Tool
German health insurance calculator for Indians
Your situation, your number. Employee, student or freelancer, on 2026 rates, with the rule that decides your case spelled out rather than buried.
Your situation
Decides the childless surcharge (from 23) and the end of the student rate (at 30).
This is the only number that differs between insurers. It is on your payslip, or on the insurer's site.
You pay, per month
€501.75
€4,500.00/month, split with your employer
| Component | You | Employer |
|---|---|---|
| Health (Krankenversicherung) | €393.75 | €393.75 |
| Care (Pflegeversicherung) | €108.00 | €81.00 |
| Total | €501.75 | €474.75 |
€6,021.00 a year. Your employer adds €5,697.00, which is real money spent on you that never appears on your payslip.
Your spouse and children may cost nothing
This is the part people from India most often do not expect, because it has no equivalent at home. If you are in the statutory system, a spouse and children living in Germany are covered free under Familienversicherung, with no extra contribution at all, as long as the family member's own income stays under €565.00 a month, or €603.00 if it is a Minijob. Cross that line and the cover ends automatically and they need their own insurance.
Private insurance has no equivalent. Every person is a separate policy and a separate premium, which is the single biggest reason a family is usually better off in the statutory system even where the earner could leave it.
Why the same salary costs two people different amounts
German health insurance is not priced on risk. It is a percentage of your income, the same percentage whatever your age or health, up to a ceiling. That single fact explains most of what confuses people arriving from India, where insurance is priced per person and per condition.
Four things then move your number, and only four. Your income, up to the ceiling of €5,812.50 a month, above which you pay nothing more. Your status: an employee splits the bill with their employer, a freelancer pays both halves, a student under 30 pays a flat rate instead. Your insurer's Zusatzbeitrag, the only figure that differs between funds, currently between roughly 2% and 4%. And whether you have children, which removes a 0.6 point care-insurance surcharge from the age of 23.
The three moments it changes
Turning 30 as a student. The student rate is set by §5 Abs. 1 Nr. 9 SGB V and ends on your thirtieth birthday. It roughly doubles, automatically, and §188 Abs. 4 SGB V continues your membership as a voluntary one from the next day whether or not you do anything. There is no semester limit any more: the old fourteen-Fachsemester rule was abolished on 1 January 2020 and a student on semester sixteen at 28 keeps the cheap rate.
Crossing €77,400 a year as an employee. That is the Jahresarbeitsentgeltgrenze, and above it you are permitted to leave the statutory system for private insurance. Permitted is not the same as advised. Private premiums are usually lower while you are young and healthy, rise with age rather than falling, are difficult to reverse once you are older, and cover no family member for free.
Going freelance. The employer's half disappears and you pay the whole contribution yourself, which is why the same income costs roughly twice as much. Contributions are charged on a minimum assessment base of €1,318.33 a month even if you earn less, which is the detail that catches people in a thin first year.
What this does not do
It does not quote private insurance. Private premiums are individually underwritten on age, health and the cover chosen, there is no formula, and any site showing you a private number without asking a medical question is showing you an advertisement.
It also assumes the standard case. Contributions are calculated differently during parental leave, while drawing ALG I, on a Minijob, in a Midijob transition zone, and for people over 55 trying to return to the statutory system. Saxony splits care insurance differently: employees there pay 0.5 points more and employers 0.5 less. If you are in one of those, treat the figure here as a starting point and confirm with your insurer.
Sources
- §241 SGB V, allgemeiner Beitragssatz of 14.6%; §243 SGB V, the reduced rate of 14.0% for voluntary members without Krankengeld.
- §55 SGB XI, Pflegeversicherung. The published text reads 3.4% and is expressly adjustable; the rate in force for 2026 is 3.6%, with §55 Abs. 3's 0.6 point surcharge for childless members from completion of the 23rd year, borne by the member alone.
- §5 Abs. 1 Nr. 9 SGB V, compulsory student insurance to the thirtieth birthday with no Fachsemester limit; §188 Abs. 4 SGB V, automatic continuation as a voluntary membership afterwards.
- Sozialversicherungsrechengrößen 2026: health and care Beitragsbemessungsgrenze of €5,812.50 a month, and a Jahresarbeitsentgeltgrenze of €77,400 a year, €6,450 a month.
- Average Zusatzbeitragssatz for 2026 of 2.9%, published in the Bundesanzeiger after the Schätzerkreis of 15 October 2025. TK's own rate is 2.69% from 1 January 2026.
- Minimum assessment base for voluntary members of €1,318.33 a month, and the Familienversicherung income limit of €565 a month, €603 for a Minijob.
Statutory quotations are reproduced from the published texts at gesetze-im-internet.de. Nothing you enter leaves your browser: there is no account, no email capture, and no result stored anywhere. This is an estimate of the statutory contribution, not a quote, and not insurance advice.