Average Cost of Bulldog Insurance 2026

Bulldog pet insurance costs start from a low of around £30 to £45 a month (£360 to £540 a year) for a puppy, but older Bulldogs cost a lot more to insure. Prices are a bit different for French Bulldogs and English Bulldogs, however. How much will you need to budget to help cover vet bills in 2026?

Contents

• How Much is Pet Insurance for French Bulldogs?
• How Much is Pet Insurance for English Bulldogs?
• The Cost of Bulldog Insurance for Older Pets
• How to Save Money on Bulldog Insurance

How Much is French Bulldog Insurance?

Dog insurance for a French Bulldog starts from around £30 per month for a basic lifetime cover policy with at least £2,000 of annually-renewing vet fee cover.

Lifetime cover provides financial protection for recurring or chronic problems that frequently affect bulldogs (e.g., respiratory, skin, and eye conditions).

Max benefit policies also provide long-term cover over many years for recurring or chronic problems, but only until you have used up the set financial vet fee limit for each individual condition.

Therefore, lifetime cover is generally much better suited for Bulldogs. (That said, for plans with the same £ limit, max benefit could potentially offer better coverage in a single year where your dog is affected by multiple expensive conditions. For example, if they're affected by three separate conditions all costing £1,000 to treat, a lifetime policy with a strict £2,000 annual limit would not cover your £3,000 of vet bills that year, but a £2,000 max benefit plan per condition would).

Interestingly, in our study the prices for Maximum Benefit per Condition policies were often even higher than Lifetime premiums for this breed.

Lifetime is technically the better coverage option since the vet fee limit renews each year. Because of this, Lifetime plans certainly seem like the better value option when compared to Max Benefit/Per Condition plans.

Poll: French Bulldog Pet Insurance Costs

Let's see what our readers pay in real life to insure their Frenchies. If you have been paying for French Bulldog insurance or if you've received a quote, let us know how much it is per month so we can find out what real pet owners actually pay.

How Much is English Bulldog Insurance?

Dog insurance for English Bulldogs starts from around £42 a month for a Lifetime policy with at least £2,000 of vet cover for a one-year-old dog.

But the average premium you'd need to pay for cheap pet insurance from the time your Bulldog is a young puppy through to 7 years of age will be closer to £60+ per month, assuming your pet remains healthy throughout. This is because pet insurance prices increase with age.

Max Benefit plans would typically be a touch cheaper for most breeds - but that cover is less robust as it doesn't renew each year and oddly you can find lifetime cover for cheaper for an English Bulldog.

As Bulldogs are prone to recurring health conditions, Lifetime cover is widely considered to be the best type of pet insurance for a Bulldog.

You used to be able to find a range of 12 month, time-limited policies for around 33% less than Lifetime cover, but this type of policy won't afford long-term protection for a Bulldog's recurring health problems like respiratory disease (BOAS), cherry eye, infections in skin folds, and urinary tract stones.

Lifetime cover, while expensive, is vital to help cover anticipated vet bills to treat the chronic and recurring health conditions that English bulldogs are known for.

Interestingly, it is now incredibly hard to find any time-limited cover for a bulldog at all - mostly because underwriters know this type of cover is entirely unsuitable for the breed.

Poll: English Bulldog Pet Insurance Costs

Let's see what our readers pay in real life. If you have been paying for English Bulldog insurance or if you've received a quote, let us know how much it is per month so we can see what real pet owners actually pay.

Bulldog Insurance Costs for Older Pets

Generally speaking, the cost of Bulldog insurance increases every year as your dog ages—the exception to this rule is that prices can drop from new puppy to one year of age.

But from there, dog insurance prices tend to rise each year due to age-related risk factors—even if you don't claim. In fact, by the time your Bulldog is 5 years of age, the insurance premium could be 50% higher compared to the premium you paid when your dog was young; by 7 years old, you could easily pay two times as much.

As with all dog insurance, the cost of Bulldog insurance generally rises each year.

How to Save Money on Bulldog Insurance

If you want to save money on Bulldog insurance, there are a few options to consider to help you find a suitable plan with a lower premium. Read more about what's important to look for in pet insurance for Bulldogs in our article, Bulldog Insurance: 4 Top Tips to Ensure the Right Cover.

Use a Comparison Site

Pet insurance rates vary widely, with the most expensive plans costing multiples of the cheapest plans. For that reason, it's a good idea to compare prices before committing to know if you're getting a good deal or not and to check the market to see what's a reasonable premium to pay for your dog.

To help save money and find a plan that fits in your budget, you can compare prices by checking NimbleFins' pet insurance comparison in order to get quick access to prices from a wide array of pet insurers.

Consider Different Types of Insurance

Some people consider a different type of pet insurance to lower their premium, but this isn't always effective or safe for a Bulldog.

A 12-Month Time Limited plan (if you can even find one for the breed) typically costs less than Lifetime cover for French and English Bulldogs. However, a time-limited plan only helps with vet bills for 12 months per condition, which is woefully insufficient for the recurring types of health issues suffered by Bulldogs that can come and go for years.

Saving money on premiums now will likely mean you pay thousands more in out-of-pocket vet fees later if you choose a time-limited plan for a brachycephalic breed.

Additionally, pet insurance plans that include dental illness will typically cost more. (Dental illness includes treatment of conditions such as gum disease and tooth extractions related to periodontitis, which Bulldogs are prone to due to their crowded jaws.)

Choose a Higher Excess

Companies like ManyPets let you easily select from a few different excess options to see how the premium changes. Volunteering a higher excess (e.g., £250 instead of £99) typically means a lower monthly premium. However, if the difference is only a few quid a month, the savings might not be worth it when claim time comes.

How Much Cover do You Really Need?

Opt for a lower vet limit to reduce your premium if necessary to fit in your budget, because having a lower vet limit is better than having no insurance at all.

For example, all else equal, a plan with £3,000 of cover would cost a lot less than a plan with £10,000 of cover, and £3,000 of cover will still be a big help if vet bills arise.

Given the exceptionally high cost of Bulldog insurance, top-tier £15,000 plans can be entirely uneconomical for some families. While a lower limit means you have fewer funds at your disposal if your dog needs complex surgery, at least you have some level of protection should the need arise. Ultimately, this is a personal financial decision.

FAQs

Final note: many pet insurance companies will increase premiums if you claim. Given the higher odds of making a claim for a Bulldog compared to many other breeds, this is something to keep in mind. The prices in this article assume a pet has been healthy; premiums could be a lot higher if you claim. To learn more about how claims can affect premiums, see our company by company comparison here.

Methodology

In order to determine the average cost of pet insurance for French Bulldogs and English Bulldogs for 2026, we gathered dozens of sample quotes from nearly two dozen pet insurers and updated these figures in March 2026 to reflect the current marketplace. We took the average of the 5 cheapest quotes for Lifetime and Max Benefit policies for dogs of various ages. We considered plans with at least £2,000 of vet cover. These prices represent our sample dogs, but your prices may be quite different. Factors such as where you live can even impact your dog insurance premiums.

The set of insurers used for this study consisted of:

Many of these companies are included in the list of best pet insurance companies. If you're just now thinking of buying a puppy, see our article about the Average Cost of Bulldog Puppies to get an idea of how much you'll spend to buy one.