{"url":"https://etfiq.com/learn/what-is-an-etf-expense-ratio","section":"learn","title":"What is an ETF expense ratio? | ETFIQ","description":"As of Nov 4, 2026, the median US ETF charges 0.55% a year, and 8.2% of 5,057 funds charge 0.10% or less. Updated every trading night.","as_of":"Nov 4, 2026","structured_data":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https://etfiq.com/learn/what-is-an-etf-expense-ratio#article","headline":"What is an ETF expense ratio?","description":"As of Nov 4, 2026, the median US ETF charges 0.55% a year, and 8.2% of 5,057 funds charge 0.10% or less.","url":"https://etfiq.com/learn/what-is-an-etf-expense-ratio","mainEntityOfPage":"https://etfiq.com/learn/what-is-an-etf-expense-ratio","dateModified":"2026-11-04","datePublished":"2026-11-04","author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"ETFIQ Research","url":"https://etfiq.com"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"ETFIQ Research","url":"https://etfiq.com"},"about":"What is an ETF expense ratio?","inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://etfiq.com/learn/what-is-an-etf-expense-ratio#questions","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Is the lowest expense ratio always the right comparison?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Not on its own. Compare funds that do the same job. ETFIQ shows the fee beside the gap to the benchmark."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Is the expense ratio the only cost of an ETF?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"No. You also pay the gap between the bid and ask price, and any difference between price and value. See the trading cost pages."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Where does ETFIQ get fees?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"From the fund\u2019s prospectus or the issuer\u2019s page. Each fee has its source and date."}}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"ETFIQ","item":"https://etfiq.com/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Learn","item":"https://etfiq.com/learn/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"What is an ETF expense ratio?","item":"https://etfiq.com/learn/what-is-an-etf-expense-ratio"}]},{"@type":"WebPage","name":"What is an ETF expense ratio?","description":"As of Nov 4, 2026, the median US ETF charges 0.55% a year, and 8.2% of 5,057 funds charge 0.10% or less. Updated every trading night.","url":"https://etfiq.com/learn/what-is-an-etf-expense-ratio","dateModified":"2026-11-04","isPartOf":{"@type":"WebSite","name":"ETFIQ","url":"https://etfiq.com"},"speakable":{"@type":"SpeakableSpecification","cssSelector":[".lede",".faq"]},"publisher":{"@id":"https://etfiq.com/#org"}}],"characters":2044,"truncated":false,"content":"ETFIQ / Learn / What is an ETF expense ratio? \n \n What is an ETF expense ratio?\n Data as of Nov 4, 2026. Rebuilt every trading night.\n As of Nov 4, 2026, the median US ETF charges 0.55% a year, and 8.2% of 5,057 funds charge 0.10% or less.\n \n In plain words\n The expense ratio is the yearly fee a fund takes as a share of net assets. A 0.50% ratio means $5 a year per $1,000. It comes out of the fund a little each day, so you never see a bill.\n The median is 0.55% across 5,057 funds: 8.2% charge 0.10% or less and 11.2% charge 1.00% or more. Plain index funds sit low; funds using borrowed money, options or futures sit high. A lower fee on a fund doing the same job is a real saving; a higher one may pay for a harder job.\n Questions\n Is the lowest expense ratio always the right comparison? Not on its own. Compare funds that do the same job. ETFIQ shows the fee beside the gap to the benchmark.\n Is the expense ratio the only cost of an ETF? No. You also pay the gap between the bid and ask price, and any difference between price and value. See the trading cost pages.\n Where does ETFIQ get fees? From the fund\u2019s prospectus or the issuer\u2019s page. Each fee has its source and date.\n Where to next\n Screener: filter every ETF Compare two ETFs Rankings What is an ETF benchmark? How much does a leveraged ETF cost? What is an ETF bid-ask spread? All ETF explainers How ETFIQ computes these numbers \n Cite this page. ETFIQ, What is an ETF expense ratio?, data as of Nov 4, 2026. https://etfiq.com/learn/what-is-an-etf-expense-ratio Free to use with attribution for data ETFIQ computes; issuer data stays under its owner's terms. The underlying files are at Open data .\n Other forms Plain ETFIQ, What is an ETF expense ratio?, data as of Nov 4, 2026. https://etfiq.com/learn/what-is-an-etf-expense-ratio APA ETFIQ. (Nov 4, 2026). What is an ETF expense ratio?. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/learn/what-is-an-etf-expense-ratio Markdown [What is an ETF expense ratio? (ETFIQ, Nov 4, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/learn/what-is-an-etf-expense-ratio)","source":"ETFIQ, independent ETF data. Recomputed nightly from public filings and prices.","publisher":{"@id":"https://etfiq.com/#org","name":"ETFIQ","url":"https://etfiq.com"},"license":"https://etfiq.com/license/","license_text":"Data ETFIQ computes is free to use with attribution: ETFIQ (etfiq.com). Issuer data stays under its owner's terms.","citation":"ETFIQ, What is an ETF expense ratio?, data as of Nov 4, 2026. https://etfiq.com/learn/what-is-an-etf-expense-ratio"}