What Car Insurance Is Required in Minnesota?

Most explanations of Minnesota's car insurance law stop at a list of numbers. That's the easy part. What's harder to find is what those numbers do on a bad day: who each coverage protects, how a $60,000 limit gets divided when three people are hurt, what counts as proof when a trooper asks for it, and what actually happens if your coverage lapsed last week. Our complete Minnesota car insurance guide covers the whole system at a glance. This article goes deep on one question, what the law requires, and reads it straight from the statutes on the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes site, translated into plain English.

Property damage

$10,000Per accident, all property combined

Rental car damage

$35,000Floor under 65B.49 subd. 5a

Minimum fine

$200Driving uninsured, 169.797

License revocation

Up to 12 monthsMandatory on conviction

What does each required coverage pay, and up to what limit?

Short answerLiability pays people you hurt, PIP pays your own household's injury losses regardless of fault, and UM and UIM pay your injuries when the at-fault driver has no insurance or too little.

Under Minn. Stat. 65B.48, every owner of a vehicle that must be registered, or that's principally garaged in Minnesota, has to keep a "plan of reparation security" in force whenever the car might be driven. That's the legal name for your auto policy. Here's what the plan must contain, with the subdivision that sets each floor:

A few details in the statute text matter more than they look. Liability covers you in other cars, too: it applies to a vehicle "permissively operated by an insured," and it applies to crashes in Minnesota, anywhere in the United States and its territories, and in Canada. Uninsured motorist coverage, as Minn. Stat. 65B.43 defines it, covers bodily injury, including injury from a hit-and-run driver. It doesn't repair your car. Underinsured motorist coverage pays damages you couldn't recover from the at-fault driver's policy, up to your own UIM limit (65B.49 subd. 4a).

The $40,000 of PIP is split in two pools. The first $20,000 is for medical expenses. The second $20,000 covers income loss, replacement services, funeral costs and survivors' benefits, each with its own weekly or total cap. How those pools get paid, the deadline for notifying your insurer and the point where you can sue the other driver are a topic of their own, and we walk through them in how Minnesota no-fault PIP works after a crash.

What 30/60/10 means in a real crash

The three numbers are three separate ceilings, and the middle one caps the first. Say you run a red light on Cliff Road and hit a car with three people inside:

• One person's injuries come to $45,000. Your policy pays $30,000, the per-person ceiling. The other $15,000 is a claim against you personally.
• Three people are each hurt for $25,000. That's $75,000 in injuries, and every one of them is under the per-person cap. But the per-accident ceiling is $60,000, so $15,000 is left over, again aimed at you.
• The other car is a total loss at $28,000. Property damage pays $10,000, and that $10,000 is shared with anything else you hit, such as a second car, a traffic signal or a storefront.

Two statute rules sit underneath those limits. An insurer doesn't have to sell you UM or UIM above your own bodily injury liability limit, and limits on two or more cars can't be stacked for one accident (65B.49 subd. 3a). Our parent guide explains how we'd size limits around both rules.

Reviewed by Ryan Block · Licensed Minnesota Insurance Agent (MN Lic. #40025895)

Ryan owns Block Agency, a Farmers Insurance® agency in Eagan licensed in Minnesota and Wisconsin. His bilingual team helps Twin Cities families size their coverage before they need it. More about Ryan

What counts as proof of insurance in Minnesota, and can you show it on your phone?

Short answerAn insurance card (paper or electronic), a written statement from a licensed agent, or the policy itself counts, and every driver must carry one and show it when a peace officer asks.

Minn. Stat. 169.791 requires every driver to carry proof of insurance and to produce it "on demand of a peace officer." The statute accepts three forms: an insurance identification card, a written statement from a licensed insurance agent, or the insurance policy. Showing it on your phone is fine. Under 65B.482, your insurer can provide the card electronically if you agree. And under 169.791 subd. 2(b), showing the card on your phone doesn't count as consent for the officer to access anything else on it.

Your insurer has to give you a card for each covered vehicle when the policy starts and again at every renewal. It lists the insured's name, the policy number, the coverage dates, the vehicle's year, make and model, at least the last three digits of the VIN, and the insurer's name. Check it when it arrives. A card that names last year's car, or shows expired dates, is the kind of thing that turns a two-minute stop into a court date.

If you're insured but couldn't show it

It happens: a dead phone, a new car, a card still sitting in the mail. If you own the car, the statute lets you avoid a conviction by getting proof to the court administrator by the date and time of your first court appearance listed on the citation, and mailing counts if it arrives in time. The Minnesota Judicial Branch's proof-of-insurance instructions say the insurance must have been in effect on the date of the offense noted on the citation, and that valid proof may get the insurance charge dismissed.

If you were driving someone else's car, the rules shift. You can give the officer the owner's name and address, and the owner then has 10 days after receiving a notice to produce proof (169.791 subd. 4). And whatever you do, don't improvise. Displaying a fake or altered card, or one you know is no longer in force, is its own misdemeanor under 169.793, with a fine of at least $200.

What are the penalties for driving uninsured in Minnesota?

Short answerIt's a misdemeanor with a $200 minimum fine, your license must be revoked for up to 12 months, and a third offense in 10 years or a serious-injury crash makes it a gross misdemeanor.

Minnesota treats uninsured driving as a crime, not just a paperwork problem. Minn. Stat. 169.797 covers three people: the owner who drives or lets someone drive a car they know, or have reason to know, isn't insured; the driver who knows or has reason to know the owner has no coverage; and the owner who falsely claims to have insurance when registering the car. Here's how the consequences stack up:

Two of those rows deserve a second look. First, the administrative track runs separately from the criminal case. The Commissioner of Public Safety can act on department records alone, and can require the insurer's certificate to be noncancelable for up to a year before your plates come back. Second, the no-fault law's protections are built for insured drivers. Under subdivision 1, an uninsured owner isn't relieved of tort liability by chapter 65B, so the injured person's claim lands on them directly, with no insurer to defend or pay it.

There's a quieter cost as well. Minn. Stat. 72A.20 subd. 23(c) bars an auto insurer from using a past gap in coverage as an underwriting standard or a reason to deny you, so a few years without a car isn't held against you. But that protection doesn't apply if you were required by law to carry insurance and didn't. A lapse while you owned a registered car is exactly that case. If you're switching carriers, start the new policy the day the old one ends.

What isn't required by Minnesota law, and when is it required anyway?

Short answerCollision, comprehensive, rental reimbursement, towing and any limit above the minimums are optional under state law, but a lender or leasing company can require collision and comprehensive as a condition of the loan.

The statute protects other people and your own household's injuries. It doesn't protect the car. Nothing in Minnesota law requires coverage for your own vehicle's damage, which is why a policy that only meets the minimums pays nothing to fix your car after a slide into the guardrail on I-35E, a hailstorm or a deer on a county road. Those claims belong to collision and comprehensive. For how the deer case plays out, see our guide to hitting a deer in Minnesota.

The Minnesota Department of Commerce notes that a car lender may require collision and comprehensive. Leases typically do too. That requirement comes from your contract, not the statute, so read the loan or lease paperwork for the maximum deductible it allows and whether the lender must be listed on the policy. Dropping either coverage on a financed car can put you in breach of the loan.

A few more things the minimum doesn't do:

• It doesn't cover app driving. Rideshare drivers have separate statutory minimums, and a personal policy can exclude those periods. Our parent guide covers the rideshare rules.
• It doesn't include PIP on a motorcycle. Minnesota doesn't require PIP on a motorcycle, and owners need liability coverage under 65B.48 subd. 5. That conversation belongs on our motorcycle insurance page.
• It doesn't protect your assets beyond the limits. If you own a home or have savings, the limits above the floor are where protection lives, and an umbrella policy in Minnesota can sit on top of them.

If the premium is what's pushing you toward the floor, there are better levers than cutting coverage. Our guide to lowering your Minnesota premium walks through the ones that keep the coverage intact.

Meeting the requirement: smart vs risky

Does your Minnesota policy follow you into a rental car, another state or Canada?

Short answerGenerally yes: Minnesota law extends a personal auto policy to a short-term rental car, with at least $35,000 for damage to it, and your liability coverage applies anywhere in the U.S., its territories and Canada.

Minnesota has an unusually specific rental car rule. Under 65B.49 subd. 5a, a personal auto policy that names you, a natural person, as the insured has to extend its PIP, liability and UM/UIM coverages to a car you rent, and must cover damage to the rental and its loss of use under the property damage part of the policy. That obligation doesn't depend on fault. If your property damage limit is below $35,000, the rental coverage still has to be at least $35,000.

The rule has edges. It applies to cars, pickups and vans rented by the day, week or month, plus rented trucks up to 26,000 pounds and loaner cars from a repair shop. It doesn't apply to rentals longer than a month or deals with a purchase option. Loss-of-use compensation is limited to 14 days. Minnesota rental contracts must also carry a notice that your personal policy covers the rental, and a collision damage waiver can't be sold unless you acknowledge in writing that you've read it. The statute doesn't address deductibles, so check your own policy terms and declarations page before you decline anything at the counter.

Driving out of state, and visitors driving here

Your liability coverage applies to crashes in Minnesota, the United States, its territories and possessions, and Canada (65B.49 subd. 3). If you're moving rather than visiting, the car's policy needs to follow the state where the car lives. Wisconsin, for example, uses different rules, which our parent guide summarizes.

For visitors, Minn. Stat. 65B.50 treats an auto liability policy, "wherever issued," as including Minnesota's no-fault and liability coverages while the vehicle is in Minnesota. Under 65B.48 subd. 1, a nonresident owner must keep coverage in force the whole time the car is driven here. New residents have 60 days to register a passenger vehicle, and the registration asks for the insurer's name, policy number and expiration date, according to the Department of Public Safety. Moving to the south metro? Our Eagan car insurance guide covers what's local.

Did Minnesota's car insurance requirements change in 2025 or 2026?

Short answerNo: the 30/60/10 liability, $40,000 PIP and 25/50 UM/UIM minimums are unchanged, and the bills introduced in 2025 and 2026 to raise them were not enacted.

Some websites say Minnesota's minimum limits have gone up. As of October 2026, they haven't. The history line on 65B.49 in the 2025 Minnesota Statutes shows its most recent amendment in 2023, and the PIP section, 65B.44, shows none since 2015. Two bills did propose higher floors, and the Legislature's bill-status pages show neither got past introduction and committee referral:

The 2025 bill also would have doubled PIP to $80,000 for traumatic brain injuries. None of it became law, and the current minimums are the ones in force. If a future session does raise them, the bills so far have applied new limits at the next issue or renewal date, so the change would reach your policy at renewal.

What did change recently is smaller but useful. A 2023 law added a time limit to 65B.49 (subd. 10): a lawsuit over underinsured motorist coverage must be started within four years of when the claim accrues. A 2025 law (72A.20 subd. 42) requires your insurer to deliver a copy of your current auto or home policy to the first named insured within 21 days of a request, once per policy period. That's the easiest way to see exactly what you carry before you shop. Our quote checklist shows what else to gather.

The Bottom Line

Minnesota's requirement is four coverages, not one number: 30/60/10 liability, $40,000 of no-fault PIP, and 25/50 each of uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. None of that changed for 2026. Carry proof in the car and on your phone, and if you're ever cited while insured, send the proof before you pay anything.

The minimums keep you legal. They don't fix your car, and they cap what your policy pays for the people you hurt at amounts a single serious crash can pass. If your declarations page reads 30/60/10, that's the place to start: raise liability first, then bring UM and UIM up to match.

When you're ready, we'll price it both ways, at your current limits and at limits that fit your household. We start with Farmers and can look at additional carriers when Farmers isn't the right fit. See how we build policies on our Minnesota auto insurance page, or start a quote online. Se habla español.

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Last reviewed by Ryan Block, licensed Minnesota insurance agent, on October 27, 2026. Minnesota statutes cited (65B.43, 65B.44, 65B.48, 65B.49, 65B.50, 65B.482, 72A.20, 169.791, 169.792, 169.793, 169.797 and 171.29) were checked against revisor.mn.gov on that date, along with the Legislature's bill-status pages for SF 2639, SF 3630 and HF 3482, the Minnesota Department of Commerce auto insurance basics page, the Department of Public Safety's new-resident registration page and the Minnesota Judicial Branch's proof-of-insurance instructions. This article is general information, not legal advice or a substitute for reading your own policy. Coverage depends on your specific contract, and not all coverages and discounts are available from every insurer.