How is the excess applied to an insurance claim?

After the average clause and after the sum insured cap, not before. The loss is first reduced in proportion to any underinsurance, then limited to the sum insured, and the excess comes off what is left.

Where do I find the excess on my policy?

In the policy schedule, in a row headed Excess, Deductible or Franchise, usually on the first page under the sum insured. On engineering covers it is often in an endorsement instead.

Before you accept an offer

What can you actually recover?

A loss is narrowed three times before anybody pays: by the average clause, by the sum insured, and by the excess. Most businesses know about one of the three. Nothing here is stored.

A ledger open at an account, one line ruled through — A ledger open at an account, the deductions ruled off. An illustration.

The cover you are claiming underMatch it against the words on your schedule.

Your insurerFrom IRDAI’s register. It labels the result and nothing else. See below.

Sum insuredFrom the schedule. 45 lakh, 4.5 cr, 4500000.

Value actually at riskWhat it would cost to replace today.

The lossWhat this claim is for.

How your excess is writtenThe schedule says which of these it is. Fill only the boxes below that your form needs. The rest are ignored.

The excess figureA rupee amount, or a percentage as a plain number.

Its minimumOnly for the percentage forms.

Loss per dayOnly for a waiting period.

Read off our own schedules

observed, not published

Start hereWhere we have read enough schedules for that pair, this is where the range we have actually seen appears.

Book coverage today: 0 schedules recorded across 0 insurer-and-cover pairs, of which 0 have reached the 5 needed to answer. This fills up as policies are read into the book at renewal.

The four shapes an excess takes

read yours off the schedule

A flat amount

One rupee figure, taken off every claim. Read it off the schedule.

A percentage of the claim, subject to a minimum

The usual shape on engineering and machinery covers.

A percentage of the sum insured, subject to a minimum

Common on large property and on natural-catastrophe perils.

A waiting period, in days

Business interruption and machinery loss of profit.

Why there is no per-insurer excess table here

the honest answer

No such numberAn excess is set in your policy schedule. It is negotiated per risk and it moves with the sum insured band, the claims experience and every endorsement on the file. There is no single figure that is “the excess” for a given insurer and product, and printing one would be inventing a term in somebody else’s contract.

What we would be risking

A business reads a published figure, works out what it expects to recover, and accepts an offer on that basis, when its own schedule says something different. That is a worse outcome than no calculator at all.

Rates and tariffs have not been standardised in India since detariffing, so any table would be a guess wearing the clothes of a fact.

What to do instead, in two minutes

Open the policy schedule and look for the row headed Excess, Deductible or Franchise. It is usually on the first page, under the sum insured. On engineering covers it is often in an endorsement rather than the schedule itself.

Cannot find it? Send us the schedule and we will read it off for you, whoever placed the policy.

What the list isIt labels the result and, if you send this to us, it tells us who we will be dealing with. It carries no rates, no excesses and no settlement data, and it never will. The list is IRDAI’s own register of 29 general and 8 standalone health insurers, read on 9 September 2026. It is a register that changes, which is why it also carries “not listed”.

Last checkedIRDAI’s register of insurers was read on 13 September 2026. Where a figure or a rule appears here it is linked to the body that publishes it, because that is the copy that stays current.

Send us the schedule and we will tell you the real number.

Whoever placed your policy, and whatever stage the claim has reached.

Report a loss Call 92514 56334

Three deadlines

Tell the insurer now, not after the assessment.
Notice to anybody else responsible the carrier, the contractor, the police, within the time your policy sets.
Every document within the time the insurer asks for it.