Quick answer
Every tourist entering Georgia since 1 January 2026 must hold health and accident insurance for the whole stay with a sum insured of at least 30,000 GEL (about $11,500), in English or Georgian, on paper or on a phone, naming Georgia, the dates, the risks, the limit and the premium. Border officers can ask for it; in practice many arrivals in 2026 were not asked, some were, and airlines have checked at the gate. A compliant policy costs from 2 to 4 GEL a day from a Georgian insurer, 379 GEL for a full year, or $62.72 per four weeks on SafetyWing, the one we use.
- Required since
- 1 Jan 2026
- Minimum cover
- 30,000 GEL
- Format
- PDF or paper
- Emergency number
- 112
Everything below was checked on 15 September 2026, on 4 October and again on 25 October 2026 against the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' consular portal (geoconsul.gov.ge, its Entering Georgia page, whose wording has not changed across the three reads), SafetyWing's pricing page, the public price pages of three Georgian insurers (GeoCover, Irao and Georgian Insurance), a Georgia Today column of 15 September 2026 by a Georgian insurance agent, and the 2026 border reports collected by two travel and insurance guides updated in May and July 2026. Dollar figures use the National Bank of Georgia rate published for 24 October 2026, 2.60 GEL to the dollar.
Georgia's travel insurance requirements since January 2026
The requirement sits in Article 12 of the Law of Georgia on Tourism, the detail is in Government Resolution No. 602 of 26 December 2025 (published in Georgian on the Legislative Herald, matsne.gov.ge; the number and date are as the Georgian insurers and Georgia Today quote them), and the consular portal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sets out how it works in English. From 1 January 2026, anyone entering Georgia as a tourist must hold a valid health and accident insurance policy and be able to present it, on paper or on a screen, in Georgian or English. The policy may come from a Georgian or a foreign insurer, must cover the whole period of stay including the days of arrival and departure, and must carry a sum insured of no less than 30,000 GEL. The portal's wording is on its Entering Georgia page, under the visa categories, and it is the text an officer will apply.
30,000 GEL in dollars, euros, dirhams and rupees
The limit may be stated in any currency, as long as the figure on the certificate is at or above 30,000 GEL at the exchange rate on the day. These are the equivalents at the National Bank of Georgia's official rates published for 24 October 2026, rounded; the lari moves a few percent a year against the major currencies, so a policy that only just clears the line is the one to check again before you fly.
| Currency | 30,000 GEL is about |
|---|---|
| US dollar | $11,550 |
| Euro | 10,310 euros |
| British pound | 8,630 pounds |
| Swiss franc | 9,510 francs |
| Polish zloty | 45,300 zloty |
| UAE dirham | 42,400 dirhams |
| Qatari riyal | 42,100 riyals |
| Kuwaiti dinar | 3,590 dinars |
| Indian rupee | 1,097,000 rupees (about 11 lakh) |
| Turkish lira | 574,700 lira |
| Israeli shekel | 35,900 shekels |
| Canadian dollar | 16,180 dollars |
| Australian dollar | 16,460 dollars |
The rule is separate from the visa rules. Being on the visa-free list, which gives citizens of 90 countries a full year in Georgia, does not remove it; our entry checker shows the rule and the documents for your passport, and the visa and entry guide covers who gets in on a stamp and for how long.
What the policy must show
The consular portal lists seven items the policy must contain. If your certificate is missing one, the document is harder to defend at the desk, so check it against this table before you fly.
| Item | On the certificate |
|---|---|
| Parties to the contract | Your name as the insured and the insurer's name. |
| Covered territory | Georgia by name, or a region wording that plainly includes it. "Worldwide excluding USA" is fine; "Europe" is the one that causes arguments, since insurers disagree about whether Georgia is in it. |
| Subject matter | Health and accident cover, not a baggage-only or cancellation-only product. |
| Start and end dates | Running from your arrival day to your departure day at the latest. |
| Insured risks | What is covered: emergency treatment, hospital stay, accident, evacuation. |
| Sum insured | A limit of at least 30,000 GEL, in any currency, printed on the page. |
| Premium | What you paid, where and on what terms. This is the item most foreign certificates leave off; ask the insurer for the full policy schedule rather than the welcome email. |
Who is exempt
The portal exempts five groups: holders of diplomatic and special visas; holders of diplomatic, official, service and special passports; accredited staff of embassies, consulates and international organisations, and their accredited family members; people whose entry is governed by an international treaty Georgia has signed; and drivers in international freight and passenger transport. Nobody else is, including long-stay visa-free visitors, remote workers and people who own property here. If you think you fall under a treaty, confirm it with your own foreign ministry before you rely on it.
How the check works in practice
The rule gives Border Police officers the right to ask; it does not say every arrival will be asked, and in 2026 they have not been. The reports gathered by the travel guide wander-lush.org (updated May 2026) and a Georgian insurer's guide (July 2026) agree on the pattern: some arrivals at Tbilisi Airport were asked to show a policy and many were not, travellers crossing from Armenia by land mostly were not, and enforcement varies by entry point and by officer. The check that has caught more people is the airline's: several carriers have asked for proof of insurance at check-in or at the gate before boarding a flight to Georgia, and a passenger who cannot show it can be refused boarding.
| Scenario | What happens |
|---|---|
| Not asked | The common case in 2026. The officer stamps the passport; you carry on. You still have the policy for the trip itself, which is the point. |
| Asked, and ready | You open the PDF or hand over the page, the officer reads the dates and the limit, ten seconds, done. |
| Asked, and not ready | Searching an inbox on airport Wi-Fi with a queue behind you. Worst case, a policy in the wrong language or with the wrong dates, and a longer conversation about whether you may enter. |
The practical move is to have three things on the phone before landing: the policy PDF, a screenshot of the page that shows your name, the dates, Georgia and the limit, and the insurer's emergency number. Ten minutes at home; nothing to do at the border.
Cover worth having beyond the minimum
Meeting the legal minimum gets you through the airport. It does not decide whether the policy is any use when something goes wrong, and in Georgia the expensive scenarios are not in the cities. A consultation at a good private clinic in Tbilisi or Batumi is under 100 GEL and diagnostics are cheap by Western standards, so the medical bill for a stomach bug or a sprained ankle is small. The bills that hurt are a helicopter or a long road evacuation from a mountain valley, a multi-day hospital stay after a road accident, and a flight home with medical escort.
| Cover | Why it matters here |
|---|---|
| Emergency treatment and hospital stay | Required by the rule and the core of any policy. Private hospitals in Tbilisi treat foreigners routinely and invoice up front. |
| Medical evacuation and repatriation | The one to check twice if you are hiking or skiing. Svaneti, Tusheti, Khevsureti and Kazbegi are hours from a trauma hospital; getting out is the cost, not the treatment. |
| Activities | Standard policies often exclude trekking above a set altitude, skiing off-piste, paragliding and horse riding. Georgia's best days involve at least one of them. SafetyWing covers on-piste skiing and a long list of leisure sports as standard and sells an adventure-sports add-on; read the activity list of whatever you buy. |
| Motor accidents | Check that injuries in a rental car are covered when you are the driver; some policies exclude them, and a rental's own insurance covers the car, not you. See our car rental guide. |
| Cancellation and baggage | Optional. Georgia is a cheap country to be stuck in and lost-luggage payouts are small; buy them if your flights were expensive, not because the rule requires them. |
What it costs
A compliant policy is cheap next to what it covers. The prices below were read on 15 September 2026, on 4 October and again on 25 October 2026: one foreign subscription and three Georgian products, all with the 30,000 GEL line covered. SafetyWing's and GeoCover's prices have not moved across the three reads; Irao and Georgian Insurance were added on 25 October.
What compliant cover costs, October 2026
| Policy | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SafetyWing Essential | $62.72/4 weeks | Ages 18 to 39, travel medical cover up to 364 days at a time, $250,000 overall limit, evacuation up to $100,000, bought before or after departure; other age bands are priced on its calculator |
| SafetyWing Complete | $177.50/month | Full health insurance, renewable indefinitely, routine and emergency care, for people moving to Georgia rather than visiting |
| GeoCover (Wizer, Georgia) | 3.95 GEL/day | Georgian product sold online with a 30,000 GEL limit, marketed for the entry rule: 36 GEL for 10 days, 45 GEL for 7 days with a data SIM, 98 GEL a month, 229 for three months, 279 for six, 379 GEL a year; active-travel cover 17.50 GEL a day extra. We have not used it; it shows what a local policy costs |
| Irao Visitor (Georgia) | 2 GEL/day | The cheapest daily rate we found, from a Vienna Insurance Group company in Tbilisi: 30,000 GEL aggregate limit, unlimited urgent in-patient and out-patient care within it, but medical evacuation capped at 1,000 GEL and repatriation at 5,000 GEL, and travellers aged 65 and over reimbursed at 50 percent. We have not used it |
| Georgian Insurance (Unison) | 12.54 euros/5 days | Fixed-length packages per traveller, underwritten by Unison: 25.20 euros for 10 days, 35.70 for 15, 71.40 for 30, 206.61 for 90, 868.70 for 365 days, each shown as a discount on a list price. We have not used it |
| Private clinic visit, Tbilisi | under 100 GEL | For scale: what you would pay out of pocket for a doctor at a good private clinic, per wander-lush.org, May 2026 |
Prices checked 25 October 2026. Ranges reflect season and operator.
The cheapest quote is not automatically the worst, but if one is far below the rest, read its exclusions line by line: low outpatient limits, no evacuation, an age cap, or "Europe" wording that a Georgian officer may not read as Georgia.
What it costs for 7, 14 and 30 days
The question we get most is the total for a trip of a given length, so here it is, worked from the two price lists above. GeoCover's totals are its own package prices where it sells one and its 3.95 GEL daily rate multiplied out where it does not. SafetyWing prices Essential per four weeks and lets you set exact dates on its calculator, so for 7 and 14 days the table shows the four-week price as the ceiling; your quote for shorter dates will be lower, and we would rather you read it on the calculator than take a figure we worked out. The dollar column is at 2.60 GEL.
| Trip | GeoCover, then SafetyWing Essential |
|---|---|
| 7 days | GeoCover about 28 GEL at the daily rate, or 45 GEL with the 7-day data SIM bundle (about $11 to 17). SafetyWing up to $62.72; set your dates on the calculator for the exact figure. |
| 10 days | GeoCover 36 GEL package (about $14). SafetyWing up to $62.72. |
| 14 days | GeoCover about 55 GEL at the daily rate (about $21). SafetyWing up to $62.72. |
| 30 days | GeoCover 98 GEL package (about $38). SafetyWing $62.72 for the first four weeks, about $67 for 30 days. |
| 90 days | GeoCover 229 GEL package (about $88). SafetyWing about $188 for three four-week periods, before the 10 percent discount it shows for a 364-day plan. |
| A year | GeoCover 379 GEL package (about $146). SafetyWing Essential covers up to 364 days at a time; the Complete plan at $177.50 a month is the product for a move rather than a trip. |
Two readings of that table. For a short holiday the local policy is a fraction of the price and meets the letter of the rule, and the gap is the cover behind the certificate: 30,000 GEL against $250,000, and no evacuation line we could find on the GeoCover page. For a month or more the two converge, and the one with the evacuation limit, the English-language claims line and the activity list is worth the difference if your trip has mountains in it.
Insurance for Georgia for one year, or any long stay
Georgia lets citizens of most Western, Gulf and many other countries stay a full year without a visa (the list is in our visa and entry guide), and the insurance rule does not shrink to fit a holiday: the certificate you show at entry has to run to the day you plan to leave. That is why "insurance for Georgia for one year" is one of the most searched questions about the rule, and why an ordinary annual multi-trip policy from home usually fails it. Those policies cover a year of travel in trips of 30, 60 or 90 days each; the Georgia Today column of 15 September 2026 by the customer relations head of a Tbilisi insurance agent names exactly this as one of the four mistakes visitors keep making. For a stay of six months or a year you need one policy, or one subscription without a gap, that covers every day of it.
Four products do that, with prices read on their own pages on 25 October 2026. The six-month and one-year totals for Irao and SafetyWing are our arithmetic from the printed daily and four-week prices; the others are the insurers' own package prices.
| Policy | 6 months | 12 months | Cover behind the certificate |
|---|---|---|---|
| GeoCover Visitor (Wizer) | 279 GEL (about $107) | 379 GEL (about $146) | 30,000 GEL aggregate; no evacuation line on its page; active-travel cover sold per day on top |
| Irao Visitor | about 365 GEL (about $141) | about 730 GEL (about $281) | 30,000 GEL aggregate; in-patient and out-patient care unlimited within it, evacuation 1,000 GEL, repatriation 5,000 GEL; 50 percent reimbursement from age 65 |
| Georgian Insurance (Unison) | 206.61 euros for 90 days, so two packages for six months | 868.70 euros (about 2,530 GEL, $975) | Fixed packages per traveller built to the decree; limits in the policy terms |
| SafetyWing Essential | about $408 (26 weeks at $62.72 per 4 weeks) | about $815 paid every four weeks, or about $734 paid up front with the 10 percent 364-day discount | $250,000 overall, $100,000 evacuation, 30 days of cover in your home country, sports list; ages 18 to 39, other bands priced on its calculator |
How to read it. If the only job is a certificate that satisfies an officer for a year, GeoCover's annual plan at 379 GEL is the cheapest compliant document we know of, and nothing in the rule says you need more. If you will spend any of that year in the mountains, on a ski slope or behind the wheel, the 1,000 GEL evacuation line on the cheapest Georgian policy and the absence of one on GeoCover's page are the numbers to weigh against SafetyWing's $100,000, and the price gap over a year is about 1,500 GEL. SafetyWing Essential also stops at 364 days, so a stay longer than that means a second policy; the Complete plan at $177.50 a month renews indefinitely and is the product for a move. If you are applying for a residence permit rather than staying as a tourist, the Georgian Insurance agent's guide notes that the permit has its own insurance rules, separate from Resolution 602, so ask the Public Service Hall what it wants rather than relying on a tourist policy.
The best and cheapest travel insurance for Georgia, ranked
Ranked by the question the reader is actually asking. We have used only one of these, so the ranking is about fit and the printed numbers, not about claims experience.
| If you want | Buy | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The cheapest compliant certificate | Irao at 2 GEL a day, or GeoCover at 3.95 | Prints the 30,000 GEL limit, the dates and the premium exactly as the rule lists them, issued as a PDF the moment you pay. Fine for a city break; thin for anything beyond a clinic visit (Irao's evacuation line is 1,000 GEL). |
| The best cover for a normal holiday | Your existing annual multi-trip policy or employer health plan | Usually far above the minimum and already paid for. The work is getting a certificate that names Georgia, shows the limit and is in English; a welcome email will not do. |
| The best policy for hiking, skiing or a long stay | SafetyWing Essential, the one we carry | $62.72 per four weeks for ages 18 to 39, $250,000 limit, evacuation up to $100,000, on-piste skiing and a long sports list as standard, can be bought after you have left home, renewable month by month for a visa-free stay. |
| The cheapest certificate for a full year | GeoCover's annual plan, 379 GEL | Prints the 30,000 GEL limit for 365 days for about $146, read 25 October 2026. Irao at 2 GEL a day is close behind with a 1,000 GEL evacuation cap. The year-long options are compared in the section above. |
| A policy for a move to Georgia | SafetyWing Complete or a Georgian health insurer once you are resident | Complete is full health insurance at $177.50 a month with routine care; for a resident on a local salary a Georgian insurer's plan is cheaper, but that is beyond a travel guide. |
| A policy that works arriving from the Gulf, Europe or anywhere else | Any of the above | The rule is the same for every nationality and every entry point. A policy from an insurer in the UAE, Qatar, India or Germany qualifies on the same terms as a Georgian one: Georgia named, dates, risks, the limit and the premium on the certificate, in English or Georgian. |
How to choose a policy
- 1
Compliance first
Georgia named in the territory, dates from arrival to departure, a limit of 30,000 GEL or more printed on the certificate, English or Georgian, and the seven items from the table above. Ask the insurer for the full schedule if the welcome email is all you have.
- 2
Then the medical limits
Emergency treatment, hospital stay and evacuation, with a limit that would pay for a flight home with a nurse. The Georgian minimum is a floor, not a target.
- 3
Then your activities
Trekking, skiing, paragliding, horses, a rental car. If it is not in the covered list, it is excluded, however obvious it seems.
- 4
Then the claims process
A 24-hour line, a WhatsApp or chat channel, and a clear rule on whether you must call before treatment. Save the number in the phone, not in an email.
If you are building a long itinerary through several regions, choose the policy that is easiest to use under stress over the one that wins a comparison table by a few dollars.
How to buy travel insurance for Georgia online
Every compliant policy we know of is sold online and delivered as a PDF, so the whole job takes a few minutes at home. Three routes, and what each one asks of you, as the sellers' own pages describe it on 25 October 2026.
- 1
Route one: a certificate from the insurer you already have
Log in to your annual travel or health insurer and ask for a policy schedule or certificate in English that names you, Georgia (or worldwide), the exact dates, the risks, the limit and the premium. Most will issue one in a day or two. Check the per-trip day limit: if the schedule caps each trip at 30, 60 or 90 days and your stay is longer, this route fails, and you need route two or three.
- 2
Route two: a Georgian insurer, for the cheapest compliant PDF
GeoCover, Irao, Georgian Insurance and GPI Holding sell the tourist policy online from anywhere in the world. You choose the entry and exit dates (GPI Holding issues only for three days or more), type the passport details exactly as they appear in the passport, pay by card and get the PDF by email; Irao and GeoCover say the policy is active the moment it is issued. Every traveller needs a policy in their own name, children included: the Georgian insurers issue one per passport, and a family of four buys four.
- 3
Route three: SafetyWing, for cover beyond the certificate
Pick Essential, your age band and your start date on the calculator (it prices under-10s, 10 to 39, 40 to 49, 50 to 59 and 60 to 69 separately), choose to pay every four weeks or for a fixed period up to 364 days, and download the policy document from your account. It can be bought before departure or after you have already left home. The certificate is in English and states the limit in dollars, which clears the 30,000 GEL line many times over.
- 4
Then check the PDF against the seven items
Your name, the insurer, the territory, the dates from arrival to departure, the risks, the limit and the premium, in English or Georgian. Save it to the phone, screenshot the page with the dates and the limit, and add the insurer's emergency number to your contacts. Nothing is left to do at the border.
Arriving from the UAE, Qatar, India or anywhere else changes nothing. The rule is the same for every nationality and every entry point, and a policy from an insurer at home qualifies on the same terms as a Georgian one, provided the certificate prints the seven items in English. Use the currency table at the top of this page to check that the limit on your certificate clears 30,000 GEL; 42,400 dirhams, 42,100 riyals or 11 lakh rupees is the line. If your home insurer will not state the limit in a way an officer can read, a Georgian policy for the trip costs from 2 to 4 GEL a day and sits beside it.
If something goes wrong in Georgia
The emergency number is 112 for ambulance, police and fire everywhere in the country, run by the Interior Ministry's public safety centre. For anything serious, call 112 first and the insurer second. For anything that can wait an hour, go to a private clinic in Tbilisi, Batumi or Kutaisi: they are modern, used to foreigners, and paid at the desk, so the sequence is treat, pay, keep every receipt and the written diagnosis, then claim. Most policies want to be told before non-urgent treatment and some steer you to their own network, so read that clause on the plane.
In the mountains the order changes. Signal is patchy, the nearest hospital may be three hours by road, and the insurer's evacuation clause is what decides whether you wait for a car or a helicopter. Tell someone your route, carry the insurer's number on paper, and keep a battery bank charged. We have not claimed on our own policy, so we describe the process from the insurers' terms, not from experience.
Setup by type of trip
| Trip | What to buy and what to watch |
|---|---|
| City break, 3 to 7 days | Any compliant medical and accident policy with an English certificate and exact dates. Watch for low outpatient limits and a certificate that omits the premium line. |
| Road trip | Higher medical limits and a reliable assistance line. Watch for the assumption that the rental's insurance covers your injuries; it covers the car. |
| Hiking, skiing, riding | Evacuation and your activities named in the policy. Watch for altitude caps and off-piste exclusions. |
| Slow travel, 1 to 12 months | A subscription that renews without a gap, or one long policy. Watch for date gaps between policies; the certificate you show at entry must run to your planned departure. |
| Family | A policy for every traveller, children included, each in the traveller's own name: the Georgian insurers issue one per passport, and a family policy from home must show each person with their own limit. Watch for per-person limits below 30,000 GEL when a family limit is shared. |
Common mistakes
Nine months into the rule, a Georgia Today column of 15 September 2026 by the customer relations head of a Tbilisi agent that issues these policies listed the four mistakes it still sees every week: assuming visa-free entry means no insurance, buying one policy for a whole family, trusting a home policy whose certificate does not show the limit or the dates in English, and planning to buy on arrival. Our list overlaps with it and adds the paperwork details.
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
| Buying after landing | You can be asked before you have Wi-Fi or a working card. Buy before departure; SafetyWing and the Georgian insurers issue the PDF as soon as you pay, so do it at home. |
| One policy for the family | Each traveller needs their own, in their own name against their own passport, children included. |
| An annual multi-trip policy for a six-month stay | Its per-trip cap (often 30 to 90 days) is shorter than your stay. Buy one policy or one subscription that runs to your departure day; see the long-stay section. |
| Dates that stop short | The policy must cover the departure day. Match the flight, not the hotel booking. |
| "Europe" as the territory | Ask for a certificate that names Georgia or says worldwide. |
| A certificate in your own language only | Request the English version. German, French or Russian alone does not meet the rule. |
| A one-line confirmation email | Get the full schedule showing the limit and the premium. The rule lists both. |
| Nothing saved offline | PDF on the phone, screenshot of the key page, insurer's number in contacts. |
| Standard cover for a trekking trip | Add evacuation and the activity, or pick a policy that includes them. |
Insurance is one part of the arrival checklist, not the whole of it. Pair this guide with is Georgia safe and our things to know before you go.
Frequently asked questions
Is travel insurance mandatory for Georgia in 2026?
Can I use the insurance I already have at home?
Do border officers actually ask for it?
Does a digital copy count?
I am staying six months visa-free. Does one short policy do?
Can I buy insurance for Georgia for one year?
What is 30,000 GEL in dollars, euros or dirhams?
Can I buy the insurance when I am already in Georgia?
What is the cheapest travel insurance for Georgia that meets the rule?
How much travel insurance do I need for Georgia?
What if I arrive without it?
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