Work out your COBRA premium
Use the full premium, before the 2% fee is added. If the notice already shows the final amount you owe, that is your answer — you do not need this page.
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What the calculator is actually doing
COBRA is not a new insurance product and it is not priced like one. It is your existing employer plan, at your existing employer's group rate, with one change: you now pay the entire premium instead of your share of it, plus an administrative fee of up to 2%.
So the arithmetic is genuinely this simple:
The difficulty is never the multiplication. It is that most people have no idea what the full premium is, because they have only ever seen their own slice of it on a payslip. Your employer was quietly paying the rest, and the amount they were paying was almost certainly larger than the amount you were.
Why the number is such a shock
Nationally, in 2025, the average employer plan cost $9,325 a year for single coverage, of which the worker paid $1,440. That is about 15% of the bill landing on the payslip and roughly 85% absorbed by the employer. For family coverage the split is less lopsided but the numbers are far bigger: $26,993 a year, of which the worker paid $6,850.
| Single coverage | Family coverage | |
|---|---|---|
| Full premium | $777 a month | $2,249 a month |
| What came off your payslip | $120 a month | $571 a month |
| What your employer paid | $657 a month | $1,679 a month |
| COBRA premium (102%) | $793 a month | $2,294 a month |
| The jump | 6.6× | 4.0× |
National averages, KFF 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey. Monthly figures are the annual survey figures divided by twelve. Your own plan will differ — possibly a great deal.
That final row is the reason people call us in the first place. Nothing about the plan changed when the job ended. The coverage is identical, the network is identical, the deductible progress carries over. The only thing that disappeared was the employer's contribution, and on single coverage that contribution was doing about six-sevenths of the work.
Where the estimate comes from, and where it breaks
If you feed the calculator a payslip rather than an election notice, it works backwards: it annualises your deduction, divides by your share of the premium, and grosses the figure up to the whole cost. The default share is the national average from the survey above.
That is a reasonable estimate and it is the best anyone can do without your plan documents. It is also wrong in at least four specific ways, and you should know which ones apply to you before you plan around the number.
- Employer contributions vary enormously. The national average conceals employers who pay 100% of single coverage and employers who pay barely half. A generous former employer produces an estimate that is far too low, because the gap between your payslip and the real premium was much wider than average.
- Your payslip deduction may not be only premium. Dental, vision, an FSA or HSA contribution, supplemental life, disability cover — these often sit in the same block of deductions and are not part of your medical premium. COBRA also applies separately to dental and vision, and you can usually elect them independently.
- Pre-tax deductions understate the real cost to you. Your payslip deduction came out before tax. Your COBRA premium comes out after it. On identical dollars, COBRA costs you more of your take-home pay than the same premium did while you were employed.
- Premiums change on the plan year, not on your job. If your former employer's plan year rolls over while you are on COBRA, your premium moves with it. Your rate is tied to the plan, not frozen at the moment you left.
The 150% figure, and why most calculators get it wrong
Two situations let a plan charge more than 102%.
The disability extension. If the Social Security Administration determines that you were disabled at any point during the first 60 days of COBRA coverage, the 18-month period can be extended to 29 months for you and everyone covered with you. For the extra eleven months, the plan may charge up to 150% of the full premium.
Here is the part most calculators get wrong: the 150% applies only to months 19 through 29. The first eighteen months are charged at 102%, like anyone else's. Applying 150% across the whole 29 months overstates the total by exactly 25% — on an average family plan that is around $19,000 of money nobody will ever be asked for. The calculator above splits the two rates properly.
The second qualifying event. Divorce, legal separation, the death of the covered employee, or a dependent child aging off the plan can extend coverage to 36 months for the qualified beneficiaries. That extension stays at 102%.
The premium is not the number that should decide it
Once you have a real figure, the temptation is to compare it against a marketplace premium and pick the smaller one. That comparison is misleading often enough to be worth resisting.
Marketplace premiums are income-tested. COBRA is not. If your income dropped when the job ended — which is the usual case — the subsidy is calculated on what you expect to earn this calendar year, not on the salary you just lost. A household that was on $95,000 and now expects $40,000 can see a marketplace premium fall sharply, while the COBRA figure does not move at all, because it never looks at your income.
Pushing the other way:
- Your deductible carries forward on COBRA and resets on anything else. If you have already spent $3,000 of a $4,000 deductible this year, a new plan puts that back to zero. A plan that is $200 a month cheaper and resets a nearly-met deductible is not cheaper.
- COBRA keeps your exact network and formulary. Mid-treatment, mid-pregnancy, or with a specialist you cannot replace, that can be worth more than the premium gap.
- Above 400% of the federal poverty level there is no subsidy at all. The cliff returned in 2026. At that point you are comparing a full-price individual plan against a full-price group plan, and group plans are frequently the better product.
What to do with the number once you have it
Whatever the calculator told you, you almost certainly do not have to decide today, and knowing that is worth real money.
You have 60 days from the later of losing coverage or the date your election notice is sent in which to elect COBRA, and then 45 days from electing in which to make the first payment. Coverage, once elected and paid, is retroactive to the day your old coverage ended — so there is no gap.
Which means that for something close to three months you can hold the option without paying for it. If nothing happens medically, buy a marketplace plan or start a new job and never pay a COBRA premium at all. If something does happen, elect, pay the back premiums, and the treatment is covered because the coverage never actually lapsed.
Worth knowing before you plan around it: the first payment is the whole balance owed back to day one, not a payment plan. After that, premiums are monthly with a 30-day grace period.
Common questions
How do I calculate my COBRA premium?
Take the full monthly premium for your employer plan — the whole cost, employer share included — and multiply by 1.02. The 2% is the administrative fee the plan is allowed to add. The full premium is stated on your COBRA election notice; it is not the figure that came off your payslip, which was only your share.
Why is COBRA so much more expensive than what I was paying?
Because your employer was paying most of it and has stopped. In 2025 the average single plan cost $9,325 a year, of which the worker paid $1,440 — so about 85% of the bill was invisible to you. Nothing about the plan changed when you left; only who pays for it did.
Can this calculator tell me my exact COBRA cost?
Only if you give it the full premium from your election notice, in which case the arithmetic is exact. If you only have a payslip, it produces an estimate from national averages, and employer contributions vary far too much for that to be treated as a quote. Nobody outside your former employer's plan can state your real premium — not us, and not any other site.
What is the 2% administrative fee?
It is the maximum a plan may add on top of the premium to cover the cost of administering COBRA. That is why the figure is 102% rather than 100%. It is already included in the calculator's result — if someone quotes you a premium and then adds 2% on top, they have charged it twice.
When is COBRA 150% instead of 102%?
Only during the disability extension, and only for months 19 to 29. If the Social Security Administration finds you were disabled within the first 60 days of coverage, the 18 months can be extended to 29 and the plan may charge up to 150% for those extra eleven months. Months 1 to 18 stay at 102%.
Does the COBRA premium include dental and vision?
Not necessarily. Medical, dental and vision are usually separate elections under COBRA, and you can generally take one without the others. Check what your payslip deduction actually covered before assuming it was all medical — it often is not.
Can my COBRA premium increase while I am on it?
Yes. Your premium is tied to the plan, not frozen at the date you left, so it moves when the plan year rolls over and rates change. Plans generally may not change the rate more than once in a determination period outside of that.
Is there any way to reduce a COBRA premium?
Not the premium itself — it is the group rate and there is nothing to negotiate. What can be negotiated is who pays it: employers sometimes agree to cover some months of COBRA as part of a severance package, and it is very often not offered unless asked for. Beyond that, the lever is choosing a different route entirely, which is what a marketplace subsidy or Medicaid eligibility can do.
How much is COBRA for a family?
Nationally the average works out to about $2,294 a month, from an average family plan premium of $26,993 a year. Family plans vary more than single ones, so treat that as a starting point and use your election notice for the real figure.
Do I have to decide right away?
No. You have 60 days to elect from the later of losing coverage or the notice being sent, then 45 days to pay, and coverage backdates to the day your old cover ended. Just watch the marketplace Special Enrollment Period at the same time — it runs on its own clock and can close while you are still thinking about COBRA.
Talk it through with a licensed agent
Which option is right depends on your state, your income and which doctors you need to keep. A licensed agent can walk through it with you in about eight minutes.
Free to call, no obligation, and we never ask you for payment. CobraScout is paid by the agency that answers, not by you. TTY 711.
Sources
- KFF, 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey
- US Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration, An Employee's Guide to Health Benefits Under COBRA
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, COBRA continuation coverage
- HealthCare.gov, Losing job-based coverage