Own the world's stocks with VT, or only the United States with VTI
VT is already 62.4% U.S. stocks, and it costs $3 a year more than VTI on every $10,000.
Key takeaways
Vanguard Total World Stock ETF, VT, is the fund to own if one holding should be the world's stocks at market weight. Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market ETF, VTI, is the fund to own if that holding should be the United States alone, or if you want to set the foreign share yourself. Vanguard called it Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF until July 29, 2026.
The fee does not decide it. On Vanguard's Sept. 30, 2026 fact sheet for VTI and fact sheet for VT, VT charges 0.06% a year and VTI charges 0.03%. The gap is 0.03 percentage points, or $3 a year on $10,000.
The United States was 62.4% of VT's stocks. The choice is whether you also want the other 37.6% in foreign stocks.
VT holds U.S. stocks at a smaller scale
VTI tracks the Morningstar US Total Market Index. Vanguard says the index represents approximately 100% of investable U.S. companies, large, mid and small. On Sept. 30 the fund held 3,519 stocks.
VT tracks the FTSE Global All Cap Index. Vanguard says the index covers more than 98% of global investable market capitalization, in developed and emerging markets across more than 47 countries. The fund held 10,185 stocks.
After the United States, Japan was the largest market, at 6.0% of its stocks. Taiwan was 3.5%, and every other market was smaller.
Because the United States is 62.4% of VT's stocks, a U.S. company would weigh about 1.60 times as much in VTI as in VT. In the latest holdings files, on the companies both funds own, VTI's weight is a median 1.62 times VT's. The scale matches the country weight.
The largest U.S. stocks are a smaller slice of VT
- VTI
- VT
- NVDA
- VTI 7.1%
- VT 4.5%
- AAPL
- VTI 6.6%
- VT 4.1%
- MSFT
- VTI 5.2%
- VT 3.3%
- Alphabet
- VTI 4.9%
- VT 3.1%
A decade of U.S. gains is the country bet
These are net asset value total returns from those fact sheets, dividends reinvested, through Sept. 30. The figures are average annual returns. VTI has run since May 24, 2001, and VT since June 24, 2008, so the comparison stops at ten years, the longest window they share.
Over ten years, VTI's 14.70% a year beat VT's 12.32% by 2.38 percentage points. At those rates, $10,000 compounds to about $39,400 in VTI and about $32,000 in VT, before taxes.
The gap belongs to the indexes, not the managers. On the same sheets, VTI's benchmark returned the same 14.70%. VT's benchmark returned 12.40%. Of the 2.38 percentage point gap between the funds, 2.30 percentage points came from the gap between those benchmarks.
The latest year reversed the order. VT returned 16.32%, and VTI returned 15.33%. VT's benchmark returned 16.57%, and VTI's benchmark returned 15.33%.
Over that year and over the ten years, VTI returned the same figure as its benchmark. VT's gap to its benchmark was much smaller than the gap between the two indexes.
A decade in which the United States won is what you got for leaving out the other 37.6%. It does not say the United States will keep winning.
If you want the portfolio that produced those ten years, you want the United States, and that is VTI. The fund did not outrun its index. If you want the market's weights, the ten-year gap is what you gave up to own the other 37.6%, not a mark against VT.
Take VTI when 37.6% is the wrong foreign share
Take VT when one holding should be the world's stocks at the market's weights. The foreign 37.6% is the point of the fund.
Take VTI when you want only the United States. Take it, too, when foreign stocks already sit in another account. VT would own them again, and VTI is the U.S. piece.
If you want a foreign weight other than 37.6%, pair VTI with Vanguard Total International Stock ETF, VXUS. It tracks the FTSE Global All Cap ex US Index and, on its Sept. 30 fact sheet, charges 0.05%. Any mix of the two costs 0.01 to 0.03 percentage points less than VT, depending on the mix.
The fee saving is the small part of that choice. You have to keep the split where you set it. When one side runs ahead, the mix wanders unless you sell the winner and buy the laggard.
VT carries the market's country weights without that work. The pair is not a cheaper copy of it. VTI follows Morningstar, and the U.S. stocks inside VT follow FTSE, so the same country split is not the same portfolio.
Own VT when the foreign share you want is the market's 37.6%. Own VTI, alone or beside a foreign fund you rebalance yourself, when it is not.
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