Best Gold ETF: GLD vs IAU vs GLDM and Others Compared

The cheapest large US gold ETFs charge about 0.10% a year. The most famous one charges 0.40%. On a $10,000 position, that is $10 a year versus $40. All of these funds own the same metal, so the fee gap is the main thing a long-term holder controls.

The "best" gold ETF depends on how you use it. A buy-and-hold investor, an options trader and someone who wants to someday take delivery of bars each need something different. This guide compares the major US-listed physical gold funds on the four things that differ: cost, size, liquidity and structure.

Every fund below tracks the gold price, which you can watch live on our gold price today page. Spot gold is currently $3,914.83 per troy ounce.

How we sourced the numbers

Expense ratios come from each sponsor's own fund page and prospectus, checked in October 2026, and were cross-checked against Seeking Alpha's gold ETF comparison (BAR, GLD, GLDM, IAU, PHYS, SGOL). The sponsors are:

• State Street / World Gold Trust Services for GLD and GLDM
• BlackRock iShares for IAU and IAUM
• abrdn, now branded Aberdeen, for SGOL
• GraniteShares for BAR
• Goldman Sachs Asset Management for AAAU
• VanEck for OUNZ
• Sprott for PHYS

Sponsors do cut fees. IAU, BAR and SGOL have all done so in the past. Treat the table as a snapshot and confirm the current figure on the fund page before you buy.

We don't print assets-under-management dollar figures here. They move every day with the gold price and with flows. The size ranking has been stable for years, though: GLD is the largest by a wide margin, IAU is second, and GLDM is a distant but large third.

The major US gold ETFs compared

All nine hold allocated physical gold in vaults. None of them use futures. That matters, because futures-based commodity funds can drift away from the spot price over time. These funds don't have that problem.

Factor 1: Expense ratio (matters most for long-term holders)

A gold ETF can't beat gold. It pays the sponsor by selling a sliver of its metal, so the gold behind each share slowly shrinks.

GLD launched in 2004 with each share backed by one-tenth of an ounce. After two decades of a 0.40% fee, each share now represents roughly 0.09 oz. A GLD share is therefore worth very roughly 0.09 × $3,914.83. The fund's own page lists the exact ounces per share.

Here is how the fee compounds on a $10,000 position, assuming gold's price stays flat:

If gold rises, the dollar cost rises too, because the fee is a percentage of a bigger number.

For someone who will hold for years and trade rarely, the gap between 0.40% and 0.10% is the single biggest controllable difference between these funds.

Factor 2: Size (matters less than people think)

Size protects you in two ways:

• Closure risk. Small funds sometimes shut down. That rarely loses you money, since you get cash back, but it can force a taxable sale at a bad time.
• Trading quality. Bigger funds usually trade more and have tighter spreads.

Past a certain point, size stops mattering for an ordinary investor. GLDM, SGOL, IAUM and BAR are big enough that closure is not a realistic near-term worry, and their spreads are tight for typical order sizes. You don't need the biggest fund. You need one that is big enough.

Factor 3: Liquidity (matters most for traders)

Liquidity shows up as the bid-ask spread, the small gap between the buy price and the sell price, plus the depth of the options market.

• GLD is one of the most traded ETFs in the world. It also has the deepest options market of any gold product. Institutions, hedgers and options traders use it for that reason, not for its fee.
• IAU also has heavy volume and an active options market.
• GLDM, IAUM, SGOL, BAR, AAAU trade well for normal-sized orders, often at a spread of a penny or two. Options activity is thin or absent.

If you buy a few hundred or a few thousand dollars at a time and hold, the spread on any of these funds is trivial next to the expense ratio. If you trade daily or sell covered calls, GLD's liquidity can be worth more than its extra 0.30%.

Two practical tips apply to any fund:

• Use limit orders rather than market orders.
• Avoid trading in the first and last minutes of the session, when spreads tend to widen.

Factor 4: Structure and taxes (where the real surprises are)

Grantor trusts (GLD, IAU, GLDM, IAUM, SGOL, BAR, AAAU, OUNZ)

These funds are treated as if you own the gold directly. For a federal tax purposes, gains on shares held over one year are taxed as collectibles, at up to 28%, not at the 15%/20% long-term capital gains rates that stocks get. Short-term gains are taxed as ordinary income.

The trust's sales of gold to pay its fee are technically taxable events as well. The amounts are small, and your broker's tax statements handle them.

Sprott Physical Gold Trust (PHYS)

PHYS is a Canadian closed-end trust. It is classified as a passive foreign investment company (PFIC). Sprott's tax materials say US holders may make a "qualified electing fund" (QEF) election. If they do, long-term gains may be taxed at ordinary long-term capital gains rates rather than the 28% collectibles rate.

This requires filing extra forms, so check with a tax professional before relying on it.

The trade-off is price. Because PHYS is closed-end, its shares can trade at a premium or discount to the value of its gold. Grantor-trust ETFs stay very close to theirs. PHYS also stores its gold at the Royal Canadian Mint and offers physical redemption on large lots under its trust terms.

Retirement accounts

In an IRA or 401(k), the collectibles-rate question mostly disappears while the money stays in the account. That makes a cheap grantor trust a simple fit there. It is also usually far cheaper than a specialty gold IRA holding coins in a depository.

Physical delivery

OUNZ is designed around the option to exchange shares for physical coins or bars, subject to fees and minimums. AAAU and PHYS have delivery or redemption provisions under their own terms. For most investors this is a curiosity. For some it is the whole point.

Which factors matter for which investor

This is a map of trade-offs, not a recommendation. Read each fund's prospectus for custody, audit and redemption details.

What a gold ETF is not

Some "best gold ETF" lists mix in very different products. Know what you are buying:

• Gold miner ETFs (GDX, GDXJ, GOEX). These hold mining company stocks, not gold. They tend to move more than gold in both directions and carry company risk. See our gold stocks guide.
• Gold mutual funds such as FSAGX. Mostly miners, with active management and higher fees.
• Leveraged and inverse funds (UGL, NUGT, DUST). These are built for short-term trading. Daily resets cause them to decay over longer holding periods.
• Futures-based funds. They can lag spot gold because of roll costs.

The nine funds in the comparison table are the ones that simply hold gold bars.

Gold ETF vs. physical gold

An ETF gives you low costs, instant trading and no storage worries. What you give up is direct possession.

Physical coins and bars cost more up front through dealer premiums, often several percent over spot. Recognized bullion sells back near spot, often 97–100%+ of spot. There is no annual fee, but you handle storage and insurance yourself. Physical gold is taxed as a collectible too, so the tax picture is similar.

Compare products and premiums on our gold coin and bar values page. Our deeper gold ETF guide walks through GLD, IAU and GLDM in more detail.

Before you buy any gold ETF

1. Check the current expense ratio on the sponsor's fund page, not a blog post (including this one).
2. Confirm it holds physical gold, not futures or miners.
3. Look at the bid-ask spread at the time you trade, and use a limit order.
4. Know the tax treatment for the account you're using.
5. Decide your sizing before you look at the chart. Gold can fall hard: it is down from its 52-week high near $5,405 per ounce. Our gold price history page shows how deep past drawdowns have run, and why is gold moving today covers the current drivers.

The bottom line

Every fund in the main table holds the same metal and tracks the same price. The differences are cost, trading depth and structure. Buy-and-hold investors usually care most about the fee, and several large funds charge 0.17% or less, per their sponsors' pages. Traders and options users pay up for GLD's or IAU's liquidity. Taxable investors bothered by the 28% collectibles rate can research PHYS's structure with a tax professional. Confirm today's fee on the fund page, then pick the trade-off that matches how you'll actually use it.