ETF comparison
GOVT vs TLT
US Treasury (Intermediate) vs US Treasury (Long).
iShares U.S. Treasury Bond ETF · iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF
Holdings overlap
38 positions appear in both funds. Buying equal dollars of GOVT and TLT would leave roughly 11.9% of each dollar exposed to the same underlying securities.
Side by side
Sub-score comparison
Tracking quality isn't part of the composite — see what we don't score for why.
Cost difference
GOVT is 10 bps cheaper than TLT. On a $100,000 position that's about $100/yr more in fees for TLT.
Fee figure is the annual expense charged on $100,000. To see how the gap compounds over a multi-decade holding period, open the cost calculator pre-filled with GOVT vs TLT.
Top shared holdings
38 shared in total| # | Holding | In GOVT | In TLT | Overlap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States of America | 1.55% | 3.69% | 1.55% |
| 2 | United States of America | 1.51% | 2.22% | 1.51% |
| 3 | United States of America | 0.61% | 3.62% | 0.61% |
| 4 | United States of America | 0.60% | 3.80% | 0.60% |
| 5 | United States of America | 0.55% | 4.40% | 0.55% |
| 6 | United States of America | 0.53% | 4.25% | 0.53% |
| 7 | United States of America | 0.47% | 2.90% | 0.47% |
| 8 | United States of America | 0.44% | 4.46% | 0.44% |
| 9 | United States of America | 0.44% | 3.46% | 0.44% |
| 10 | United States of America | 0.90% | 0.39% | 0.39% |
| 11 | United States of America | 0.39% | 1.32% | 0.39% |
| 12 | United States of America | 0.37% | 1.33% | 0.37% |
Only in GOVT
186 total- United States of America 5.25%
- United States of America 2.92%
- United States of America 2.60%
- United States of America 2.06%
- United States of America 1.59%
- United States of America 1.49%
- United States of America 1.39%
- United States of America 1.37%
- United States of America 1.34%
- United States of America 1.07%
Only in TLT
8 total- United States of America 2.62%
- United States of America 2.35%
- United States of America 0.94%
- United States of America 0.42%
- United States of America 0.01%
- United States of America 0.00%
- United States of America 0.00%
- United States of America 0.00%
Open GOVT or TLT at a brokerage
Both funds trade commission-free at major US brokerages.
Affiliate links — opening an account through these earns PlainIndex a one-time referral. Scoring is computed before any affiliate consideration; see our methodology and funding disclosure.
Holdings overlap is the sum of min(weight_a, weight_b) over positions
matched on ISIN (CUSIP fallback). Methodology: see
/methodology/.
Comparing two funds doesn't endorse swapping one for the other. Tax-lot history, account type, and personal goals matter — PlainIndex publishes data and methodology, not investment advice.