10 Best Index Funds of 2026

VTI ranks first because it gives the broadest US stock exposure on this list at one of the lowest costs. Vanguard's September 30, 2026 fact sheet lists 3,519 stocks, a benchmark of the Morningstar US Total Market Index and an expense ratio of 0.03%, which works out to about $3 a year on $10,000. That reach matters for a core holding: an S&P 500 fund such as VOO holds 505 stocks, while VTI adds mid-size and small companies across growth and value styles. The ETF alone held $689,219 million, and the fund held $2,322,816 million across share classes, so it is one of the largest funds sold today. It pays dividends quarterly and trades on NYSE Arca, so you can hold it at almost any brokerage. The limits are plain: it owns only US stocks, and Fidelity ZERO Total Market charges 0.00% if you already use Fidelity. We compared documented features and published costs; we did not buy the fund.

Fidelity ZERO Total Market Index Fund is the cheapest fund on this list. Its December 30, 2025 summary prospectus shows a 0.00% management fee, 0.00% other expenses and total annual operating expenses of 0.00%, and the cost example shows $0 in expenses on a $10,000 investment over 1, 3, 5 and 10 years. The fund normally invests at least 80% of assets in the Fidelity U.S. Total Investable Market Index, which covers large, mid and small US stocks, and there is no purchase minimum. Turnover was 3% in the most recent fiscal year. The catch is access: Fidelity says shares are available only to individual retail investors who buy through a Fidelity brokerage account, including retirement accounts and HSAs. If you ever move brokers, you would have to sell, which can create a tax bill in a taxable account. That is why it ranks just behind the two Vanguard ETFs, which you can hold anywhere.

IVV is the iShares answer to VOO and comes close to a tie. Its fund page lists an expense ratio of 0.03% as stated in the prospectus, the S&P 500 Index as its benchmark, 505 holdings and net assets of $879,087,882,058 as of November 12, 2026. iShares describes it as a low-cost core building block for large-cap US exposure. For investors who trade, the 30-day median bid/ask spread of 0.01% is the detail to note, since it keeps the cost of buying and selling small. Distributions are paid quarterly and the fund has traded on NYSE Arca since its May 15, 2000 inception. It ranks below VOO because the two are the same price and track the same index, and Vanguard's fund is larger. As with any S&P 500 fund, you get only the largest US companies, so pair it with a small-cap or international fund if you want more breadth.

VOO is the ETF share class of the Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and Vanguard's September 30, 2026 fact sheet shows why it is a default core pick. The fund tracks the S&P 500 Index with full replication, held 505 stocks and charges a 0.03% expense ratio. The ETF had $1,032,260 million in assets and the fund as a whole $1,732,017 million, the largest total on this list. Vanguard reports a 15.29% average annual NAV return over 10 years and 14.94% since the ETF's 2010 inception, though past returns do not predict future ones. It pays dividends quarterly and trades on NYSE Arca. It ranks below VTI because it holds only large US companies, so a VOO investor skips the mid and small caps that a total market fund includes. Fidelity 500 Index and Schwab S&P 500 Index track the same index for less, but as mutual funds they suit investors who already use those brokers.

Fidelity 500 Index Fund is the cheapest way on this list to own the S&P 500. Its April 29, 2026 summary prospectus lists a 0.015% management fee, 0.000% other expenses and total annual operating expenses of 0.015%, half the cost of VOO and IVV. Fidelity's example puts total expenses on a $10,000 investment at $2 after 1 year and $19 after 10 years. The fund normally invests at least 80% of assets in stocks in the S&P 500 Index, has no purchase minimum and had 3% portfolio turnover in the most recent fiscal year. The prospectus shows a 17.86% return before taxes for 2025 and 14.81% a year over the 10 years to December 31, 2025. It ranks below the ETFs mainly on flexibility: as a mutual fund it prices once a day at the close, and it fits best inside a Fidelity account. If you are at Fidelity and want only the S&P 500, it is hard to beat on cost.

Schwab S&P 500 Index Fund is the Schwab customer's version of the Fidelity 500 Index Fund. Schwab Asset Management lists a total expense ratio of 0.020% and no investment minimum, and says the fund's goal is to track the total return of the S&P 500 Index. The fund page showed 503 holdings as of September 30, 2026, total net assets of $148,114,557,748.23 as of November 12, 2026 and portfolio turnover of 2.07%. Schwab notes that the S&P 500 covers approximately 80% of available US market capitalization, which is a useful reminder of what an S&P 500 fund leaves out. The fund launched on 05/19/1997. It ranks sixth because it costs a little more than Fidelity's 0.015% fund and, as a mutual fund, prices once a day. For investors who already bank and invest at Schwab, it is a simple core holding that accepts any amount.

VT is the one-ticket answer for investors who do not want to bet only on US stocks. Vanguard's September 30, 2026 fact sheet shows it tracks the FTSE Global All Cap Index, held 10,185 stocks and charges a 0.06% expense ratio, about $6 a year on $10,000. The ETF had $81,752 million in assets and the fund $101,182 million. Because the index is all-cap and global, it covers large, mid and small companies in the US, other developed markets and emerging markets, so you get a world portfolio without rebalancing between funds. That breadth is why it scores high on quality. It ranks seventh because the cost is double VTI's 0.03%, and investors who prefer to choose their own split between US and international stocks can do that more cheaply with two funds. Compared with iShares MSCI World, it covers emerging markets and costs a quarter as much.

SPY is the oldest fund on this list and still one of the most traded, but for long-term holders it is not the cheapest way to own the S&P 500. State Street's fund page lists the S&P 500 Index as its benchmark, an inception date of January 22, 1993, options available, 504 holdings and a gross expense ratio of 0.0945%. That cost is roughly three times the 0.03% charged by VOO and IVV and more than six times Fidelity 500 Index, a gap that compounds over decades in a core holding. SPY earns its place for a different reason: it is the fund many traders and options users already watch, and listed options make it useful for hedging. The portfolio is the same large-cap US index as its cheaper rivals, so the ranking comes down mostly to cost. Buy-and-hold investors should usually prefer VOO or IVV for the same index exposure.

Invesco QQQ is on this list because many investors ask whether it can be a core fund, and the honest answer is that it works better as a satellite. Invesco says QQQ gives access to 100 companies in the Nasdaq-100 Index and lists a total expense ratio of 0.18%. Its record is strong: Invesco cites a top 1% ranking (3 of 399) among large-cap growth funds for 15-year total return by Lipper and a 5-star Morningstar rating among 877 large-cap growth funds, both as of June 30, 2026, and says it was the 2nd-most traded ETF in the US by average daily volume. But 100 stocks is a narrow slice of the market compared with VTI's 3,519, and the cost is six times VOO's. Past performance from a growth-heavy index may not repeat. We rank it ninth: a reasonable addition for investors who want more growth exposure, not a replacement for a broad index fund.

URTH is a narrower and pricier way to go global than VT. iShares says the fund seeks to track an index of developed-market equities from around the globe, the MSCI World Index (Net), and lists an expense ratio of 0.24% as stated in the prospectus. It held 1,250 holdings and $9,980,061,620 in net assets as of November 12, 2026, pays distributions semi-annually and has traded since January 10, 2012. The 30-day median bid/ask spread was 0.07%, wider than IVV's 0.01%. URTH fits a specific investor: someone who wants the US plus other rich countries in one ticker and prefers to leave out emerging markets. For everyone else, VT covers more of the world with 10,185 stocks for a quarter of the cost, which is why URTH ranks last. It is a real, widely held fund, but on cost alone it is the weakest core choice here.