Wealthy PotVTSAX vs VTWAX: US Only or the Whole World, Same Admiral Wrapper
VTSAX and VTWAX are both Vanguard Admiral mutual funds with the same $3,000 minimum, the same once-a-day pricing and the same $25 account service fee rule. The difference is what they own. VTSAX holds the US stock market, 3,507 stocks. VTWAX holds the world's, 10,088 stocks, of which the US was 62.0% at 31 August 2026. On the funds' latest SEC holdings filings, 61.1% of VTWAX's money sat in companies VTSAX also owns. VTSAX costs 0.04% a year, VTWAX 0.09%, so the world fund is more than twice the price, though both are cheap. Over the five years to 30 September 2026 VTSAX returned 12.55% a year and VTWAX 11.31%. Over the latest year VTWAX was ahead, 16.28% against 15.32%. The choice is a decision about international stocks, not about fund quality. Make it once, and do not hold both.
Table of Contents
The Short Answer
- Overlap: 61.1%. That is roughly VTWAX's US slice. In the other direction, 97.9% of VTSAX's money is in companies VTWAX also holds.
- Fees: VTSAX 0.04%, VTWAX 0.09%. On the prospectus example of $10,000 for ten years, $51 against $115. The gap is $5 a year per $10,000.
- Same account rules. Both are Admiral Shares: generally $3,000 to open, $1 to add, and a $25 annual account service fee that Vanguard may charge on fund accounts below $5 million.
- Returns to 30 September 2026: one year, VTWAX 16.28% and VTSAX 15.32%; five years, VTSAX 12.55% and VTWAX 11.31% a year. VTWAX only launched in February 2019, so it has no ten-year record.
- VTWAX is less concentrated. The ten largest holdings were 21.7% of its fund against 33.4% of VTSAX's (30 June 2026).
- VTSAX is more tax-efficient in a taxable account: 0.38 points a year lost to taxes on distributions over five years, against 0.60 for VTWAX.
- Switching later costs tax. They are different funds, so moving from one to the other in a taxable account is a sale.
How Much of VTWAX Is Already VTSAX
Our Portfolio Overlap Checker matches the two funds' SEC Form N-PORT holdings reports company by company and adds up the smaller weight of every company both funds hold. The newest filings are a month apart: 30 June 2026 for VTSAX's fund and 31 July 2026 for VTWAX's.
| Overlap measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Overlap (sum of the smaller weight of each shared company) | 61.1% |
| Share of VTSAX's weight in companies VTWAX also holds | 97.9% |
| Share of VTWAX's weight in companies VTSAX also holds | 61.1% |
| Companies in common | 1,478 |
| Companies in VTSAX's filing / VTWAX's filing | 3,159 / 9,682 |
What this means in plain terms: VTWAX is about three-fifths VTSAX, at smaller weights, plus about two-fifths of everything else. NVIDIA was 6.36% of VTSAX and 4.06% of VTWAX. Apple was 5.87% against 3.87%. The companies are the same; VTWAX simply makes room for Japan (5.9% of its stocks), Taiwan (3.3%), the UK (3.2%), Canada (3.1%) and several dozen more markets.
VTWAX holds fewer US companies than VTSAX: 1,478 of the 3,159 in VTSAX's filing. It samples its index instead of buying every stock. The US companies it skipped were about 2% of VTSAX's assets, mostly small companies at tiny weights.
VTSAX vs VTWAX Side by Side
| VTSAX | VTWAX | |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares | Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund Admiral Shares |
| Index | Morningstar US Total Market Index (CRSP US Total Market Index until 29 Jul 2026) | FTSE Global All Cap Index |
| Expense ratio | 0.04% | 0.09% |
| Prospectus cost on $10,000, 10 years | $51 | $115 |
| Minimum to open / to add | $3,000 / $1 | $3,000 / $1 |
| Account service fee | Up to $25 a year on fund accounts below $5 million (both) | |
| Stocks held (31 Aug 2026) | 3,507 | 10,088 |
| US share of stocks | US market only | 62.0% (31 Aug 2026) |
| Top ten holdings (30 Jun 2026) | 33.4% | 21.7% |
| Technology sector (30 Jun 2026) | 41.0% | 33.3% |
| Admiral class net assets (31 Aug 2026) | $489.8 billion | $12.5 billion |
| Whole fund net assets (31 Aug 2026) | $2.3 trillion | $101.7 billion |
| Portfolio turnover | 3% (year to 31 Dec 2025) | 3% (year to 31 Oct 2025) |
| ETF class of the same fund | VTI | VT |
| Admiral class launched | 13 Nov 2000 | 7 Feb 2019 |
On the name change. VTSAX's fund became the Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market Index Fund on 29 July 2026, after Morningstar acquired the CRSP indexes, and its index was renamed the Morningstar US Total Market Index. Vanguard's supplement says the objective, strategies and policies did not change. VTWAX was not renamed.
What Each Has Returned
| Average annual total return to 30 Sep 2026 | 1 year | 3 years | 5 years | 10 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VTSAX | 15.32% | 22.31% | 12.55% | 14.69% |
| VTWAX | 16.28% | 21.39% | 11.31% | n/a (launched 2019) |
| VT, ETF class of VTWAX's fund | 16.32 | 21.42 | 11.34 | 12.32 |
| VTSAX minus VTWAX | -0.96 | +0.92 | +1.24 |
Over ten years the gap is large: VTSAX at 14.69% a year against about 12.3% for the global portfolio. That was the decade the US market led the world. Over the latest year the order flipped, and in calendar 2025 it flipped hard: VTWAX returned 22.43% and VTSAX 17.12%, a 5.31-point gap in the global fund's favour, per the two prospectuses.
Neither fund did anything unusual. Both tracked their own benchmarks closely. What you are looking at is US stocks against everything else, one period at a time. Nothing in this table tells you which will lead next.
This is educational information, not personalized investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and all investing carries the risk of loss.
Costs and Taxes
The fee gap is 0.05 points. That is $5 a year on $10,000 and $50 on $100,000. VTWAX's expense ratio was 0.10% through its 2024 fiscal year and is now 0.09%; VTSAX has been 0.04% for all five years in its financial highlights. Neither is expensive: Vanguard's VT fact sheet puts the average expense ratio of global multi-cap core funds at 0.84%, using Lipper data as of 31 December 2025.
Taxes in a taxable account favour VTSAX. On the SEC's standard after-tax calculation, VTSAX lost 0.38 points a year to taxes on distributions over the five years to 2025, against 0.60 for VTWAX. Neither fund paid a capital gains distribution in its last five fiscal years, so that drag is all from taxes on dividends. A second point: the Total World fund's prospectus says foreign taxes it pays can be passed through to you as a credit only if "more than 50% of the value of the Fund's assets consists of securities of foreign corporations." At 62% US, VTWAX does not meet that test. In an IRA or 401(k), neither point matters.
Switching is a taxable sale. Vanguard's prospectus is plain about it: a conversion between classes of the same fund is nontaxable, but "an exchange between classes of shares of different funds is a taxable event." Moving from VTSAX to VTWAX, or back, in a taxable account can realize capital gains. Inside a retirement account it costs nothing.
Which One Fits You
Choose VTWAX if you want a single fund that owns the global stock market at market weight, with no decision to make about how much belongs outside the US. It costs 0.05 points more than VTSAX, and in exchange you never have to rebalance between a US fund and an international fund.
Choose VTSAX if you want only US stocks, the lowest fee, or you plan to add your own international fund. One common route is to pair VTSAX with Vanguard's Total International Stock Index Fund Admiral Shares (VTIAX) and set the split yourself. Compare that fund with its ETF twin in VTIAX vs VXUS. In a taxable account, that two-fund route is also the more tax-friendly one, for the reasons above.
Investing automatically at Vanguard? Both work the same way: buy in exact dollar amounts at the day's closing price. If you would rather hold ETFs, the same portfolios come as VTI and VT, each a little cheaper. See VTSAX vs VTI and VT vs VTWAX. A Vanguard mutual fund can be converted into its own ETF class without tax; it cannot be converted into a different fund.
Choosing inside a 401(k)? Use whichever your plan offers. If only one of them is on the menu, a separate international or US option elsewhere in the plan can fill the gap.
Do not hold both. VTWAX is already about 60% VTSAX. Holding both raises your US share above market weight by accident. If you want more US than VTWAX gives you, make it a deliberate split.
For the same question in ETF form, see VT vs VTI or VT vs VTSAX.
Sources & Methodology
Every figure on this page was read from a Vanguard SEC filing or from Vanguard's own published fund data.
- VTSAX summary prospectus, Form 497K dated 28 April 2026: 0.04% fee table, cost example, $25 account service fee, $3,000 minimum, turnover, and returns to 31 December 2025.
- VTWAX summary prospectus, Form 497K dated 27 February 2026: 0.09% fee table, cost example, $25 account service fee, $3,000 minimum, and returns to 31 December 2025.
- Vanguard Form 497 supplement dated 29 July 2026: VTSAX's fund and index renames.
- Vanguard International Equity Index Funds, Form 485BPOS filed 27 February 2026 and Vanguard Index Funds, Form 485BPOS filed 28 April 2026: expense ratio and capital gains history from each fund's financial highlights, the exchange and conversion tax rules, and the foreign tax pass-through test.
- Total Stock Market Index Fund Form N-PORT, period ended 30 June 2026 and Total World Stock Index Fund Form N-PORT, period ended 31 July 2026: the holdings behind the overlap figures.
- VTI fact sheet and VT fact sheet, both as of 30 June 2026: top-ten weights and sector breakdowns for each fund's shared portfolio.
- Vanguard VTSAX profile and VTWAX profile: stock counts, net assets and country weights as of 31 August 2026, and quarter-end returns to 30 September 2026.
How the overlap was computed. The Portfolio Overlap Checker groups each fund's latest Form N-PORT holdings by company and sums the smaller of the two weights for every company both funds hold. The filings are a month apart, which can move the figure slightly.
Limits. VTWAX has no ten-year return of its own, so the ten-year column uses VT, the ETF class of the same fund, labelled as such. We did not re-check VTIAX's figures for this page and quote none. Yields and spreads, which appear only on Vanguard's website, are not used.
This article is for general education and is not investment, tax or legal advice. Fund data changes daily, index returns cannot be invested in directly, and past performance does not guarantee future results. International investing adds currency and political risk. Figures were checked against the sources above on 5 October 2026; confirm current figures with Vanguard and consider speaking with a licensed professional before acting.
FAQ: VTSAX vs VTWAX
Is VTSAX or VTWAX better?
Neither in general. VTSAX is cheaper (0.04% against 0.09%), more tax-efficient in a taxable account, and led over five and ten years because US stocks led. VTWAX holds the whole world, is less concentrated, and led over the latest year and in 2025. Decide how much international exposure you want, then pick.
How much do VTSAX and VTWAX overlap?
61.1%, on the latest SEC holdings filings (VTSAX's fund at 30 June 2026, VTWAX's at 31 July 2026). Nearly all of VTSAX, 97.9% of its money, is in companies VTWAX also owns, but those companies are only about three-fifths of VTWAX.
What percentage of VTWAX is US stocks?
62.0% at 31 August 2026, by Vanguard's country breakdown for the fund, down from 63.1% a year earlier.
Should I hold VTSAX and VTWAX together?
Usually not. VTWAX already contains the US market at about 62%. Adding VTSAX just pushes the US share higher. If you want a different split, use VTSAX with a separate international fund such as VTIAX and set the weights yourself.
What is the minimum for VTSAX and VTWAX?
Both generally require $3,000 to open and $1 to add, and both list a $25 annual account service fee that Vanguard may charge on fund accounts below $5 million.
Can I switch from VTSAX to VTWAX without paying tax?
Not in a taxable account. They are different funds, and Vanguard's prospectus says an exchange between classes of different funds "is a taxable event." In an IRA, 401(k) or other tax-advantaged account, switching has no tax cost.
Why is VTWAX's expense ratio higher?
Its management fee is 0.08% against VTSAX's 0.04%, and it adds 0.01% in other expenses, per the two prospectuses. The prospectuses do not explain the difference. For context, Vanguard's VT fact sheet puts the average expense ratio of global multi-cap core funds at 0.84% (Lipper data, 31 December 2025).
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"VTSAX vs VTWAX: US Only or the Whole World, Same Admiral Wrapper." Wealthy Pot, 2026. https://wealthypot.com/vtsax-vs-vtwax/
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