Wealthy PotSCHG vs SCHX: SCHG Is the Growth Half of SCHX, at Higher Concentration
SCHG and SCHX are not two separate choices. SCHG is a slice of SCHX. Both come from Schwab and both track Dow Jones indexes built from the same 750 largest US companies. SCHX holds all of them. SCHG holds only the ones classified as growth, about 190 names. In the two funds' 31 May 2026 SEC holdings filings, every one of SCHG's 192 holdings was also in SCHX, and the overlap was 54.8%. The other 45% of SCHX was 555 companies SCHG did not own at all: Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan, Exxon, Walmart, Johnson & Johnson. SCHG charges 0.04%, SCHX 0.03%. The real difference is concentration: SCHG's ten largest holdings were 60% of the fund, against 39% in SCHX.
Table of Contents
The Short Answer
- Overlap: 54.8%. 99.9% of SCHG's money sat in stocks SCHX also held. Only 54.8% of SCHX's money sat in stocks SCHG held. Our calculation from both funds' Form N-PORT filings for 31 May 2026.
- Fees: 0.04% vs 0.03%. That is $4 against $3 a year on $10,000, per each fund's own prospectus.
- Holdings: 189 vs 756 on Schwab's fund pages as of 1 October 2026.
- Top ten: 60.1% vs 38.5% of the fund. NVIDIA alone was 11.0% of SCHG against 7.5% of SCHX.
- Ten-year return to 31 August 2026: SCHG 18.66% a year, SCHX 15.22% at NAV. Over the latest single year SCHX was ahead, 19.74% against 17.33%.
- Yield: 0.36% vs 1.01% (30-day SEC yield, 1 October 2026). SCHG pays out less, which has also made it lose less to tax on distributions.
- Do not hold both expecting diversification. SCHX already contains SCHG. Adding SCHG on top of SCHX is a deliberate growth overweight, not a second fund.
How Much of SCHX Is Already SCHG
The two indexes start from the same list. Schwab's SCHX prospectus says its index "includes the components ranked 1-750 by full market capitalization." SCHG's index takes the same ranked 1-750 universe and keeps only those "classified as 'growth' based on a number of factors." So by construction SCHG should be a subset of SCHX, and the holdings filings confirm it.
| Portfolios at 31 May 2026 | SCHG | SCHX |
|---|---|---|
| Holdings in the filing | 192 | 747 |
| Held by both funds | 192 | 192 |
| Share of the fund in those shared holdings | 99.9% | 54.8% |
| Holdings the other fund did not own | 0 | 555 (45.0% of SCHX) |
| Overlap, sum of the smaller weight in each shared stock | 54.8% | |
What SCHX adds is the rest of corporate America's large caps. The biggest SCHX positions that SCHG did not hold on 31 May 2026 were Micron Technology (1.60% of SCHX), Berkshire Hathaway (1.27%), JPMorgan Chase (1.18%), Exxon Mobil (0.89%), Johnson & Johnson (0.79%), Intel (0.79%), Walmart (0.74%), Cisco (0.70%) and Caterpillar (0.60%). That is banks, energy, consumer staples, industrials, and some technology that the index classified outside growth at that date. The growth label is the index provider's, rebalanced on its own schedule, and companies can move between the growth and non-growth sides.
Run the pair yourself, or add your other funds, in the Portfolio Overlap Checker.
SCHG vs SCHX Side by Side
| SCHG | SCHX | |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Growth ETF | Schwab U.S. Large-Cap ETF |
| Index | Dow Jones U.S. Large-Cap Growth Total Stock Market Index | Dow Jones U.S. Large-Cap Total Stock Market Index |
| Index weighting | Capped market cap, quarterly capping | Float-adjusted market cap |
| Expense ratio | 0.04% | 0.03% |
| Prospectus cost on $10,000 over 10 years | $51 | $39 |
| Holdings (1 Oct 2026) | 189 | 756 |
| Top-10 weight (31 May 2026) | 60.1% | 38.5% |
| Total net assets (2 Oct 2026) | $64.7 billion | $74.5 billion |
| 30-day SEC yield (1 Oct 2026) | 0.36% | 1.01% |
| Portfolio turnover, fiscal year to 31 Aug 2025 | 27% | 3% |
| 30-day median bid/ask spread | 0.03% | 0.03% |
| 10-year return, NAV, to 31 Aug 2026 | 18.66% | 15.22% |
| Inception | 11 Dec 2009 | 3 Nov 2009 |
| Share split, 10 Oct 2024 | 4-for-1 | 3-for-1 |
The fee gap is one basis point. On $100,000 that is $10 a year. It is real but it will not decide this choice; the holdings will.
Turnover is the cost you do not see on the fee line. SCHX turned over 3% of its portfolio in its last fiscal year, SCHG 27%. A style index has to sell companies that drift out of "growth" and buy ones that drift in, and every trade has a transaction cost that sits outside the expense ratio. Schwab's page shows SCHG's turnover lower at 17.04% as of 31 August 2026, but still several times SCHX's 3.09%.
Concentration: The Real Difference
Removing 555 non-growth companies from the portfolio pushes the same few giants much higher. Both rows come from the same pair of 31 May 2026 filings, with a company's share classes combined.
| Weight in the fund | SCHG | SCHX |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA | 11.01% | 7.50% |
| Apple | 9.83% | 6.69% |
| Alphabet | 8.53% | 5.81% |
| Microsoft | 7.17% | 4.88% |
| Amazon | 5.67% | 3.86% |
| Tesla | 3.91% | 1.79% |
| Ten largest holdings | 60.12% | 38.53% |
| 25 largest | 75.76% | 50.43% |
| 50 largest | 85.83% | 61.00% |
Six in every ten dollars in SCHG were in ten companies. That is why SCHG's index is "capped": since September 2024 S&P Dow Jones Indices has applied a quarterly capping process to keep the growth index within the diversification rules a registered fund has to follow. Without the cap, the largest names would be even heavier.
The prospectuses show what that concentration did in a bad stretch. SCHG's worst calendar quarter in the period they cover was a 22.27% loss in the second quarter of 2022, when growth stocks sold off. SCHX's worst was a 19.86% loss in the first quarter of 2020. Higher concentration in fast-growing companies has meant bigger gains in good years and deeper drops when that group falls out of favour.
What the Growth Tilt Has Returned
| Annualized NAV return, to 31 Aug 2026 | 1 year | 3 years | 5 years | 10 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SCHG | 17.33% | 23.45% | 13.26% | 18.66% |
| SCHX | 19.74% | 20.94% | 12.16% | 15.22% |
| SCHG minus SCHX | -2.41 | +2.51 | +1.10 | +3.44 |
The ten-year column is the one most comparisons quote: growth beat the broad large-cap market by about three and a half points a year. The one-year column is the reminder: over the twelve months to 31 August 2026, SCHX was ahead by 2.41 points. The year before, Schwab's annual report to 31 August 2025 had SCHG at 20.60% and SCHX at 16.37%. Leadership switches between growth and the rest of the market, sometimes for years at a time.
Taxes have favoured SCHG so far. Each prospectus prints the SEC's standard after-tax figures for the ten years to 31 December 2024. SCHG went from 16.66% before taxes to 16.43% after taxes on distributions, a 0.23-point drag. SCHX went from 12.94% to 12.46%, a 0.48-point drag. A lower dividend yield means less taxable income each year. That only matters in a taxable account.
| Hypothetical $10,000 held 10 years | Ending value |
|---|---|
| At SCHX's 10-year NAV return (15.22%) | $41,236 |
| At SCHG's 10-year NAV return (18.66%) | $55,341 |
This is educational information, not personalized investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and all investing carries the risk of loss.
Which One Fits You
If you want one US large-cap fund as the core of a portfolio, SCHX is the core. It owns growth and everything else in proportion to market value, charges 0.03%, and needs no view on which style will lead. It is Schwab's close equivalent of an S&P 500 fund; see SCHX vs VOO.
If you deliberately want more growth exposure and can live with 60% in ten stocks, SCHG does that for one extra basis point. Expect bigger swings: a 2022-style growth sell-off hits it harder than SCHX. Compare it with the other growth options in SCHG vs VUG and SCHG vs QQQ.
Holding both is a weighting decision, not diversification. SCHX already contains every SCHG stock. A 70/30 SCHX/SCHG split just moves your portfolio further toward the same mega-caps. If that is what you want, choose the percentage on purpose and rebalance it.
In a 401(k) or IRA the tax difference does not apply, so choose on the role you want the fund to play. In a taxable account SCHG's lower yield has meant less tax each year on the prospectus figures above, though its higher turnover means it has to trade more.
Already own one in a taxable account? Switching means selling, and selling realizes gains. Redirect new money if you want to change the mix, and check your 2026 tax bracket first.
Schwab account or not, both are ordinary exchange-traded funds listed on NYSE Arca, so any brokerage account can buy them at the market price; check your own broker's commission schedule. If you would rather own the whole market including small caps, Schwab's option is SCHB.
Sources & Methodology
- SCHG summary prospectus, 27 February 2026 and SCHX summary prospectus, 27 February 2026: fee tables, cost examples, index descriptions, turnover, best and worst quarters, and the after-tax returns to 31 December 2024.
- Schwab Strategic Trust Form N-CSR, year ended 31 August 2025: annual returns, costs paid, and the share split note.
- Prospectus supplement, 23 September 2024: the growth index's quarterly capping change.
- SCHG Form N-PORT, 31 May 2026 and SCHX Form N-PORT, 31 May 2026: the holdings behind the overlap and concentration tables.
- Schwab SCHG fund page and Schwab SCHX fund page: net assets, holdings counts, SEC yield, spread, turnover and returns to 31 August 2026.
How the overlap was computed. For each stock held by both funds we took the smaller of its two weights and added them up, the same method the Portfolio Overlap Checker uses on the same N-PORT data. Both filings are dated 31 May 2026, so no date mismatch affects this pair.
What we did not verify. Schwab's annual report prints sector weights as images, so we have not compared sectors numerically; the holdings lists above show the difference instead. We did not check why a particular company, such as Micron, sat outside the growth index on 31 May 2026; style classification is the index provider's.
This article is for general education and is not investment, tax or legal advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and all investing carries the risk of loss. Figures were checked against the sources above on 4 October 2026; fund data changes daily, so confirm current figures with Schwab before acting.
FAQ: SCHG vs SCHX
Is SCHG or SCHX better?
They do different jobs. SCHX is a broad large-cap core at 0.03%. SCHG is the growth half of that same universe at 0.04%, with 60% of its money in ten stocks. SCHG returned 18.66% a year over the ten years to 31 August 2026 against 15.22% for SCHX, but SCHX was ahead over the latest year.
How much do SCHG and SCHX overlap?
54.8% by weight, using both funds' 31 May 2026 SEC filings. All 192 SCHG holdings were also SCHX holdings, so 99.9% of SCHG sits inside SCHX, while only 54.8% of SCHX sits inside SCHG.
Should I own both SCHG and SCHX?
Only if you want a deliberate growth overweight. SCHX already holds every SCHG stock, so adding SCHG increases your weight in the same mega-caps rather than adding anything new.
Which is cheaper, SCHG or SCHX?
SCHX, at 0.03% against 0.04%. On $10,000 that is $3 against $4 a year, or $39 against $51 over ten years in the prospectus examples.
Why does SCHG pay a lower dividend?
Growth companies tend to reinvest earnings rather than pay them out, and SCHG excludes many of the dividend payers SCHX holds, such as JPMorgan, Exxon and Johnson & Johnson. SCHG's 30-day SEC yield was 0.36% on 1 October 2026; SCHX's was 1.01%.
Did SCHG and SCHX split their shares?
Yes. Schwab's annual report records a 4-for-1 split for SCHG and a 3-for-1 split for SCHX, paid after the close on 10 October 2024. The splits changed the price per share, not the value of anyone's holding or the returns.
Is SCHG riskier than SCHX?
It is more concentrated: 60.1% in its top ten against 38.5%. Its worst quarter in the prospectus period was a 22.27% loss in mid-2022, against 19.86% for SCHX in early 2020. More concentration in one style has meant larger swings in both directions.
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"SCHG vs SCHX: SCHG Is the Growth Half of SCHX, at Higher Concentration." Wealthy Pot, 2026. https://wealthypot.com/schg-vs-schx/
Related comparisons: SCHG vs VOO · SCHX vs VOO · SCHG vs QQQ · SCHG vs VUG · SCHB vs VTI · All ETF comparisons
