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The quick math
Life insurance is priced per $1,000 of coverage, plus a flat policy fee that gets spread across the face amount. Dividing a monthly premium by the coverage in thousands gives you the per-unit cost, which is the cleanest way to compare quotes of different sizes.
Using published 2026 averages for $500,000 of 20-year term for a healthy non-smoker, the per-unit math looks like this:
- Age 30: about $20 to $35 a month, or roughly $0.04 to $0.07 per $1,000 per month
- Age 40: about $30 to $59 a month, or roughly $0.06 to $0.12 per $1,000 per month
- Age 50: about $70 to $150 a month, or roughly $0.14 to $0.30 per $1,000 per month
These are market ranges for budgeting, not quotes; your health class, gender, and carrier move the number within and beyond these bands.
Why bigger policies cost less per unit
The flat policy fee, often $50 to $100 a year, is the same whether you buy $100,000 or $1,000,000. On a small policy it is a large share of the premium; on a large policy it nearly disappears. That is why doubling your coverage rarely doubles your price. If quotes show $250,000 costing almost as much as $500,000, the policy fee is doing the work.
Term versus whole life per unit
Whole life runs roughly 10 times term at the same face amount for buyers in their 30s and 40s, and that multiple shows up per unit too. A 40-year-old man might pay about $59 a month for $500,000 of 20-year term versus about $574 for $500,000 of whole life. Per $1,000 per month, that is roughly $0.12 against $1.15. The whole life premium buys lifetime coverage and cash value; the term premium buys pure protection. Our term vs whole life comparison walks through which fits which budget.
Before you pick a face amount, work through how much life insurance you actually need or the DIME method worksheet so the per-unit math serves a number you chose deliberately.
