SHV vs VBIL

SHVAiShares Trust iShares 0-1 Year Treasury Bond ETF

VBILAVanguard 0-3 Month Treasury Bill ETF

In short

SHV iShares' T-bill parking spot since 2007: nothing but US Treasuries maturing inside a year, rolled continuously, with income paid monthly. No corporate credit, no duration bets, 0.15% a year.

VBIL Vanguard's cash-parking ETF: roughly two dozen Treasury bills, none maturing more than three months out, at 0.06% a year. It landed in 2025 and undercut most of the T-bill shelf on price.

Stated mandate

SHV The fund seeks to track an index composed of U.S. Treasury bonds with remaining maturities of one year or less.

VBIL VBIL seeks to track the performance of a market-weighted Treasury index with an ultra-short-term dollar-weighted average maturity, using a passive approach designed to follow the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Bills 0-3 Months Index.

Why people hold it

• SHV Treasuries only, by mandate. The index it tracks holds US government debt maturing in a year or less, so no corporate credit enters the portfolio.ishares.com
• 0.15% a year, below the typical ultra-short bond fund, from a multi-billion-dollar fund that has been running since 2007.
• One of the more heavily traded names in the ultra-short space, and it has hugged its benchmark closely, which matters when the whole return is T-bill yield.
• Income arrives monthly rather than quarterly.

• VBIL It charges 0.06% a year, well under the 0.14% median for 0-1 year Treasury funds and under the category veteran, BIL.
• Plain passive mandate on the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Bills 0-3 Months Index, tracked very closely. One of the tightest implementations in its peer group.vanguard.com
• Roughly two dozen bills backed by the US Treasury, every one maturing inside three months. Interest goes out monthly.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund with active daily trading, which tends to keep bid-ask costs small.

Worth knowing

• SHV Payouts float with T-bill rates. Holdings mature and reroll within a year, so income resets quickly in both directions.
• Cheaper exists: Vanguard's VUSB charges 0.10% among the top-ranked ultra-short peers.
• This is the quiet corner of the bond market. By design there is no credit spread pickup and almost no interest-rate exposure to work with.

• VBIL The payout floats with short-term rates. Monthly income rises and falls with what bills yield, and nothing about it is fixed.
• It opened in 2025, so its live record is short next to T-bill funds that have been running for years.
• Stretching maturity gets cheaper: peer XONE targets one-year duration at 0.03%, trading lower cost for more rate sensitivity.

Full SHV profile⁠

Full VBIL profile⁠