Rough estimate of annual term life insurance premium based on age, sum assured, term, and smoking status.
Insurers price term plans per ₹1,000 (or $1,000) of sum assured, with the rate rising with age, term length, and smoking status. This uses simplified illustrative rates, not any specific insurer's actual table.
Illustrative estimate only — actual premiums and payouts depend on the insurer's underwriting, medical checks, and policy terms. Always get a quote directly from a licensed insurer.
Term insurance premiums are priced almost entirely on risk, and smoking status is one of the sharpest levers insurers pull: a smoker (including tobacco chewers, not just cigarette smokers) commonly pays 40-60% more than a non-smoker for identical cover, and for a healthy 30-year-old male with ₹1 crore sum assured, being a smoker can roughly double the premium outright. Insurers verify this through medical tests and cotinine screening, and lying about smoking status on a proposal form is one of the most common reasons claims get rejected later — it counts as material non-disclosure, which insurers are legally entitled to investigate for the policy's first three years under the Insurance Act's incontestability provisions.
Age is the other dominant factor, and it moves in one direction only — premiums rise every year you wait, and they rise faster than income typically does. As a rough illustration, a non-smoker's premium at 25 can be roughly a third of the same cover's premium at 45, because mortality risk compounds with age far more than linearly in the later working years. Sum assured itself should generally be sized at 10-15 times your annual income at minimum (higher if you have significant debt or young dependents), and buying that cover in your 20s or early 30s locks in a lower rate for the entire policy term — a term plan's premium is typically fixed at purchase and doesn't rise with age later, so delaying the purchase is a permanent, compounding cost, not just a temporary one.
Typically 40-60% more for identical cover, and this includes tobacco chewers (gutkha, paan), not just cigarette smokers. For some age and cover combinations — a healthy 30-year-old with ₹1 crore cover, for instance — being a smoker can roughly double the premium.
It counts as material non-disclosure, which insurers can investigate and use to reject a claim, particularly within the policy's first three years under the Insurance Act's provisions. Smoking status is typically verified through medical tests, so misrepresenting it risks the entire purpose of the policy — leaving your family without the payout when they need it most.
A common starting guideline is 10-15 times your annual income, adjusted upward if you carry significant debt (like a large home loan) or have young dependents whose education and other costs stretch far into the future. It's a starting point for discussion, not a precise formula — see the Human Life Value or Life Cover Needed calculators for a more detailed estimate.
Because premiums are priced on the age (and health) you are at purchase, and a term plan's premium is typically fixed for the entire policy term once bought. Waiting means locking in a higher rate for the plan's full duration — the cost of delay isn't just paying more later, it's paying more for the entire term ahead, since older age at purchase means higher mortality risk priced in permanently.