Mercury vs Root Insurance (2026)

Image source: Pexels

Choosing between Mercury and Root depends largely on how you want your insurance priced. Root is a better fit for low-mileage drivers who are comfortable with telematics, while Mercury offers a more conventional policy from an established carrier with an A rating. Mercury isn't telematics-free, though. Its MercuryGO app offers up to 40% off at renewal for safe driving. The difference is that Root's score sets your rate, while Mercury's only discounts it. Published price comparisons don't agree on which company is cheaper, though, and the two overlap in several different states. Insurify's data (Mercury and Root, both updated September 17, 2026) puts Mercury at $2,052 a year and Root at about $2,160 (from Root's published $180/month) for drivers ages 20 to 70 with clean records. But your own record, credit, and ZIP code will do more to shape what you actually pay than the choice between these two carriers.

Where You Can Actually Buy Both

Mercury and Root have a surprisingly small overlap. As of August 18, 2026, Mercury writes auto insurance in 11 states, while Root operates in 37. That leaves just 10 states where you can choose between both companies: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia. Mercury's 11th state is New York, where Root isn't currently available. Root lists all 37 of those states in its own corporate disclosures, most recently on September 1, 2026, which is the quickest way to check the overlap for yourself.

Root's footprint has been changing quickly. The company launched in New Jersey on July 22, 2026, making it the 37th state in which Root offers auto insurance. That means older articles listing Root in 34, 35, and 36 states may already be out of date. Root's own availability page is the better reference when checking whether coverage is offered where you live. Root has also named what's next: Wyoming, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Michigan, Idaho, and Maine, all pending regulatory approval, against a stated goal of covering the contiguous U.S. by 2027.

Because Root keeps expanding, it's worth rechecking this every few months rather than trusting a static number. One more wrinkle worth knowing if you're shopping in the biggest overlap state: Root's telematics pricing doesn't apply in California. Root's own California FAQ says coverage there "is not based on telematics, and credit score is not a rating factor." So a Californian comparing these two companies isn't actually getting the app-based product Root is known for elsewhere. In California, the telematics picture actually flips. MercuryGO runs in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia; Mercury's California usage-based option is a separate program called RealDrive. So a Californian choosing on driving-based pricing is looking at a Mercury program that offers it and a Root policy that doesn't. The same overlap also includes Texas and Florida, where Root's telematics model does apply as advertised.

The overlap isn't evenly weighted, either. Ten states is a short list, but it covers close to half the drivers who come to us to compare rates. In the 12 months through January 2026, our Trust Record counted 2.3 million quote comparisons, and those ten states accounted for roughly 47% of them — Florida alone is 11.5%, the highest share of any state, followed by Texas at 9.6%, California at 6.4% and Georgia at 5.4%. New York adds another 4.5%, and it's the one state here where Mercury is your only option of the two. Michigan is the reverse case: 3.9% of our volume, no Root today, and sitting on Root's pending expansion list — so it's worth rechecking there later in the year.

Mercury vs Root: Financial Strength and Satisfaction

Price isn't the only difference between these carriers. Financial strength, customer satisfaction, and complaints can give you a better sense of what you're getting beyond the initial quote, and how these two stack up against the broader field of car insurance companies worth considering.

Mercury's A (Excellent) rating from AM Best is one of the clearest differences between the two. Mercury also says it has an A rating from Fitch. However, the rating's outlook changed during this period. In February 2025, AM Best moved Mercury's outlook from stable to negative because of uncertainty surrounding losses and future reinsurance costs stemming from the January 2025 California wildfires. In February 2026, AM Best returned the outlook to stable while reaffirming the A (Excellent) rating.

For customer satisfaction, Mercury scored 594 in the California region of J.D. Power's 2025 U.S. Auto Insurance Study. Root does not appear in the published California rankings, so there is no J.D. Power score for Root to compare with Mercury. However, being unranked isn't the same as receiving a poor score, so the distinction matters.

Two things are worth knowing about Mercury's J.D. Power satisfaction score. It sat 37 points below the 631 California regional average and was the sixth-lowest of the 15 carriers ranked in the state, according to MoneyGeek's review of the same study. It's also a cycle old now: J.D. Power published its 2026 U.S. Auto Insurance Study on June 9, 2026, naming Wawanesa (678) the California winner. That release names only regional winners, so Mercury's 2026 California score isn't publicly available. A separate J.D. Power study is less kind to Mercury. It finished 18th out of 18 companies in the 2025 U.S. Insurance Shopping Study, which measures the buying and quoting experience rather than ongoing satisfaction.

One measure does grade both carriers on the same scale. The CRASH Network report card, which surveys collision repair professionals on how insurers handle claims, graded Mercury C+ and Root C. Mercury placed 54th of the 91 insurers listed in the 2026 edition, which drew responses from 1,107 repair professionals.

Both companies also have complaint indexes above the 1.00 baseline for a carrier of their size: Mercury at 1.64 and Root at 1.93. The available figures aren't consistently dated, however, while the Kansas Insurance Department gives Root a more clearly documented 1.80 auto complaint index for 2024.

It's worth knowing how far apart the published figures sit. Root's complaint index appears as 1.93 at AutoInsurance.com, 2.61 at InsuranceProviders.com, and 5.02 at Insurify, while Mercury turns up at 1.072 at Insurance.com alongside the 1.64 above. Publishers use different data years and sometimes different underwriting entities within the same group, so treat any single figure as a rough signal rather than a score. Either way, both sit above the baseline for a carrier their size, though the wide range across publishers (1.93 to 5.02 for Root, 1.072 to 1.64 for Mercury) makes any head-to-head comparison here more noise than signal.

Mercury vs Root: Which Is Actually Cheaper?

If you go looking for which company is cheaper, you'll quickly run into conflicting answers. That's because insurance pricing depends heavily on the driver being quoted, and different publishers don't necessarily use the same profile.

Here are the published figures in the data reviewed for this comparison:

• Mercury: $2,052 a year — Insurify, updated September 17, 2026; drivers aged 20-70 with clean records and credit of 600+

• Mercury: $2,367 a year — autoinsurance.com, June 22, 2026; driver profile not stated.

• Mercury: $3,472 a year — NerdWallet, January 6, 2026; 35-year-old driver with full coverage.

• Mercury: $3,430 a year — NerdWallet's September 2026 analysis, full coverage, against a $2,344 national average.

• Root: ~$2,160 a year ($180/month) — Insurify, updated September 17, 2026; same profile as Mercury, though Root's page states this monthly rather than annually.

• Root: $1,719 a year — autoinsurance.com, August 12, 2026; driver profile not stated.

• Root: $1,604 a year — The Zebra; six-month premium doubled to create an annual figure.

The biggest lesson is that you shouldn't compare two insurers using random figures from different websites. Mercury's published range alone runs from $2,052 to $3,472, a 69% difference. Much of that difference comes from the driver profiles: one figure represents a broad 20-to-70 age range, while the other represents a specific 35-year-old driver.

The Insurify figures are the only genuinely like-for-like comparison here. On the same profile and the same day — both Insurify pages now carry a September 17, 2026 update — Mercury is about $108 cheaper per year than Root. That's a relatively small difference, and your driving history, location, and other rating factors can easily change the result.

That gap also has a shelf life. On August 27, 2026, Root announced a 15% cut to its Florida base rates, which it attributed to the litigation reforms Florida enacted in 2022 and 2023. Root said the reduction reaches more than 52,000 Florida policyholders and should save eligible customers roughly $400 a year. Florida is one of the ten states where you can buy either carrier, so a national average may not fully reflect Root's position there.

In other words, there isn't enough evidence to declare Mercury or Root universally cheaper. If you're comparing the two, get quotes based on your own information rather than relying on a national average.

Image source: Pexels

How Root's Pricing Actually Works

Root takes a different approach from a traditional insurer. Instead of relying primarily on conventional rating factors, it uses information collected through its mobile app to evaluate how you drive.

How Root's Test Drive Works

Root's test drive generally takes about three weeks, although the time can vary. If you don't drive enough miles during that period for Root to gather sufficient data, the test drive may take longer. The app uses smartphone data to assess driving behaviors such as braking, turning, speed, driving times, and route consistency. Finishing the test drive doesn't guarantee an offer, either. Root says plainly that it isn't the right fit for everyone and may not quote you at the end of it because the company doesn't write policies for drivers it scores as higher-risk.

Root particularly emphasizes smooth braking, gentle turns, consistent braking and acceleration, focused driving, and avoiding higher-risk driving hours. Your driving is ultimately converted into a score of up to 10, which Root says is a primary factor in determining your rate.

Root advertises savings of up to 44% against its own base quote. That's a maximum, not a typical saving, and the actual result depends on your score and state. The important timing detail is that the test-drive result affects your rate at renewal rather than immediately. Root's other published savings figure is up to $1,300 a year, based on a survey of customers who bought a policy between February 2025 and February 2026 and reported saving money. Like the 44%, it's a ceiling rather than a typical outcome. Two details change the timeline as well. Drivers Root deems eligible can start coverage on day one and complete the test drive while already insured, and once it ends, you get 30 days to accept or decline the new rate. Separately, RootReady lets drivers of some 2015-and-newer GM vehicles use driving data the car has already collected in place of taking the test drive at all.

Can You See How Your Score Was Calculated?

Not in much detail, and that's the part regulators have started looking at. New York Senate Bill S5486, sponsored by Senator Leroy Comrie, would require auto insurers and their telematics vendors to explain to the state's Superintendent how each factor in a scoring model connects to risk, publicly disclose their scoring methodologies, document the testing done to prevent discrimination against protected classes, and let drivers access the data collected about them. A companion bill, S5342, would set out when and how insurers can collect that data in the first place. Both were referred to the Senate Insurance Committee on January 7, 2026, and neither has been enacted. The NAIC has flagged the same concern nationally: telematics scores can move what you pay in ways consumers can't audit or challenge. That question lands harder on Root than on Mercury, because Root's test-drive score sets the rate outright, while a weak MercuryGO score only costs you a discount you didn't have to begin with.

Does Root Raise Rates at Renewal?

This is where a low initial Root quote deserves a second look. Root states that policies automatically renew every six months and that your price might change before renewal. The company says rate changes can result from things that change about you, changes around you, or changes on Root's end, including actuarial changes.

Root does not describe the first policy term as an introductory rate, nor does it publish a typical percentage increase customers should expect at renewal. There is also no public statistic establishing how frequently renewal increases occur.

There is, however, a recurring pattern of customers reporting higher renewal prices. Recent BBB reviews include a July 2026 customer whose renewal rose from under $300 to more than $400, as well as a June 2026 customer whose six-month term increased from $239 to $519. A September 2025 BBB complaint likewise said the customer's Root rate had increased by $80 over the previous year. These reports show a recurring customer concern, but they are not a representative sample and cannot establish a typical increase or how frequently policyholders experience one.

Root's Q2 2026 figures provide some additional context. Renewals represented 62% of gross premiums earned, up from 58% a year earlier, while its gross accident period loss ratio increased to 61.6% from 57.4%. Root does not publish a policyholder retention rate in its investor materials. Plenty of drivers reach that conclusion on their own — about one in six comes back to compare again, according to our Trust Record for the 12 months through January 2026. If you choose Root, don't simply set the policy to autopay and forget about it. Put your renewal date on your calendar and compare quotes before the next six-month term begins.

What Each Policy Actually Covers

Pricing model aside, the two policies aren't built the same way, and a couple of the differences are the kind that settle the question on their own.

The row to check first is gap insurance. If your car is leased or financed, your lender most likely requires it, and Root doesn't sell it, so you'd be buying a standalone policy elsewhere. Mercury offers it. Neither company offers accident forgiveness, which means a first at-fault accident is a rating event at both. And if you need an SR-22, Root will file one through its app while Mercury won't, though Root also tends not to write policies for the drivers most likely to need one. Root's coverage details here come from its published policy information as summarized by CarInsurance.com and AutoInsurance.com; Mercury's come from its own add-on list and Yahoo Finance's 2026 review. Availability varies by state, so confirm anything decision-critical with the carrier before you buy.

Which One Should You Choose?

Root may make more sense if you drive relatively few miles, tend to brake and turn smoothly, avoid late-night driving, and don't mind having your driving behavior monitored through an app. It's particularly worth considering if you're willing to shop again when your first renewal approaches.

Mercury may be the better fit if you prefer a conventional insurance model, want an insurer with an A (excellent) AM Best rating, or don't want your premium set entirely by a telematics score. Mercury is also the only choice between these two in New York. On that last point, MercuryGO is optional and only works in your favor: 5% for enrolling, up to 10% if you're a teen driver, and up to 40% at renewal depending on your driving score, with Insurify reporting that a poor score won't raise your premium. Root's score, by contrast, is the rate.

And for many drivers, the decision is made before price even enters the conversation. These companies overlap in only 10 states, meaning that in 40 states this particular comparison isn't available at all.

A low initial quote can be appealing, but it doesn't tell you the whole story. Rates can vary based on where you live, your driving history, the coverage you choose, and how each insurer evaluates your risk. Rather than choosing a winner based on national averages, compare quotes using your location, driving history, and coverage needs with SaveMaxAuto. It's a simple way to see how your options stack up before you commit to a policy.

Other Insurers Worth Comparing

Because Mercury and Root only overlap in ten states, most drivers reading this comparison will end up choosing between one of them and something else entirely. On Insurify's figures for the same 20-to-70, clean-record, 600-plus-credit profile used throughout this page, three national carriers price below both:

• State Farm — about $103/month full coverage ($53 liability-only), AM Best A++ (Superior), NAIC complaint index 0.84. Updated September 18, 2026.

• Progressive — about $132/month full coverage ($78 liability-only), AM Best A+ (Superior), NAIC complaint index 2.51 — more than twice the expected complaint volume, which is the number to weigh against the price. Updated September 23, 2026.

• GEICO — about $144/month full coverage ($79 liability-only), AM Best A++ (Superior), NAIC complaint index 0.59, and a 697 score in J.D. Power's 2025 Claims Satisfaction Study. Available in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Updated September 23, 2026.

All three write in far more states than Mercury's 11 or Root's 37, so they're available in most of the 40 states where this comparison isn't. None offers Root's behavior-first pricing model, and only GEICO and Progressive run usage-based programs of their own, so if the telematics discount is the reason you're here, the shortlist narrows again.

FAQs About Mercury vs Root