Lemonade Pet Insurance Review and Pricing (2024) (2024)

Lemonade Pet Insurance At a Glance

Lemonade Pet Insurance is a top pet insurance company with affordable accident and illness plans for young and healthy pets. Unfortunately, Lemonade is not available in a number of states across the U.S., but offers lower-than-average waiting periods in the states it is available in.

The MarketWatch Guides team gave Lemonade 4.8 out of 5 stars as our top overall pet insurance pick and named it the cheapest provider for dogs.

Lemonade’s standout features include low and flexible pricing, artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted service and comprehensive wellness benefits. Although Lemonade won’t pay the vet directly, Lemonade will reimburse you for costs associated with emergency accidents and illnesses.

However, Lemonade plans do not include several coverages that other providers may include as standard benefits. If you want this coverage, you must pay extra each month.

Lemonade is a relatively new player in the insurance industry, offering pet health, auto, home and life insurance policies since 2015. Unlike other pet insurance providers that administer policies underwritten by separate companies, Lemonade is a full-stack insurer that sells, prices, administers and underwrites its own policies.

Lemonade is also registered as a public benefit corporation, or B-corp, because it takes a flat fee from premiums to run the business, pays out claims and then donates the remaining funds to charities.

As with most insurance providers, Lemonade has mixed customer reviews on platforms such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Trustpilot. Some customers praise the company and others outline bad experiences. Lemonade also operates and sells pet insurance policies in 37 U.S. states and Washington D.C.

Pros and Cons of Lemonade

How Lemonade Scored in Our Methodology

Lemonade scored 4.8 out of 5 stars based on our provider review methodology. Although the company scored well in all categories, it earned the most points for coverage and availability and lost points for cost and industry standing.

Compare Lemonade To Other Pet Insurance Companies

See how Lemonade compares to our team’s other top-rated pet insurance providers below.

How Much Does Lemonade Pet Insurance Cost?

Lemonade sells a standard accident and illness policy that costs $41 on average. When broken down, coverage costs $52 a month for dogs and $29 for cats. These rates are lower than pet insurance costs nationwide, which average $46 per month. Lemonade’s plan structure, which offers base coverage and the option to add more, allows policyholders to choose and pay for only what their pet needs.

We calculated these averages by gathering quotes for ten different sample pet profiles. Sample pet profiles include mixed-breed and purebred dogs and cats, ranging from 3 months old to 8 years old. We collected a total of 713 quotes from Lemonade.

Lemonade also offers three preventive care plans that provide partial reimbursem*nts for routine care services, such as vaccines, diagnostic testing, dental care, and spay or neuter surgery. Options are available for adult pets or puppies and kittens.

The table below shows the average monthly costs for Lemonade’s various plan options.

Note: Preventive care costs vary based on the selected reimbursem*nt rates. Our estimates considered an 80% rate for sample pets that included 5-year-old and 2-month-old dogs and cats.

Lemonade’s base plan does not cover pre-existing conditions, routine care, physical therapy, dental illnesses, behavior treatments, exam fees, end-of-life care, alternative therapies, elective procedures or prescription food.

Preventive Care Plans

Lemonade has three preventive care plans, including two options for adults and one for puppies and kittens in need of more extensive veterinary care.

Lemonade Optional Add-on Coverage

Lemonade structures its accident and illness plans so customers can pick from a range of extra coverages to custom-fit their pet’s needs. Each add-on includes added monthly costs, but fees will vary based on your pet’s base plan cost and chosen customizations.

To get an idea of average costs across available add-ons, we requested quotes for a 5-year-old mixed-breed, medium-sized dog in Illinois. Here are more details about each add-on and the associated cost.

Customizable Coverage Levels

With options to customize coverage, pet owners can choose from various deductibles, reimbursem*nt rates and annual limits to best balance cost and coverage.

Deductible Options

The deductible is the amount you pay before the insurer starts to contribute. Lemonade offers the following deductible options: $100, $250, $500 or $750. Choosing the lowest deductible means you should pay less if your pet needs care, but your monthly premium will increase.

Reimbursem*nt Rates

A reimbursem*nt rate is the percentage of a veterinary bill an insurance provider will cover after the policyholder meets their deductible. Lemonade offers reimbursem*nt rates of 70%, 80% or 90%, which is similar to most other providers. Choosing a higher reimbursem*nt rate means the plan pays more of your pet’s expenses, but your monthly premium will increase.

Annual Limit Options

An annual coverage limit is the maximum amount an insurance provider will cover over a given policy term. Lemonade annual limit options include $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, $50,000 or $100,000. Higher coverage limits can provide peace of mind that you have coverage in case of a pet emergency but will increase monthly premiums. Most pet owners should not need more than $10,000 to $20,000 in annual coverage, based on our research.

Sign-Up, Claims Filing and Payout Processes

For tech-savvy customers, signing up for a Lemonade policy through the company’s mobile app or website should feel easy. Customers must use this online system to sign up for coverage — policies are not sold over the phone. An AI-based assistant will walk you through the quote process, which takes a bit longer than other providers we’ve reviewed. If you make a mistake, you’ll have to start over from the beginning rather than editing what you’ve already entered.

Once you’ve entered all the information required to obtain a quote, you should see your pet’s total policy cost, along with options for add-ons, wellness coverage, and customizations using convenient drop-down menus and toggle switches. The interface is easy to navigate and includes links to download a sample policy or read more about how each coverage option works, which supports Lemonade’s claim of total transparency with its customers.

After signing up, you must submit your pet’s complete medical record so the company can determine if it has pre-existing conditions, which can speed up future claims processing. Lemonade uses AI to walk customers through the claims process and submit required documents. The company can instantly approve and pay simple wellness and illness claims using AI, but more complex cases will require human review.

Customer reviews note that the company processes most claims in two to three days, but a few policyholders on Trustpilot had difficulty contacting their assigned claims advocate. Human contact is minimized because the provider relies on tech and AI, which can create misunderstandings and drawn-out appeals in some cases.

During sign-up, you’ll see a link to help you understand how the company calculates reimbursem*nts.

Lemonade Waiting Periods and Age Restrictions

A waiting period determines how long customers must wait from the time they purchase a policy for coverage to officially begin. Lemonade will consider any conditions that occur or get discussed with your veterinarian before or during the waiting period as pre-existing and exclude future from coverage, regardless of whether you receive an official diagnosis.

Lemonade enforces the following waiting periods: two days for accidents, 14 days for illnesses and six months for cruciate ligament injuries.

You can enroll pets in coverage starting at 8 weeks or older. Lemonade imposes upper age limits for enrollment based on breed. Our team could not find more details about age limits on Lemonade’s website, but the company often denied senior purebred pets aged 10 years or older a policy during the quote process.

What Customers Think About Lemonade Pet Insurance

As with most insurance providers, Lemonade has mixed reviews from customers online. The company has 4.4 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot and 2 out of 5 stars on the BBB, both of which cover all of its insurance products. Our team has included examples of frequently-mentioned positive and negative reviews below.

What Customers Like

• Affordable rates: Many customers, including this one, appreciated Lemonade’s fair pricing.
• User-friendly app: Users, such as this customer, found the Lemonade app easy to navigate.
• Fast reimbursem*nts: Many customers, including this reviewer, found that claims were reimbursed quickly. Other reviews noted that wellness plan reimbursem*nts were typically approved immediately.
• Friendly representatives: Some customers, such as this one, described caring and friendly service from the Lemonade team.

What Customers Don’t Like

• Difficulty reaching customer service: Some customers noted that claims advocates were difficult to reach by phone, which can make the process more difficult. Other reviewers noted a prolonged claims process due to communication issues.
• Rate increases: A few customers, including this one, experienced rate increases that doubled their initially quoted costs.
• Pre-existing conditions: Some customers, such as this reviewer, misunderstood the pre-existing conditions policy or felt it was applied unfairly.

Our team reached out to Lemonade for comment on the above-mentioned customer reviews and its claims process but the company did not provide a response.

Lemonade vs. Spot

Lemonade and Spot both received high ratings from our team, but the two companies operate differently. Lemonade provides low-cost, minimal-coverage base plans with optional add-ons, while Spot provides full and comprehensive coverage without the need for add-ons. Spot plans cost more than Lemonade plans because of differences in coverage, although the cost gap decreases for customers who purchase add-ons with Lemonade.

Read our Spot Pet Insurance Review to learn more.

Lemonade vs. Trupanion

Trupanion and Lemonade are on opposite ends of the pet insurance cost spectrum, based on our analysis. Lemonade offers relatively affordable plans, while Trupanion can cost more than $100 per month. Trupanion operates on a vet-direct pay model but doesn’t offer wellness coverage or customization options that could help decrease monthly premiums. Comparatively, Lemonade asks customers to pay only for the coverages their pet needs.

Read our Trupanion Pet Insurance Review to learn more.

Where Is Lemonade Available?

One of Lemonade’s drawbacks is that it is not available in all 50 U.S. states. The company sells pet insurance in the following states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District Of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

If your state is not listed above, you cannot purchase a Lemonade policy or transfer coverage from a different state.

Read more about state-specific coverage below.

Methodology: Our System for Rating Pet Insurance Companies