SPTB vs VGVT

SPTBAState Street SPDR Portfolio Treasury ETF

VGVTBVanguard Government Securities Active ETF

In short

SPTB State Street's Treasury slice of the Agg in one ticker: the whole curve from a year out to the long end, roughly 300 bonds, for three basis points. It arrived in 2024 as the Treasury building block in the SPDR Portfolio suite.

VGVT Vanguard, the index house, goes active on government bonds. VGVT hands a Treasury-and-agency portfolio to human managers for 0.10%, under the typical Treasury ETF fee, with monthly income and an investment-grade-only floor.

Stated mandate

SPTB The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Index and provides exposure to U.S. Treasuries with at least one year remaining to maturity.

VGVT The fund seeks its objective by investing in U.S. government securities, including Treasury bills and notes and other obligations issued by the U.S. government, its agencies, or instrumentalities.

Why people hold it

• SPTB Three basis points. The typical fund in the Treasury cohort charges about five times that, and SPTB undercuts iShares' GOVT at five while tying Vanguard's VTG.
• One ticker covers the full Treasury curve, everything with at least a year to maturity, instead of stacking separate short, intermediate and long sleeves.ssga.com
• Plain index replication of the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Index: government paper only, no credit sleeve, no derivatives overlay in the mandate.ssga.com
• Pays income monthly, and the implementation ranks in the top quartile of its Treasury peer group on our review.

• VGVT Active management at index-fund pricing: 0.10% a year, below the 0.12% median for Treasury ETFs in its peer group.sec.gov
• Vanguard's Fixed Income Group can shift maturity, lean on agency bonds and add select securitized credit instead of mirroring a Treasury index.prnewswire.com
• Quality rules are written into the strategy: at least 80% in U.S. government and agency bonds, and every bond bought is investment grade.sec.gov
• Income lands monthly, and the fund sits in the upper half of its Treasury peer group on our overall read.

Worth knowing

• SPTB Full-curve means long bonds are in the mix, so the price swings with interest rates far more than a short-term Treasury fund does.
• It launched in 2024, so the live record is short next to cohort veterans that have traded through multiple rate cycles.
• Moderately traded rather than the volume leader in its category, so bigger orders are worth routing with limits and a glance at the spread.

• VGVT Discretion costs more than Vanguard's own index route: VGIT and VTG charge 0.03%, so you pay roughly triple for a manager's judgment.
• Launched in 2025, it started small and lightly traded, so spreads can run wider than in Vanguard's index giants.
• Active means drift: the portfolio can sit apart from the Bloomberg U.S. Government Total Return Index, and any maturity is fair game, so rate moves bite.sec.gov

Full SPTB profile⁠

Full VGVT profile⁠