VBIL vs VGUS

VBILAVanguard 0-3 Month Treasury Bill ETF

VGUSAVanguard Ultra-Short Treasury ETF

In short

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.

VGUS A one-ticker parking spot at the very front of the Treasury curve: about 90 bills and short notes, passively sampled, income paid monthly. Vanguard opened it in 2025 at 0.07%, under the typical Treasury fund in its peer group.

Stated mandate

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.

VGUS Vanguard says the fund seeks to track a market-weighted Treasury index with an ultra-short dollar-weighted average maturity. It uses passive index sampling and generally invests at least 80% of assets in securities in, or economically similar to, the index.

Why people hold it

• 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.

• VGUS 0.07% a year against a 0.12% median for Treasury funds in its peer group. Fees bite hardest at the short end, where there is no duration cushion to hide them.
• Government paper only: roughly 90 US Treasuries sampled against the Bloomberg Short Treasury Index. No corporate credit, no mortgages, no derivatives overlay.
• Tracking has been tight since launch, and the mandate is plain: at least 80% in index securities or economic equivalents. What it says on the tin is what it holds.
• Pays monthly and slots into Vanguard's Treasury shelf next to VGIT and VTG, so you can move along the maturity ladder without leaving the lineup.

Worth knowing

• 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.

• VGUS Not the cheapest ticker on Vanguard's own bond shelf: VGIT and VTG run 0.03%. The ultra-short slice costs a few extra basis points.
• Ultra-short maturities mean income resets as short-term rates move, up or down. This is a cash-management tool, not a bet on falling yields.
• A 2025 launch, so the history is short and trading is moderate rather than heavy. Worth eyeing the spread on large orders in the first and last minutes of the day.

Full VBIL profile⁠

Full VGUS profile⁠