Gold and Silver ETFs

• Physical metal. All six trusts hold allocated bullion bars in a vault, not futures and not mining stocks.
• Cost range. Expense ratios run from 0.10% to 0.50%, which is $400 a year on $100,000.
• Same gold, four prices. GLD, IAU, GLDM and SGOL hold the same metal at fees of 0.40%, 0.25%, 0.10% and 0.17%.
• No income. Bullion pays nothing, so none of the trusts has a yield.
• Silver swings harder. iShares reports a 3-year standard deviation of 45.13% for SLV against 20.19% for IAU.
• Tax is different. In the U.S., long-term gains on physical metal trusts are generally taxed as collectibles at up to 28%.

Figures come from each issuer page dated Nov 9, 2026. Ounces per share use issuer ounces in trust where published (IAU and SLV) and otherwise NAV divided by the metal price on the same day. iShares pages did not list the custodian, so it is marked Not captured.

Each of these six funds is a trust that owns physical metal. The bars are allocated, which means specific bars are set aside for the trust and listed on a published bar list, and they sit in a vault run by a custodian bank. A share is a claim on a small slice of that metal. One share of GLD is backed by about 0.0916 ounces of gold and one share of IAU by about 0.0188, which is why their share prices differ even though the metal is the same.

These trusts do not hold futures contracts, so there is no roll cost of the kind that affects the broad commodity ETFs. They also do not hold mining companies, so they carry no business risk from a miner. The return is the change in the metal price, less the fee.

The fee is paid by selling a little metal. Because of that, the ounces behind each share fall slowly every year, by about the expense ratio. Over a decade a 0.40% fee uses up roughly 4% of the metal and a 0.10% fee about 1%.

When a gold trust fits: you want exposure to the gold price in a brokerage account without storing metal yourself. When a silver trust fits: you want silver and accept much larger price swings. These describe what the funds hold, not recommendations.

Gold demand comes mostly from investors, central banks and jewelry, so its price reacts to interest rates, the U.S. dollar and fear. Silver has a large industrial side, including electronics and solar panels, so it also reacts to the business cycle. Silver is a much smaller market, which makes its price jump further in both directions.

The issuer data show the difference. iShares reports a 3-year standard deviation of 20.19% for IAU and 45.13% for SLV as of Sep 30, 2026, so silver has been more than twice as volatile. Over the year to Sep 30, 2026, IAU returned 8.90% and SLV 30.86% at NAV, and by Nov 9, 2026 the year-to-date figures were -4.64% and -27.23%.

Because the two metals are different assets, a gold trust and a silver trust share no holdings. Two gold trusts, by contrast, hold exactly the same thing.

All six issuers report returns to Sep 30, 2026, so the table below compares like with like. Figures are annualized NAV total returns, net of fees. The last column shows how far each trust trailed its benchmark metal price over 10 years, which should be close to its fee.

Source: issuer fund pages (State Street, iShares and abrdn). GLDM launched in 2018, so it has no 10-year figure. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

The four gold trusts sit within a few tenths of a point of each other in every period, and the order follows the fees: the cheaper the trust, the closer it stays to the gold price. The two silver trusts show the same pattern against the silver price.

The 3-year figures of about 30% a year for gold and 37% for silver reflect an unusually strong run, and both metals fell from their highs during 2026. Read how to measure investment growth and nominal vs real values before treating any of these numbers as a forecast.

Bullion earns nothing. A bar of gold does not pay interest and a bar of silver does not pay a dividend, so none of these six trusts has a yield or makes regular distributions. The whole return comes from the metal price.

That makes the fee more visible than in a stock or bond fund, where income can cover it. Here the fee is taken by selling metal, and an investor who needs cash has to sell shares.

See what is dividend yield and yield vs total return for how income and price change add up in other kinds of funds.

Overlap is simple here. A trust holds one metal, so two gold trusts overlap completely and a gold trust and a silver trust do not overlap at all. Seven of the fifteen pairs below hold the same metal and eight hold different metals.

For same-metal pairs the fee gap is the main thing to compare. It runs from 0.08 points for IAU and SGOL to 0.30 points for GLD and GLDM.

Each page below puts two trusts side by side on cost, what backs each share, tracking against the metal price, returns, trading and taxes. Every figure carries its date, and the data room at the bottom of each page lists the source and grade of each number.

• 1. Metal Decide whether you want gold, silver or both. They are different assets.
• 2. Cost Expense ratios run from 0.10% to 0.50% here, and the fee is the main difference between same-metal trusts.
• 3. Tracking Check how far the trust has trailed its benchmark. It should be close to the fee.
• 4. Trading Larger trusts usually trade with tighter spreads. Issuer pages showed 30-day median spreads of 0.01% to 0.02% where reported.
• 5. Share price A lower share price helps if you buy whole shares in small amounts. It does not make the metal cheaper.
• 6. Custody Read who holds the bars and where, and whether a bar list is published.
• 7. Dates and sources Compare returns only when the periods match, as they do on this page.

Start with how to research an ETF if the terms are new, and size any metal position inside your whole allocation with asset allocation explained.

On a $100,000 balance, 0.10% is $100 a year, 0.25% is $250 and 0.50% is $500. Because two gold trusts hold the same metal, a fee gap flows almost one for one into the return gap, as the returns table shows. Use the ETF Fee Calculator to turn a fee gap into dollars over time.

Trading costs come from the bid/ask spread and from any premium or discount to NAV. On Nov 9, 2026 the issuer pages showed premiums of 0.04% to 0.05% for the State Street gold trusts, 0.57% for IAU and 1.35% for SLV, so the price you pay can differ from the value of the metal on a given day. Use limit orders for larger amounts.

Someone who trades often may value the deepest market more than the lowest fee, while a long-term holder usually gains more from the lower fee. Both are reasonable positions, and the comparison pages show the figures for each pair.

You want gold at the lowest fee: GLDM at 0.10%, then SGOL at 0.17%. Compare them on the GLDM vs SGOL page.

You trade gold often or use options: GLD is the largest trust and has listed options. See GLD vs GLDM and GLD vs IAU.

You want silver: SLV is the larger trust and SIVR the cheaper one. Read SLV vs SIVR.

You are choosing between the metals: see GLD vs SLV for how differently gold and silver have behaved.

You already own stocks and bonds: metals behave differently and pay no income, so they usually play a small role. Check what you own with the Diversification Calculator and size any position against your whole portfolio.

Owning two gold trusts. GLD plus IAU is one position in gold with two fees to track.

Reading a low share price as a bargain. $10,000 buys about the same ounces of gold through any of the four gold trusts. Only the fee changes what you keep.

Treating silver like gold. Silver has been more than twice as volatile and fell far more in 2026.

Expecting income. None of these trusts pays a distribution.

Ignoring tax. In the U.S. the collectibles rate can apply to long-term gains, which differs from stock funds.

Chasing a strong run. Three-year returns near 30% a year are not normal for metals, and both fell from their highs in 2026.

Holding metal through a trust removes the work of storing it, but not the risk of the metal price. Past gains are not a limit on future losses.

U.S.-listed trusts such as GLD, IAU, GLDM, SGOL, SLV and SIVR trade in U.S. dollars. Buying them from a Canadian account usually involves converting Canadian dollars, which adds a cost, and a move in the U.S. dollar also changes your return in Canadian dollars.

These trusts pay no dividends, so U.S. dividend withholding tax is not the main question. How gains are taxed depends on the account type and your own situation.

Confirm the rules for your accounts with a qualified tax professional, and see how to build an ETF portfolio for how a metal position fits inside an allocation.

Figures come from the issuer pages for each fund: State Street for GLD and GLDM, iShares for IAU and SLV, and abrdn for SGOL and SIVR. Fund facts are dated Nov 9, 2026 and returns Sep 30, 2026. Gaps are shown as Not captured, and nothing was filled from memory or from another fund.

Ounces per share use issuer ounces in trust divided by shares outstanding for IAU and SLV. For the others they are NAV divided by the metal price on Nov 9, 2026, using the LBMA Gold Price PM of $4,117.00 shown by State Street and the silver price implied by SLV. The tracking gap is the benchmark return minus the NAV return from the same issuer page. The pages are educational research, not personal advice, and they do not recommend any fund.

Pathways, not rankings or recommendations.