Business Interruption Insurance Calculator
Our business interruption insurance calculator estimates the annual premium for cover that replaces your lost profit and pays ongoing fixed costs if your business is forced to close following an insured event such as a fire, flood, or equipment failure. Business interruption is often the most financially significant loss from a major incident, yet it is frequently underinsured.
Business Interruption Insurance Estimator
Estimate the cost of Business Interruption (BI) insurance, which covers lost income if your business can't trade due to an insured event like fire, flood or theft.
What Business Interruption Insurance Covers
Business interruption (BI) insurance pays the gross profit you would have earned but for the interruption — covering both lost revenue and the fixed costs (rent, rates, salaries, loan repayments) that continue even when trading is suspended. The cover runs for the indemnity period you choose, typically 12–36 months. Standard BI triggers include fire, flood, storm, theft, and accidental damage to business property. Underestimating the indemnity period is the most common BI underinsurance mistake — always model the realistic worst-case recovery timeline for your business type. For business liability cover alongside BI, see our Public Liability Calculator and Employer Liability Calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not always — it is often sold as an optional extension to commercial property or combined package policies. Many SME owners discover after a loss that their basic property policy only covers reinstatement costs, not lost profit.
The sum insured should reflect annual gross profit (sales minus variable costs) multiplied by the indemnity period in years. Underinsuring gross profit proportionally reduces the claim payout.
Some BI policies include increased cost of working — the additional expense of continuing trade from an alternative location while premises are repaired. Check whether this extension is included in your policy.
Standard BI policies typically do not cover cyber incidents. Cyber insurance with a business interruption element is a separate product specifically designed to cover IT-related closures and data breach costs.
Standard BI requires an insured event at your own premises. Contingent business interruption (CBI) extends cover to losses from damage at a key supplier or customer — an increasingly important consideration for businesses with concentrated supply chains.
Enter your annual turnover and typical monthly fixed costs — the outgoings that continue even when the business cannot trade: rent, utilities, salaries, loan repayments. Business interruption insurance pays the revenue you lose and the fixed costs you continue to incur if your premises are unusable due to an insured event such as fire, flood, or burst pipes. The indemnity period — how long the policy pays — should reflect how long it would realistically take to fully restore trading, including rebuilding, re-equipping, and recovering customer base. Twelve months is a common minimum; 24 to 36 months is more appropriate for businesses that would take longer to fully recover. Ensure the trigger events match the risks most relevant to your business — pandemic-related closure, for example, is excluded from most policies following the COVID-19 litigation settlements.
Important Information
This calculator is provided for general information and planning purposes only. It does not constitute financial or tax advice and should not be relied upon as such. Figures are indicative estimates based on simplified, publicly available criteria and stated assumptions. Actual results depend on your full circumstances. See our Disclaimer for further information.