rate still rises every year. In California its last four increases, from August 2023 to July 2026, multiplied rates by 2.27 (filing 25-2461). When the locked age pays off and when it does not is worked out in the case Trupanion: age locked, price still climbs.

How Trupanion sets its price

• Cost plus a margin. Trupanion aims to pay back 71% of the premiums it collects as claims, across the whole company (2025 annual report, form 10-K). It spent 70.5% of subscription revenue on vet invoices in 2025 and 72.5% in 2024 (same report, a non-GAAP measure). When claims rise, prices follow: the company says it adjusts prices regularly to hit that payout target.
• The age factor is locked at enrollment. The 2024 shareholder letter says: “we will lock in that age factor at the time of enrollment.” In California the dog age factor runs from 0.817 under age 1 to 3.423 at 13 (filing 25-2461).
• Why rates rise faster than vet inflation. APIC’s actuary explains this in the memorandum to California filing 25-2461 (December 2025). Pets get older but keep their enrollment age factor, so the average premium per pet falls behind claims. The company assumes claims costs grow 12.7% a year and sets a “premium trend” of −5.0% a year. Both go into the rate increase that every customer gets.
• One change a year per policy. Each policy is repriced on its anniversary at the state’s current rate level. In Florida APIC files new rates several times a year, but each customer gets one change a year, on their anniversary.

What happened to prices

California rate history from filing 25-2461 (its Rate Level History exhibit), plus the approved 2026 change:

• Increases multiply; they do not add. The last four (+12.6%, +28.9%, +31.7% and +19.0%) multiply rates by 2.27, about 23% a year on average. Since 2017 rates have risen almost 4.7 times. We computed the last cumulative figure ourselves: the filing’s history ends in 2025.
• In 2026 the company asked for +28.1%. The California Department of Insurance (CDI) calculated that the data supported at most +19.0%, and the company agreed (correspondence in filing 25-2461, 11 and 17 March 2026).
• The 2026 increase was uneven: across 94,327 policyholders, individual changes ran from −5.5% to +53.4%. In the filing’s customer dislocation exhibit (how the increase spreads across customers), 30.1% of policies got +30% or more and 96.5% got +15% or more. But the policy counts in that exhibit were not recomputed after the request fell from +28.1% to +19.0%, so the shares under the approved increase may be lower.
• The 2024 shareholder letter (SEC form DEFA14A, 2025) says nearly half of members were in groups with increases above 20% in 2024, and close to half of those above 30%. In 2022 fewer than 7% of members were in the over-20% group. In territories where its margins were temporarily too low, the letter says, members were “virtually guaranteed to receive a 20%+ rate increase after their first year”. The same letter says: “Age at enrollment pricing doesn’t mean a monthly rate remains locked in.”
• Average monthly revenue per pet in the subscription business: $65.26 in 2023, $72.98 in 2024 (+11.8%), $80.79 in 2025 (+10.7%) (2025 10-K).
• Average monthly retention (the share of pets that stay each month): 98.49% in 2023, 98.25% in 2024, 98.34% in 2025 (2025 10-K). 98.34% a month is about 82% a year (our calculation: 0.9834¹²), so close to one pet in five leaves each year.

Florida: APIC rate filings

In Florida only APIC underwrites Trupanion: ZPIC Insurance Company has no Florida filings. The regulator’s (OIR) list shows the dates and status of each filing but not the size of the change. We have no rate pages for these filings.

Since 2024 APIC has had nine rate filings approved in Florida, three or four a year. Until 2025 the regulator filed pet insurance under “Livestock (Animal Mortality)”; from 2026 it uses “Inland Marine / Pet Insurance”.

How it works everywhere

• There is one accident and illness plan. It has no annual or lifetime payout limit. It does not pay for wellness or preventive care.
• The deductible is paid once per condition, for the life of the pet. You can change it in the first 30 days; after that you can only raise it.
• The plan on the website pays 90%. From 19 July 2026 the California rate manual allows 50% to 100% reimbursement and deductibles from $0 to $2,500 (filing 25-2461).
• Exam fees are not covered.
• Dental illness is covered with no annual cap if you keep up the recommended dental care. Prescription food is paid at 50% for up to 60 days.
• Hereditary and congenital conditions are covered if no signs appeared before coverage started.
• Trupanion collects records from every clinic at enrollment. It then sends a Medical Record Summary listing what it treats as pre-existing (present before the policy began). Trupanion’s national terms look at signs, treatment or vet advice in the 18 months before coverage starts (not yet confirmed for Florida, see below). The final decision comes when you file a claim.
• An example from Trupanion’s FAQ: an allergy diagnosed in a puppy stays excluded even after years without symptoms.
• VetDirect Pay: Trupanion pays participating clinics directly, at checkout. Not every clinic takes part.
• There is no multi-pet discount. The only discount in the California manual is 8.33% off the first year’s premium for pets enrolled under the exam-day offer, made on the day of a vet exam (filing 25-2461).
• You can enroll a pet until its 14th birthday.
• A website quote is valid until 11:59 pm Pacific time on the day it is issued.
• In California (filing 25-2461, from 19 July 2026) the monthly premium is $246.43 × ZIP × breed × age at enrollment × sex × deductible × coinsurance × spay/neuter × working pet × exam fee option × Recovery and Complementary Care, plus a fixed $6.97 expense charge. The optional Pet Owner Assistance Package adds $4.95.

Pros

• The price does not climb with age. Take a male French Bulldog enrolled before age 1 in Los Angeles (ZIP 90001), with a $1,000 deductible, 90% reimbursement and no Recovery and Complementary Care rider. His rate is $195.71 a month at every age until the rate level changes (filing 25-2461). New policies get the rider unless the owner declines it. With it, the same dog costs $235.54.
• The California formula has no tenure factor, no claims-history factor and no discount that disappears after a claim (filing 25-2461).
• No payout limit.
• One deductible per condition for life. A chronic condition costs you the deductible once.
• You learn the likely exclusions at enrollment, from the Medical Record Summary, before your first claim.
• Hereditary conditions and dental illness are in the base policy.
• Where VetDirect Pay works, Trupanion pays the clinic directly.
• In California, claims came to 73.3% of earned premium in the year to 30 September 2025: $96.3 million of $131.3 million, before loss development — the allowance for claims still to be paid (filing 25-2461).

Cons

• Rate increases are frequent and large: in California +28.9% in 2024, +31.7% in 2025 and +19.0% in 2026 (table above). A locked age factor does not lock the price.
• An older pet is expensive from day one. In filing 25-2461 the dog age factor is 0.817 under age 1 and 2.328 at age 7, 2.85 times as high. The same French Bulldog, enrolled at 7, would start at $544.78 a month instead of $195.71.
• Each new condition has its own deductible. Three new diagnoses in a year with a $1,000 deductible can cost $3,000 in deductibles alone.
• You always pay exam fees yourself. In California the exam fee option is not offered on the main Trupanion plan (filing 25-2461).
• No multi-pet discount: three pets cost three full premiums.
• No new enrollment from the 14th birthday.
• Rehabilitation, acupuncture, hydrotherapy, chiropractic and behavioral modification are covered only with the Recovery and Complementary Care rider. In California it multiplies the premium by 1.211 for dogs, before the fixed $6.97 expense charge is added. New policies get it unless you decline (filing 25-2461).
• California charges a one-time $35 membership fee for the first pet (filing 25-2461).

What we could not verify

• Florida prices. APIC rate filings 26-021862 and 26-035528 are approved, but we have not obtained their rate pages. So this page shows no Florida factors.
• The size of Florida increases. The only figures we have are Insurify’s for filing 25-043052 (from 1 February 2026): +12.9% for Trupanion, +24% for accident and illness and +35.6% for accident-only. They do not come from the filing documents, which we have not seen. And it is unclear which filing they describe: two took effect on 1 February 2026, 25-043052 (approved) and 26-004169 (informational). So we give no approved percentage for any Florida filing.
• Waiting periods. The Florida disclosure TRU (D) 00012 FL (V01.202309) says new policyholders have no waiting periods. But unless the pet is enrolled under the exam-day offer, coverage starts some time after enrollment. We do not know how long. The California manual (filing 25-2461) refers to standard waiting periods without giving their length.
• In 2023 Maine disapproved an APIC policy form (docket INS-23-800). Under it, illnesses, and orthopedic conditions caused by accidents, were covered only after 12 days. The form also used the Inception, Enrollment and Effective dates ambiguously. APIC appealed. We have not seen the outcome.
• Whether the national sample policy TRU (D) 00001 applies unchanged in Florida: its 18-month look-back and its rules on bilateral conditions, hips and spinal discs (IVDD).
• Customer stories from the press and forums (NBC News, Checkbook, Reddit). We do not have links to the original publications, so we leave them out.

Sources

• California Department of Insurance (CDI), filing 25-2461 (SERFF APII-134721123): rate manual effective 19 July 2026, rate level history, actuarial memorandum, customer dislocation exhibit, correspondence with the regulator.
• Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR), list of APIC filings in IRFS, checked 13 October 2026.
• Trupanion, Inc., 2025 annual report, form 10-K (SEC, 13 February 2026).
• Trupanion, Inc., 2024 shareholder letter (SEC, form DEFA14A, 2025).