Which insurance company has the most complaints in India?

By raw count, Star Health & Allied Insurance Co. Ltd, with 20,527 grievances in FY2024-25. On the measure that adjusts for size, complaints per 10,000 claims paid, the highest is Shriram General Insurance Co. Ltd at 197.4. Those happen to be different questions with different answers, and the second is the more useful one. The New India Assurance Co. Ltd shows why: it is 7th on raw count but 27 of 28 once its 12,821,714 claims are taken into account.

Why normalise complaints by claims paid rather than by policies?

Because complaints overwhelmingly arise from claims, not from policies sitting quietly in a drawer. Claims paid is also the only per-insurer denominator IRDAI publishes for general insurers. Per-policy would be defensible too, but it is not available on a like-for-like basis.

Is a high complaint rate a reason to avoid an insurer?

It is a reason to ask questions, not a verdict. Rates run high in health insurance generally, because hospital bills are itemised and disputes are common. Read it alongside the claim-settlement ratio and the wording you are actually being offered.

Why do different sources give different complaint numbers for the same insurer?

Because they count different things. IRDAI's Bima Bharosa portal recorded 2,57,790 grievances across all segments in FY2024-25. The Council for Insurance Ombudsmen counts only cases escalated to an Ombudsman, a much smaller number. The Handbook table used here counts grievances reported to each insurer. All three are correct and they are not interchangeable.

Do complaints against health insurers look worse than they are?

Partly. Health is the single largest source of insurance grievance in India, and a standalone health insurer's entire book is exposed to the line that generates the most disputes. That is context, not an excuse: the rate still differs several-fold between health insurers.

Where does this data come from?

The IRDAI Handbook on Indian Insurance Statistics 2024-25, published 3 February 2026. Grievances from Table 56 for general and health insurers and Table 37 for life, claims paid from Table 53.

Insurance Complaints by Insurer in India (IRDAI), FY2024-25

How many grievances each insurer attracted, measured against how much business it actually settled. Ranking insurers by raw complaint count mostly ranks them by size, so the table below is ordered by complaints per 10,000 claims paid.

Written by Parul Bhargava · Founder and Principal Advisor, advising since 2004

Key takeaways

A raw complaint count mostly measures how large an insurer is. The table below is ranked by complaints per 10,000 claims paid, which is the comparison that means something.
The New India Assurance Co. Ltd drew 7,768 complaints, the 7th-highest count in the market, and paid 12,821,714 claims to do it. Per 10,000 claims it ranks 27 of 28, among the cleanest here.
Normalising does not rescue everyone. Star Health & Allied Insurance Co. Ltd has both the highest raw count, 20,527, and the 3rd-highest rate, so its position is not an artefact of size.
On the rate that matters, Shriram General Insurance Co. Ltd is highest at 197.4 complaints per 10,000 claims and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co. Ltd is lowest at 6.0.
Complaints against general and health insurers rose about 43 per cent year on year across the insurers shown here.
Life insurers are shown separately and without a rate. IRDAI does not publish a per-insurer policy count, so there is no honest denominator.
A complaint is a grievance registered with the insurer or through IRDAI's portal. It records dissatisfaction, not fault, and many are resolved in the customer's favour.

General and health insurers, by complaint rate

Grievances reported in FY2024-25 per 10,000 claims paid in the same year. Lower is better.

#	Insurer	Per 10,000 claims	Complaints	Claims paid	vs FY2023-24
1	Shriram General Insurance Co. Ltd	197.4	3,733	189,152	+284%
2	Raheja QBE General Insurance Co. Ltd	104.0	273	26,249	+124%
3	Star Health & Allied Insurance Co. Ltd	101.5	20,527	2,022,177	+22%
4	Niva Bupa Health Insurance Co. Ltd	84.6	7,970	942,543	+50%
5	Care Health Insurance Ltd	71.6	10,281	1,436,282	+49%
6	Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Co. Ltd	64.0	3,467	541,403	+94%
7	National Insurance Co. Ltd	54.2	12,858	2,373,803	+126%
8	IFFCO Tokio General Insurance Co. Ltd	48.1	3,697	768,176	+90%
9	Zuno General Insurance Co. Ltd	45.4	491	108,246	+171%
10	ManipalCigna Health Insurance Co. Ltd	44.5	2,041	458,566	+13%
11	Acko General Insurance Ltd	36.2	1,441	397,545	+5%
12	The Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd	31.3	6,854	2,188,200	+74%
13	Royal Sundaram General Insurance Co. Ltd	31.3	1,052	335,657	+19%
14	SBI General Insurance Co. Ltd	30.5	4,503	1,477,063	+93%
15	ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd	27.7	7,782	2,808,584	+51%
16	Go Digit General Insurance Ltd	25.8	2,362	915,678	+32%
17	United India Insurance Co. Ltd	25.2	10,126	4,024,151	+41%
18	Zurich Kotak General Insurance Company (India) Ltd	25.0	547	218,905	—
19	Aditya Birla Health insurance Co. Ltd	23.3	5,329	2,284,121	+36%
20	HDFC ERGO General Insurance Co. Ltd	23.1	7,326	3,174,917	+13%
21	Liberty General Insurance Ltd	19.3	609	315,011	-6%
22	Kshema General Insurance Co. Ltd	18.4	276	149,643	—
23	Tata AIG General Insurance Co. Ltd	18.3	3,577	1,953,412	-13%
24	Generali Central Insurance (formerly Future Generali)	17.8	1,211	681,513	+29%
25	Reliance General Insurance Co. Ltd	8.2	3,396	4,129,912	+21%
26	Universal Sompo General Insurance Co. Ltd	7.5	1,259	1,672,244	-4%
27	The New India Assurance Co. Ltd	6.1	7,768	12,821,714	+16%
28	Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co. Ltd	6.0	3,807	6,392,549	+32%

Why the raw count misleads

Complaints scale with business volume. An insurer paying twelve million claims will draw more grievances than one paying two hundred thousand, however well it behaves. Ranking by the raw number therefore produces a league table of size wearing the costume of a quality measure, which is how the largest and most established insurers end up looking like the worst.

Dividing by claims paid removes most of that distortion. It is not perfect: an insurer that rejects a claim outright still generates a grievance without generating a paid claim, so a very restrictive insurer flatters itself slightly on this measure. Read it with the settlement ratio, not instead of it.

Health insurance distorts the top of the table

Health is the largest single source of insurance grievance in India. Hospital bills are itemised, exclusions bite line by line, and a partially settled claim still feels like a rejected one. A standalone health insurer has its entire book exposed to that, while a general insurer spreads the same exposure across motor, fire and marine.

That is context rather than exculpation. The rate still varies several-fold between health insurers on the same line of business, and that gap is about process and posture rather than the product.

Life insurers

Grievances reported in FY2024-25, raw counts. No rate is shown, for the reason given below.

#	Insurer	Complaints	vs FY2023-24
1	Life Insurance Corporation of India	74,104	-9%
2	Axis MaxLife Insurance Company Ltd	5,165	+8%
3	HDFC Life Insurance Company Ltd	4,744	+9%
4	Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd	3,892	+39%
5	Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Ltd	3,827	+19%
6	ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd	3,557	-7%
7	TATA AIA Life Insurance Company Ltd	3,391	+25%
8	SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd	3,041	-2%
9	Shriram Life Insurance Company Ltd	2,869	+117%
10	PNB Metlife India Insurance Company Ltd	2,296	-7%
11	Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance Ltd	1,911	+20%
12	IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company Ltd	1,803	-28%
13	Aditya Birla Sunlife Insurance Company Ltd	1,494	+6%
14	Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd	1,376	-3%
15	Reliance Nippon Life Insurance Company Ltd	1,288	+7%
16	Canara HSBC Life Insurance Company Ltd	1,186	+9%
17	Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance Company Ltd	910	-9%
18	Generali Central Life Insurance (formerly Future Generali Life)	804	+5%
19	Aviva Life Insurance Company India Ltd	684	-26%
20	Pramerica Life Insurance Company Ltd	588	+82%
21	Ageas Federal Life Insurance Company Ltd	407	-21%
22	Sahara India Life Insurance Company Ltd	346	+35%
23	Bandhan Life Insurance Company Ltd	309	+27%
24	Acko Life Insurance Company Ltd	213	—
25	Go Digit Life Insurance Company Ltd	206	+275%
26	Credit Access	12	—
27	Exide Life Insurance Company Ltd	6	—

The Handbook reports individual new policies only for LIC, the private sector as a whole and the industry total, not for each insurer, so a complaints-per-policy rate cannot be computed on the same basis as the general-insurance table. Premium would be an available substitute but a poor one: an insurer with a large book of old renewals would look better than it is, because complaints arise overwhelmingly at the point of sale.

Three different complaint numbers, all of them real

If you compare this page with others you will find figures that disagree, and usually nobody explains why. There are three separate counts in circulation. IRDAI's Bima Bharosa portal recorded 2,57,790 grievances across all segments in FY2024-25. The Council for Insurance Ombudsmen counts only what escalates to an Ombudsman, which is far smaller. The Handbook tables used here count grievances reported to each insurer.

All three are correct measurements of different things, and mixing them produces nonsense. Every figure on this page comes from the third.

Frequently asked questions

Source and method. IRDAI Handbook on Indian Insurance Statistics 2024-25, published 3 February 2026. General and health insurers: grievances reported in Table 56, expressed against claims paid in Table 53. Life insurers: grievances reported in Table 37; the Handbook publishes no per-insurer policy count, so no comparable rate is shown for life. Study period FY2024-25, prior year FY2023-24. Insurers with fewer than 25,000 claims paid are excluded from the rate table, because a rate on a small base moves too much on a handful of complaints to be worth ranking. Agriculture Insurance Company and ECGC are excluded as specialised insurers whose claim profiles are not comparable.