Fund comparison
VOO vs VTI
Vanguard S&P 500 ETF against Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF.
Verdict
Owning both is close to owning VTI twice. VTI already contains 99.9% of VOO by weight; the choice is whether you want the extra 2,968 smaller companies, which are 11% of VTI.
The single number that matters here is not the 88.8% overlap, it is the asymmetry behind it. Nearly all of VOO, 99.9% of its weight, is inside VTI. Only 88.8% of VTI is inside VOO. VTI is VOO plus a tail: 3,469 positions against 503, and the extra 2,968 companies are mid and small caps that together make up about a ninth of the fund.
That tail is why the two funds are not identical, and also why the difference has been small. Over three years VOO returned 75.6% and VTI 73.7%, so the tail cost about two points, not because small companies are worse but because they have lagged large ones in this particular stretch. Volatility and the worst fall were within a point of each other. Both funds charge 0.03%, so cost decides nothing.
Where it does matter: VTI holds names VOO cannot, because the S&P 500 requires profitability and a committee vote. Snowflake, Cloudflare and Cheniere sit in VTI and not in VOO. If you want the whole US market rather than the part a committee has admitted, that is the argument, and it is worth 11% of your equity allocation.
Where they hold the same companies
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Overlap by weight | 88.8% |
| Share of VOO held in common with VTI | 99.9% |
| Share of VTI held in common with VOO | 88.8% |
| Companies in both | 501 |
| Positions in VOO / VTI | 503 / 3469 |
VOO holdings as published 2026-07-31, VTI 2026-07-31.
Largest positions held by both
| Company | In VOO | In VTI | Counted as overlap |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDA | 7.56% | 6.42% | 6.42% |
| AAPL | 7.05% | 6.31% | 6.31% |
| MSFT | 5.37% | 4.8% | 4.8% |
| AMZN | 4.13% | 3.66% | 3.66% |
| GOOGL | 3.25% | 2.91% | 2.91% |
| AVGO | 2.87% | 2.56% | 2.56% |
| GOOG | 2.62% | 2.32% | 2.32% |
| META | 1.9% | 1.7% | 1.7% |
| LLY | 1.41% | 1.36% | 1.36% |
| JPM | 1.47% | 1.31% | 1.31% |
| MU | 1.44% | 1.29% | 1.29% |
| BRK.B | 1.46% | 1.28% | 1.28% |
| TSLA | 1.36% | 1.22% | 1.22% |
| AMD | 1.21% | 1.08% | 1.08% |
| XOM | 1.0% | 0.9% | 0.9% |
Held by only one of them
| In VOO only | Weight | In VTI only | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| NXPI | 0.09% | SNOW | 0.13% |
| AMCR | 0.03% | NET | 0.12% |
| SPCX | 0.09% | ||
| BE | 0.08% | ||
| LNG | 0.08% | ||
| ALAB | 0.07% | ||
| FERG | 0.06% | ||
| WCN | 0.06% | ||
| RVMD | 0.05% | ||
| RKLB | 0.05% |
Cost, returns and risk
| VOO | VTI | |
|---|---|---|
| Expense ratio | 0.03% | 0.03% |
| Dividend yield | 1.07% | 1.06% |
| Total return, 1 year | 20.4% | 20.1% |
| Total return, 3 years cumulative | 75.6% | 73.7% |
| Total return, 5 years cumulative | 80.4% | 71.7% |
| Volatility, annualised on 3 years of weekly returns | 14.4% | 14.6% |
| Worst fall in 3 years, peak to trough | -18.7% | -19.3% |
| Beta against the S&P 500 | 0.99 | 1.01 |
| Positions held | 503 | 3140 |
| Weight in the ten largest positions | 37.7% | 33.4% |
| Weight in the single largest position | 7.6% | 6.4% |
| Assets under management | $1686.9B | $2290.0B |
Prices through 2026-09-02.
Year by year
| Year | VOO | VTI |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 12.3% | 12.6% |
| 2025 | 17.8% | 17.1% |
| 2024 | 25.0% | 23.8% |
| 2023 | 26.3% | 26.0% |
| 2022 | -18.2% | -19.5% |
Do they move together
| Window | Correlation of weekly returns |
|---|---|
| 1 year | 1.00 |
| 3 years | 1.00 |
| 5 years | 1.00 |
How these numbers are produced · Portfolio x-ray · Overlap checker