Does insurance cover hail damage to a windshield?

Is hail damage covered by car insurance?

• Hail is a comprehensive loss — the same coverage that handles rocks and falling objects.
• The glass is subject to your comprehensive or glass deductible.
• Glass and body damage from one storm are usually one claim with one deductible.
• Full glass coverage on some policies lowers or removes the glass deductible.
• A liability-only policy includes no hail coverage for your vehicle.

How to claim hail damage on a car

Start by photographing every piece of damage the storm left — the glass, the dents, the trim — before any repair begins. A single storm is usually treated as a single comprehensive loss, so the glass and the bodywork are handled together under one deductible rather than split into separate claims. Confirm with your insurer how it treats a combined storm loss, since the details can vary by policy.

For the glass specifically, the work follows the usual path. Coverage is confirmed, the claim is opened, and the shop bills the insurer directly. A windshield pitted or cracked by hail may need replacement rather than repair, and if the vehicle has a forward camera, calibration is part of the job. See our guide on whether hail can crack a windshield for how the damage reads on the glass.

Hail can also pit the glass without cracking it — thousands of tiny impacts that scatter glare at night. Pitting is not repairable with resin, and a heavily pitted windshield is a replacement, handled the same way under comprehensive. Photographing the glass in sunlight helps the insurer see the extent of the damage.

More questions about hail and glass