Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
GLD vs IAUI: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, GLD returned +2.5% to IAUI's +0.7%, and GLD charges 0.40% to IAUI's 0.79%.
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Net assets on Oct 27, 2026: $135.8bn for SPDR Gold Shares and $656m for NEOS Gold High Income ETF.
Pair scorecard
GLD costs 0.39 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 1.8 points; GLD is far larger, $135.8bn against $656m.
| Measure | GLD | IAUI |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +2.5% | +0.7% |
| Price change, 1 year | rose 2.5% | fell 10.8% |
| Latest payout, annualized | 12.3% | |
| Return of capital, issuer estimate | 76% of the Oct 23, 2026 payment | |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 24.7%, high on Jan 29, 2026 | |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Gold | Benchmark: Gold, measured through GLD |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.40% | 0.79% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $135.8bn | $656m |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
Risk and return
Jun 13, 2025 to Oct 23, 2026 · 71 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: GLD against IAU, Feb 4, 2005 to Oct 23, 2026; IAUI against GLD, Jun 13, 2025 to Oct 23, 2026.
GLD returned more: +15.9% to +8.5%. IAUI swung less: 17.1% to 22.1%. IAUI fell less at its worst: −21.4% to −24.2%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | GLD | IAUI | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +15.9% | +8.5% | GLD | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +11.4% | +6.2% | GLD | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +15.9% | −8.8% | GLD | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 22.1% | 17.1% | IAUI | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 15.1% | 13.1% | IAUI | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −24.2% | −21.4% | IAUI | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 99.4% | 60.6% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 99.9% | 86.5% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 1.00 | 0.75 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 1.00 | 0.93 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.42 | 0.21 | GLD | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.62 | 0.27 | GLD | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.097 | 0.048 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.47 | 0.29 | GLD | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | IAU | GLD | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | −0.1% a year | −3.4% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | −0.57 | −0.87 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.4% to +0.2% | −11.2% to +4.4% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | −0.18 | −0.80 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 0.7% | 7.2% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 71 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
GLD and IAUI on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ. Cash paid: distributions over the window, as a share of the starting price.
GLD and IAUI do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. GLD follows Gold and IAUI is measured against Gold through GLD.
- Cost. GLD charges 0.40% of assets a year and IAUI 0.79%, a gap of 0.39 points.
- Size. GLD has $135.8bn in net assets and IAUI $656m (net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026); GLD is 207.0 times larger.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
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Its expense ratio is 0.40% a year, for the three months to Jun 30, 2026, as its 10-Q states.
GLD holds gold. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +2.5% with distributions reinvested, against +2.7% for its benchmark, the price of gold. It sat 24.7% below its high of Jan 29, 2026 on Oct 28, 2026.
IAUI
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, IAUI paid 12.6% of its starting value in cash distributions while its price fell 10.8%. With every distribution reinvested, the fund returned +0.7%. Gold (GLD) returned +2.5% over the same days, so a holder was behind by 1.8 pts. At its price on Oct 28, 2026 the latest distribution annualizes to 12.3%, paid monthly. NEOS estimates that 76% of the distribution paid Oct 23, 2026 was a return of capital (its 19a-1 notice). That is a tax label, not a measure of erosion.
Questions people ask
- Are GLD and IAUI in the same category?
- GLD is a commodity ETF and IAUI is an option-income ETF, so they do different jobs. The table compares what both publish: return, cost and holdings.
- Which returned more over the last year, GLD or IAUI?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, GLD returned +2.5% and IAUI +0.7%.
- Which is cheaper, GLD or IAUI?
- GLD is cheaper, by 0.39 percentage points a year. That is about $39 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's own filings.
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ETFIQ, GLD against IAUI, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/gld-vs-iaui
ETFIQ. (Oct 28, 2026). GLD against IAUI. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/any/gld-vs-iaui
[GLD against IAUI (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/gld-vs-iaui)
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