Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
IAU vs VOO: Differences, Returns & Fees
IAU is a commodity fund and VOO an equity index fund, and over the year to Oct 28, 2026, VOO returned +13.7% against +2.7%.
askIQ about this page
askIQ about IAU and VOO
Net assets: $60.1bn on Oct 28, 2026 for iShares Gold Trust, and $1.0tn on Sep 30, 2026 for Vanguard S&P 500 ETF.
Pair scorecard
VOO costs 0.22 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 11.0 points; VOO is 16.1 times larger.
| Measure | IAU | VOO |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +2.7% | +13.7% |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 24.6%, high on Jan 29, 2026 | |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Gold | S&P 500 Index |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.25% | 0.03% |
| Net assets, as of Sep 30, 2026 | $62.2bn | $1.0tn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 100% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 39.1% | |
Risk and return
Sep 17, 2010 to Oct 23, 2026 · 840 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: IAU against GLD, Feb 4, 2005 to Oct 23, 2026; VOO against IVV, Sep 17, 2010 to Oct 23, 2026.
VOO returned more: +804.0% to +201.3%. IAU and VOO swung about the same: 15.9% and 15.9%. VOO fell less at its worst: −31.8% to −44.4%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | IAU | VOO | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +201.3% | +804.0% | VOO | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +7.1% | +14.6% | VOO | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +201.3% | +575.9% | VOO | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 15.9% | 15.9% | Tie | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 10.9% | 10.9% | Tie | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −44.4% | −31.8% | VOO | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 100.4% | 99.8% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 100.0% | 99.9% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 1.00 | 1.00 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 1.00 | 1.00 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.41 | 0.84 | VOO | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.59 | 1.22 | VOO | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.098 | 0.134 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.16 | 0.46 | VOO | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | GLD | IVV | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | +0.1% a year | 0.0% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | 0.67 | 0.51 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.2% to +0.4% | −0.1% to +0.2% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | 0.18 | 0.02 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 0.7% | 0.4% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 840 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
IAU and VOO on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
IAU and VOO do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. IAU follows Gold and VOO follows S&P 500 Index.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 IAU returned +2.7% and VOO +13.7% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 11.0 points.
- Cost. IAU charges 0.25% of assets a year and VOO 0.03%, a gap of 0.22 points.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
The two-page PDF for this pair is coming. Save the comparison to follow its changes. Free. It needs an email sign-in, once.
Its expense ratio is 0.25% a year, for the three months to Jun 30, 2026, as its 10-Q states.
IAU holds gold. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +2.7% with distributions reinvested, against +2.5% for its benchmark, the price of gold. It sat 24.6% below its high of Jan 29, 2026 on Oct 28, 2026.
VOO
VOO tracks the S&P 500. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +13.7% with distributions reinvested, against +13.7% for its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.03% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer as of Sep 30, 2026, 100% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 507 positions, with the top ten at 39.1%.
Questions people ask
- Which returned more over the last year, IAU or VOO?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, IAU returned +2.7% and VOO +13.7%.
- Which is cheaper, IAU or VOO?
- VOO is cheaper, by 0.22 percentage points a year. That is about $22 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's own filings.
Links are sources, not endorsements. A comparison is not a recommendation.
Cite this pageCitation, APA and Markdown
ETFIQ, IAU against VOO, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/iau-vs-voo
ETFIQ. (Oct 28, 2026). IAU against VOO. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/any/iau-vs-voo
[IAU against VOO (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/iau-vs-voo)
Free to use with attribution for data ETFIQ computes; issuer data stays under its owner's terms.