How much does pet insurance cost in NZ?
Financial advice is provided by Craig Smith Business Services Limited, trading as Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver, a licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931). QuoteHub is a trading name.
Three of New Zealand's seven pet insurers publish an actual example premium on their own website. Southern Cross Pet's own Compare Pet Insurance page shows its PetCare plan starting from approximately $8 a month, based on a domestic shorthair cat aged 0 to 1 year on the lowest BronzeRibbon tier ($2,500 annual benefit, $500 excess, 30% co-pay), current as at 1 August 2026 (retrieved 17 September 2026). The other four insurers that sell standalone pet cover in New Zealand, AA Pet, Cove, PD Insurance and SPCA Pet, publish no price at all on their public pages; you only see a number after you request a quote. Every figure below is the insurer's own published example, with the pet, plan and date it was calculated on, and a link so you can check it yourself.
What NZ pet insurers publish as an example premium
Figures are exactly as published by each insurer, for the pet and plan stated in the "Basis published" column, retrieved 17 September 2026. Disclosure: QuoteHub does not sell these policies on this page. Its licensed advisers may receive commission from an insurer if you take out cover through them.
| Insurer | Example premium | Basis published | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
 AA Pet Insurance |
Not published | , | AA Pet Insurance |
 Cove |
Not published | , | Cove pet insurance |
 PD Insurance |
Not published | , | PD Insurance |
 Petcover |
Dog from $29/month; cat from $20/month (Petcover NZ, retrieved 17 September 2026) | Core plan (Mid-Range family), a Jack Russell (dog) and a Domestic Shorthair (cat), 30% contribution, $200 excess | Petcover NZ |
 SPCA Pet |
Not published | , | SPCA Pet Insurance |
 Southern Cross Pet |
PetCare from approximately $8/month; AcciPet from approximately $7/month (Southern Cross Pet, retrieved 17 September 2026) | Domestic shorthair cat aged 0 to 1 year; PetCare BronzeRibbon ($2,500 benefit) or AcciPet ($5,000 benefit); $500 excess, 30% co-pay; current as at 1 August 2026 | Compare Pet Insurance |
 Tower |
Cat from $3/week; dog from $4/week (Tower pet insurance, retrieved 17 September 2026) | Accident Only plan, excludes the optional dental care add-on | Tower pet insurance |
Two things to read carefully in that table. First, Southern Cross's two figures are both for a cat on the lowest cover tier, not a dog, and the site marks them with an asterisk as approximate; the insurer's own compare page does not publish a matching dog figure. Second, Petcover's and Tower's examples are both for accident-only or entry-tier cover rather than a full illness-inclusive plan, so they sit at the cheap end of what each insurer actually sells; see does pet insurance cover dental NZ for what Tower's Accident Only plan and its optional dental add-on each exclude.
Where nothing is published, and why
AA Pet Insurance, Cove, PD Insurance and SPCA Pet all route every visitor straight to a quote form rather than showing a starting price, and none of their FAQ, plan or policy wording pages checked for this page contain a "from $X" style example. That is a deliberate design choice most NZ insurers make once a policy is priced individually by pet age, breed and location rather than sold at a flat rate, and it means a headline number simply does not exist to quote for these four. You can see each insurer's own plan structure, even without a price, at AA Pet Insurance, Cove, PD Insurance and SPCA Pet Insurance; a full side-by-side of what every insurer does publish, plan by plan, is at compare pet insurance NZ, and our pet insurance hub covers all seven insurers in one place.
What actually moves your price
Every insurer that quotes individually, which is six of the seven once you count Southern Cross's own asterisk on its example, prices the same handful of inputs, even though none publishes its actual pricing formula:
- Pet age. Southern Cross's and Petcover's published examples both use a young pet (0 to 1 year); an older pet on the same plan costs more, and several insurers stop accepting new policies past a set entry age. See pet insurance for older dogs NZ and pet insurance for senior cats NZ for the age limits themselves.
- Species and breed. Cat premiums run below dog premiums across the insurers that separate the two (Southern Cross's AcciPet cat example is cheaper than its PetCare cat example on a smaller benefit limit alone), and breed-specific loadings exist industry-wide even where no insurer publishes the loading itself.
- Plan tier and annual benefit limit. Southern Cross's own two figures show this directly: the same cat costs $8 a month on PetCare's $2,500-limit BronzeRibbon tier but only $7 a month on AcciPet's $5,000-limit accident-only cover (Southern Cross Pet, retrieved 17 September 2026), because AcciPet excludes illness entirely. A higher annual limit or an illness-inclusive plan costs more than an accident-only plan with a lower limit.
- Excess and co-pay chosen. Where an insurer lets you select your own excess or co-pay percentage, a higher excess or a lower reimbursement percentage lowers the premium; see pet insurance excess explained NZ for how the excess and co-pay interact on an actual claim.
- Multi-pet discounts. Several insurers publish a discount for insuring more than one pet on the same account, on top of the base premium; see multi-pet insurance discounts NZ for what each insurer states.
None of the seven insurers publishes the weighting it gives to any one of these factors, so the only way to see what your own pet costs is a quote built on that pet's actual details, not an example built on someone else's.
Questions people ask
Is $8 a month a realistic price for my pet?
Only if your pet matches the exact profile the figure was built on. Southern Cross's $8-a-month PetCare example is for a domestic shorthair cat aged 0 to 1 year on the lowest BronzeRibbon benefit tier with a $500 excess and 30% co-pay (Compare Pet Insurance, retrieved 17 September 2026); a dog, an older pet, a different breed, a higher benefit limit or a lower excess will all move the number, and Southern Cross itself marks the figure as approximate.
Why do some insurers not show a price at all?
AA Pet, Cove, PD Insurance and SPCA Pet all price a policy individually against the pet's own age, breed and cover choices rather than publishing a flat starting rate, so there is no single figure that would apply to most visitors. This is common practice, not a sign of anything hidden; the policy wording and plan structure for each of these four is still fully published even though the price is not.
Does a cheaper example premium mean cheaper cover overall?
Not necessarily. Tower's and Petcover's published examples are both for their lowest-cost structures, accident-only cover in Tower's case and the mid-tier Core plan in Petcover's, so they are not directly comparable to Southern Cross's PetCare example, which includes illness cover. Comparing the annual limit, excess, co-pay and what is actually covered matters more than comparing two headline numbers built on different products; see compare pet insurance NZ for the full structural comparison.
Is pet insurance cheaper for cats than dogs?
Where an insurer publishes both, yes. Petcover's own example shows a cat starting from $20 a month against a dog from $29 a month on the same Core plan and excess (Petcover NZ, retrieved 17 September 2026), and Tower's own example shows a cat from $3 a week against a dog from $4 a week on the same Accident Only plan (Tower pet insurance, retrieved 17 September 2026). Neither insurer explains the gap, but in both cases the cat figure is lower.
A licensed NZ adviser can compare the pet insurers on your pet's details. Get pet cover quotes.
Adviser's view
QuoteHub's read is that a published example premium tells you almost nothing about your own pet's price, since every one is built on a young, healthy animal on the lowest cover tier; the real number only comes from a quote against your pet's actual age and breed.
Get pet cover quotes from a licensed NZ adviser · free, no obligation.
Cite this page QuoteHub NZ (2026). Pet Insurance Cost in NZ: What Insurers Publish. www.quotehub.co.nz/pet-insurance/pet-insurance-cost-nz. Updated 2026-09-17.
Explore related pages: Life Insurance, Income Protection, Health Insurance, Trauma Insurance, For Brokers.