VOO vs SPY: Which ETF Is Better in 2026?

Fee (this is the whole decision). VOO charges 0.03% and SPY charges 0.0945%. On a $10,000 holding that is about $3 vs $9 a year. VOO keeps a little more of your return every year, and over decades of compounding that grows into real money.

Liquidity (only if you trade). VOO holds about ~$1.7 trillion and SPY about ~$600 billion. For buy-and-hold this changes nothing; if you trade options or in size, the larger, more liquid fund gives tighter spreads.

No performance table, on purpose. Two funds tracking S&P 500 deliver essentially the same return. Any past-performance gap between them is tracking noise, not manager skill, and comparing it would mislead more than it informs.

The label is the same; the portfolio is not. Their top holdings overlap about 36% by weight (9 shared names: MSFT, AAPL, NVDA, AMZN, META, GOOGL). That is real overlap, but each still tilts differently, so the two are genuinely different bets under one label.

Overlap reflects top holdings by weight (an approximation of full-fund overlap), as of mid-2026. Verify full holdings with each issuer.

VOO tracks S&P 500, and SPY tracks S&P 500. Because both funds follow the same benchmark, their constituent lists and weights are essentially identical, so what you own barely changes between them. The decision is about cost, structure, and issuer, not exposure.

On construction, VOO is market-cap-weighted and SPY is an options-overlay income strategy. That difference in method changes which companies get the most weight, even where the two funds hold many of the same names.

In practice, tracking the same index means the two are interchangeable exposure; a past-return gap between them reflects tracking differences and fees, not a difference in what the fund is designed to hold.

VOO is the cheaper fund at 0.03% versus 0.0945%, a gap of about $6 a year on a $10,000 holding. When two funds track the same or a very similar index, that fee gap is close to pure savings: it compounds into roughly $180 of fees avoided over 30 years on that $10,000 (more as the balance grows), with essentially no change in what you own.

On scale, VOO holds about ~$1.7 trillion and SPY about ~$600 billion. Larger funds generally trade at tighter bid-ask spreads and carry deeper options markets, which matters if you trade actively or in size; for buy-and-hold investors it rarely changes the outcome. SPY currently pays the higher dividend yield (~1.3% versus ~1.0%), which shifts more of its return into cash today.

Since VOO and SPY track S&P 500, the same investor is well served by either. A cost-focused buy-and-hold investor should lean to VOO, the cheaper fund at 0.03%, while an active trader who uses options or trades in size may prefer the larger, more liquid of the two for tighter spreads.

These are descriptive profiles, not recommendations. What fits you depends on your goals, horizon, and what you already own. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

The overlap that decides most ETF purchases is not between VOO and SPY, it is with what you already hold. ETF redundancy is invisible without looking through to the underlying holdings: you can already own most of VOO inside a broad fund like an S&P 500 or total-market ETF and not realize it.

This is the part a generic comparison cannot answer, because it depends on your account. Connect your brokerage and Walnut looks through your funds to show your real, combined exposure, flags how much of VOO or SPY you already own elsewhere, and tells you whether adding either just buys the same companies twice, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Tracks the S&P 500 Index, the standard measure of US large-cap equity. Effectively identical exposure to SPY and IVV at a 0.03% expense ratio. Used as a core building block in most diversified portfolios.

Full VOO guide

Tracks the S&P 500. Slightly higher expense ratio than VOO (0.0945% vs 0.03%) but dramatically deeper options market, which is why institutional hedgers and traders concentrate on SPY rather than its cheaper Vanguard or iShares siblings.

Full SPY guide

Permission to stop deliberating: VOO and SPY are equivalent exposure, so take the cheaper one, VOO at 0.03%, unless you actively trade options, in which case the larger, more liquid fund is the practical pick.

For the full detail, see the VOO and SPY guides.

Approximate as of mid-2026; verify with each issuer.

Vanguard is investor-owned and known for rock-bottom fees. State Street SPDR launched the first US ETF and runs many sector funds.

VOO and SPY track the same index, so this is cost and issuer, not what you own: take VOO at 0.03%. Either way, the decisive check is overlap with your real portfolio. Walnut can show that before you buy. It is not an investment adviser.

Both funds lean on NVDA, so understanding that one company explains a lot of what drives either ETF.