What insurance does a freelancer need?
There's no one-size answer. The right mix depends on how you work, who you work for, and what your contracts ask for. These are the coverages a freelancer typically looks at first:
Professional liability
The core coverage for client work: claims of errors, omissions, or missed deliverables that caused a financial loss, with limits up to $1,000,000 per claim typically available.
General liability
What contracts and coworking leases ask for. Third-party injuries and property damage, with the $1,000,000 per-occurrence limit procurement teams typically request.
Cyber liability
For the client data on your laptop and in your accounts: breach response costs, legal fees, and the third-party claims that follow a leak.
Coverage always depends on your specific situation. The fastest way to see what fits is to get a quote and review your options.
Freelancing as a business of one raises its own structural questions, from personal exposure to working from home to what a claim can reach. We cover those in our guide to sole proprietor insurance.
What does it protect against?
The risks that matter aren't abstract. They're the everyday accidents of the work. A few scenarios that turn into real claims:
A client contract stalls on insurance
The SOW is approved, then procurement asks for a certificate of insurance at stated limits: professional liability, general liability, sometimes cyber. For many freelancers, the first policy gets bought because a contract they'd already won demanded it.
A deliverable dispute turns into a claim
The campaign underperforms, the code ships late, the design gets scrapped, and the client alleges your work cost them money. Fair or not, claims like this mean legal defense costs, which professional liability is designed to help cover.
Client data leaks from your side
A phished login or a stolen laptop exposes a client's customer file, and their breach becomes your breach. Cyber liability is built for the response costs, legal fees, and third-party claims that follow.
An accident at a client's office or your coworking space
You knock over a monitor during a review, or someone trips over your bag in a shared space. Small physical accidents are why contracts and coworking leases ask even desk-based freelancers for general liability.
Certificates of insurance
For freelancers, the certificate-of-insurance request arrives with the paperwork of bigger clients: procurement teams routinely require proof of professional liability and general liability at stated limits before a contract or statement of work is countersigned, and coworking spaces ask for a COI with the membership agreement. Olli's general liability policies include instant certificates, so vendor onboarding doesn't stall on proof.
New to certificates? Start with our guide to the certificate of insurance: what's on one, who asks for it, and how to provide yours.