If you’ve been turning down the app your insurer keeps pushing, you’re in the majority, and it’s probably costing you a couple hundred dollars a year.
Probably. About one driver in nine who signs up pays more, not less.
AutoInsurance.com surveyed 1,282 US drivers in March 2026 and found 12% enrolled in a usage-based program and 73% not using one at all. Among those who did enroll, 66% saw their rate drop and 11% saw it rise. The median saving was $27 a month. Call it $324 a year.
Now look at what the carriers put on the billboard. Consumer Reports collected the advertised maximum discounts: Allstate 40%, Nationwide 40%, Liberty Mutual 30%, State Farm 30%, USAA 30%, Travelers 30%, Geico 25%, American Family 20%, Farmers 15%.
Consumer Reports also asked drivers what they took home. The median was $120 a year.
Two surveys, two answers, neither one is 40%
We won’t pretend those numbers agree. One survey says $324, another says $120, and they polled different drivers in different years. They agree on the size of the prize: this is a hundred-or-few-hundred-dollar decision.
The 40% is a ceiling almost nobody touches, printed because it’s legal to print.
Then there’s the 11%. MoneyGeek’s review of Progressive’s Snapshot program puts the share of participants who see an increase at renewal at roughly 20%, and names what triggers it: hard braking, speeding over the posted limit, late-night driving, phone use. MoneyGeek also points out that Progressive doesn’t publicly disclose the average discount participants earn, the maximum possible discount, or the trial period length.
So the upside is undisclosed and the downside is undisclosed. Good deal for somebody.
The part almost nobody checks
Every program AutoInsurance.com reviewed tracks your speed, your acceleration, your braking, the time of day you drive, and where you drive. Five of the eight track whether you’re on your phone.
Sixty-eight percent of drivers said they’re worried about that. Twenty-four percent read the privacy policy in full.
Both things being true at once is the industry’s favorite condition.
Your call, and here’s how to make it
If you drive a normal daytime commute, don’t tailgate, and keep the phone in a cradle, enroll. A few hundred dollars a year for a driving style you already have is real money. Sixty-six percent beats eleven percent.
If you work nights, share the car with a teenager, or already know you brake hard, get one thing in writing first: ask your carrier whether the worst possible outcome is a smaller discount or an actual surcharge at renewal. Some programs can only give. Some can take. That single answer decides it.
And don’t confuse the sign-up bonus with your result. The participation discount lands the day you enroll. The adjustment that matters lands at renewal, months later, once they’ve watched you.
Either way, run the plain comparison too. Shopping your policy across carriers is still the bigger lever, and it doesn’t cost you your location history. Start with our auto insurance rankings and the insurance estimator, then decide whether the app is worth the extra $27 a month.
How Candid Yak makes money. Some of the products we write about pay us if you apply or sign up through our links. That never changes our verdict, our rankings, or the numbers in this article. We call a bad deal a bad deal whether it pays us or not. Some brands shown in our comparison tools are placeholder examples while we finalize partner agreements, and we label them as such.