Wealthy PotSCHG vs VTI: Half of VTI Is Already SCHG, and the Other Half Is What You Give Up
SCHG and VTI are not rivals for the same job. VTI owns the whole investable US stock market, about 3,500 companies. SCHG owns the roughly 190 large companies that Schwab's index classifies as growth stocks, and nearly all of them are already inside VTI. Matching the two funds' SEC holdings filings, the overlap is 48.7%: 99.8% of SCHG's money sits in stocks VTI also owns, while those stocks make up just under half of VTI. SCHG charges 0.04% and VTI 0.03%. Over the ten years to 30 June 2026 SCHG returned 18.66% a year and VTI 15.04%, but over the latest year VTI was ahead by almost seven points. The decision is whether you want the other half of the market, not which fund is better run.
Table of Contents
The Short Answer
- Overlap: 48.7%. 191 of SCHG's 192 holdings were also VTI holdings, carrying 99.8% of SCHG's weight. Those same stocks were 48.7% of VTI. Our calculation from SCHG's 31 May 2026 and VTI's 30 June 2026 SEC filings.
- Fees: 0.04% vs 0.03%. $4 against $3 a year on $10,000, or $51 against $39 over ten years in the prospectus examples.
- Holdings: 189 vs 3,507. SCHG on 2 October 2026, VTI on 31 August 2026.
- Top ten: 60.1% vs 33.4% of the fund. NVIDIA alone was 11.0% of SCHG and 6.4% of VTI.
- Ten-year return to 30 June 2026: SCHG 18.66%, VTI 15.04% a year at NAV. One-year return to the same date: VTI 23.16%, SCHG 16.40%.
- Yield: 0.36% vs 1.03% (30-day SEC yield, 1 October and 30 September 2026).
- Holding both is a growth overweight, not diversification. VTI already owns almost everything SCHG owns.
How Much of VTI Is Already SCHG
Start with the index rules. SCHG's prospectus says its index "includes the components ranked 1-750 by full market capitalization and that are classified as 'growth' based on a number of factors." VTI's index "represents 100% of the investable U.S. stock market" and includes large, mid, small and micro-cap stocks. One is a style slice of the large-cap end. The other is everything. The holdings filings confirm the shape.
| Holdings match | Result |
|---|---|
| SCHG holdings also held by VTI | 191 of 192 |
| Share of SCHG's weight in stocks VTI also owns | 99.8% |
| Share of VTI's weight in stocks SCHG also owns | 48.7% |
| Overlap (sum of the smaller weight in each shared stock) | 48.7% |
| VTI lines SCHG did not own | 2,968, or 51.0% of VTI |
Read the two directions separately. If you own SCHG, you own almost nothing VTI lacks. If you own VTI, just under half of your money is already in SCHG's stocks, at a little over half SCHG's weights. The other 51% of VTI is what SCHG leaves out.
That other half is not obscure. The largest VTI positions SCHG did not hold were Micron Technology (1.80% of VTI), Berkshire Hathaway (1.28%), JPMorgan Chase (1.12%), Johnson & Johnson (0.84%), Applied Materials (0.79%), Exxon Mobil (0.78%), Intel (0.78%), Lam Research (0.75%), Walmart (0.69%) and Caterpillar (0.68%). Behind them sit thousands of mid-cap and small-cap companies that SCHG's 750-company universe never reaches. Note the semiconductor names in that list: "growth" is the index provider's classification on that date, not a description of the industry.
Check the pair yourself, or add the rest of your portfolio, in the Portfolio Overlap Checker.
SCHG vs VTI Side by Side
| SCHG | VTI | |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Growth ETF | Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market ETF |
| Index | Dow Jones U.S. Large-Cap Growth Total Stock Market Index | Morningstar US Total Market Index (CRSP US Total Market Index until 29 July 2026) |
| Index universe | Growth-classified stocks among the 750 largest US companies | 100% of the investable US market |
| Expense ratio | 0.04% | 0.03% |
| Prospectus cost on $10,000 over 10 years | $51 | $39 |
| Holdings | 189 (2 Oct 2026) | 3,507 (31 Aug 2026) |
| Top-10 weight | 60.1% (31 May 2026) | 33.4% (30 Jun 2026) |
| Size | $64.7 billion (2 Oct 2026) | ETF class $690.1 billion; whole fund $2.3 trillion (31 Aug 2026) |
| 30-day SEC yield | 0.36% (1 Oct 2026) | 1.03% (30 Sep 2026) |
| Portfolio turnover, latest fiscal year in prospectus | 27% (year to 31 Aug 2025) | 3% (2025) |
| Legal form | Standalone ETF, series of Schwab Strategic Trust | ETF share class of a multi-class Vanguard mutual fund |
| Inception | 11 Dec 2009 | 24 May 2001 |
| Exchange | NYSE Arca | NYSE Arca |
The fee gap is one basis point. On $100,000 that is $10 a year. It is real, and it is not what this choice turns on.
Turnover is the cost the fee line does not show. A style index has to sell companies that drift out of "growth" and buy the ones that drift in. SCHG turned over 27% of its portfolio in its last fiscal year against VTI's 3%. Schwab's page shows a lower 17.04% for the year to 31 August 2026, still several times VTI's figure. Inside an ETF most of that trading does not create taxable distributions, but every trade still has a transaction cost.
About VTI's name. Morningstar acquired CRSP, and Vanguard renamed the fund and its index effective 29 July 2026. The supplement says each fund's "investment objective, strategies, and polices remain unchanged." Same ticker, same 0.03% fee.
Sixty Percent in Ten Stocks
SCHG is not a bet on 189 companies. Because it weights by market value, it is mostly a bet on a handful.
| Weight in the fund | SCHG (31 May 2026) | VTI (30 Jun 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA | 11.01% | 6.36% |
| Apple | 9.83% | 5.87% |
| Alphabet (both classes) | 8.53% | 5.18% |
| Microsoft | 7.17% | 3.83% |
| Amazon | 5.67% | 3.19% |
| Broadcom | 4.55% | 2.47% |
| Tesla | 3.91% | 1.64% |
| Ten largest companies | 60.12% | 33.44% |
| 25 largest | 75.76% | 45.55% |
| 50 largest | 85.83% | 55.84% |
SCHG's index is "capped": since September 2024 a quarterly capping process keeps the largest weights inside the diversification limits a registered fund must follow. Even so, six dollars in every ten sit in ten companies. VTI holds the same giants in the same order at roughly half to two-thirds the weight, with the rest spread across the market.
The prospectuses show what concentration does in a bad stretch, though over different periods. SCHG's worst calendar quarter in its prospectus record (to the end of 2024) was a 22.27% loss in the second quarter of 2022. VTI's worst in its record (to the end of 2025) was a 20.89% loss in the first quarter of 2020. So VTI's record contains no quarter as bad as SCHG's mid-2022 loss, the stretch when growth stocks sold off.
What the Growth Tilt Has Returned
Both issuers publish quarter-end returns for 30 June 2026, so this table compares like with like.
| Annualized NAV return, to 30 Jun 2026 | 1 year | 3 years | 5 years | 10 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SCHG | 16.40% | 22.33% | 13.69% | 18.66% |
| VTI | 23.16% | 20.43% | 12.24% | 15.04% |
| SCHG minus VTI | -6.76 | +1.90 | +1.45 | +3.62 |
The ten-year column is the reason SCHG gets searched: large growth stocks beat the whole market by about three and a half points a year over that decade. The one-year column is the counterweight. In the twelve months to June 2026, VTI was ahead by 6.76 points, because the stocks SCHG excludes did better than the ones it owns. Leadership has switched between growth and the rest of the market before, sometimes for years.
Taxes. SCHG's yield is about a third of VTI's, so it hands holders less taxable income each year. The prospectuses print the SEC's standard after-tax figures, but for different years, so read these as two separate facts rather than a head-to-head: SCHG lost 0.23 points a year to taxes on distributions over the ten years to 2024, and VTI lost 0.47 points a year over the ten years to 2025. Inside an IRA or 401(k) none of this applies.
| Hypothetical $10,000 held for 10 years | Ending value |
|---|---|
| At VTI's 10-year NAV return (15.04%) | $40,597 |
| 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 stock fund, VTI is the one. It already owns nearly every SCHG stock, plus the banks, energy companies, consumer staples and thousands of mid and small companies SCHG leaves out, for a basis point less. It needs no view on which style will lead next.
If you already have a broad core and want more growth on purpose, SCHG does that for 0.04%. Expect larger swings, and know that you are adding weight to the same giants your core already holds. Other ways to make the same bet are compared in SCHG vs VUG and SCHG vs QQQ.
Holding both is a weighting decision. A 70/30 VTI/SCHG mix raises your weight in NVIDIA, Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft. It does not add a company you did not already own. If that tilt is what you want, pick the percentage deliberately and rebalance it.
Inside a 401(k) or IRA, taxes drop out of the choice, so decide on the role. In a taxable account SCHG's lower yield has meant less tax each year, though that is a small edge, not a reason on its own to drop half the market.
Already hold one in a taxable account? Switching means selling, and selling realizes gains. Send new money where you want the mix to go, and check your 2026 tax bracket before doing anything irreversible.
Broker and minimums. Both are ordinary ETFs on NYSE Arca; any brokerage account can buy them, and Vanguard's prospectus says that, unless your broker imposes one, "there is no minimum dollar amount you must invest" in the ETF shares. VTI has a mutual fund twin, VTSAX, and Vanguard's fee table shows no fee to convert those shares into VTI; see VTSAX vs VTI. If you are at Schwab and want the whole market from one family, the Schwab equivalent of VTI is SCHB, compared in SCHB vs SCHG and SCHB vs VTI.
Sources & Methodology
- SCHG summary prospectus, 27 February 2026: fee table and cost example, index description, 27% turnover, best and worst quarters, and after-tax returns to 31 December 2024.
- Schwab SCHG fund page: holdings, net assets, SEC yield, current turnover and the quarterly returns to 30 June 2026, read 5 October 2026.
- Vanguard Index Funds, Form 485BPOS filed 28 April 2026: VTI's ETF fee table, index description, turnover, conversion fee, minimums and after-tax returns to 31 December 2025.
- Vanguard supplement dated 29 July 2026: the CRSP to Morningstar renaming.
- Vanguard VTI fact sheet, 30 June 2026 and Vanguard's VTI page: returns, top ten, holdings count, assets and SEC yield.
- SCHG Form N-PORT, 31 May 2026 and VTI Form N-PORT, 30 June 2026: the holdings behind the overlap and concentration tables.
How the overlap was computed. For every 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. The SCHG filing is dated 31 May 2026 and the VTI filing 30 June 2026; no common date exists, so the figure is approximate.
What we did not verify. We have not compared sector weights: Vanguard classifies VTI under the Industry Classification Benchmark and we did not capture a matching Schwab sector table. We did not compare volatility figures because the two issuers publish them for different dates. The after-tax figures come from prospectuses covering different ten-year windows and are presented separately for that reason.
This article is for general education and is not investment, tax or legal advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results, index returns cannot be invested in directly, and all investing carries the risk of loss. Figures were checked against the sources above on 5 October 2026; fund data changes daily, so confirm current figures with Schwab and Vanguard before acting.
FAQ: SCHG vs VTI
Is SCHG or VTI better?
They do different jobs. VTI is a whole-market core at 0.03%. SCHG is a concentrated large-cap growth fund at 0.04%, with 60% of its money in ten stocks. SCHG returned 18.66% a year over the ten years to 30 June 2026 against 15.04% for VTI, but VTI was ahead by 6.76 points over the latest year to that date.
How much do SCHG and VTI overlap?
48.7% by weight, from SCHG's 31 May and VTI's 30 June 2026 SEC filings. 99.8% of SCHG's money is in stocks VTI also owns, while those stocks are 48.7% of VTI.
Should I own both SCHG and VTI?
Only if you want a deliberate growth overweight. VTI already holds nearly every SCHG stock, so adding SCHG increases your weight in the same mega-caps rather than adding new companies.
Which has lower fees, SCHG or VTI?
VTI, 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.
Can SCHG replace VTI as a one-fund portfolio?
It can be held alone, but it leaves out about half the US market by value, including most banks, energy and consumer staples companies and every small company. That is a much narrower bet than VTI.
Which pays more dividends?
VTI. Its 30-day SEC yield was 1.03% on 30 September 2026; SCHG's was 0.36% on 1 October 2026. Growth companies tend to reinvest earnings rather than pay them out.
Is SCHG riskier than VTI?
It is more concentrated: 60.1% in its top ten against 33.4%. Its worst prospectus quarter was a 22.27% loss in mid-2022. VTI's worst quarter on record, a 20.89% loss in early 2020, was smaller.
Cite This Page
Journalists, educators and bloggers are welcome to cite this comparison. Please link back so readers can reach the underlying filings.
"SCHG vs VTI: Half of VTI Is Already SCHG, and the Other Half Is What You Give Up." Wealthy Pot, 2026. https://wealthypot.com/schg-vs-vti/
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