Highest-Fee Funds by Expense Ratio

How This List Is Built

Funds ranked from the highest annual expense ratio down.

We start from our universe of US-listed exchange-traded funds, read each fund’s assets, expense ratio, holdings, and distribution history from the latest data, and classify it by issuer, asset class, and strategy. Assets and expense ratios refresh weekly; price, the daily change, and the live yield are computed from cached quotes during market hours.

Frequently Asked Questions

How are these ETF rankings calculated?

We rank the US-listed ETFs we cover by the selected metric — assets under management, trailing distribution yield, or expense ratio. Assets and expense ratios come from each fund’s latest data and refresh weekly; prices and the yield re-compute live from cached quotes during market hours.

What does AUM mean, and why rank by it?

Assets under management is the total market value of everything a fund holds — the standard measure of a fund’s size and, in practice, its popularity. The largest funds are usually the cheapest to trade and the easiest to get in and out of, which is why we lead with them.

Why do some ETFs show yields of 50% or more?

Extremely high yields almost always come from options-income (covered-call) funds, which convert market volatility into large distributions — often at the cost of long-run price appreciation. Use the strategy and expense columns to read what you’re actually buying.