What UK tracker funds actually charge
Every fund on this site is a tracker, and every tracker charges an ongoing charge taken automatically from what you hold. This page is not about any one of them. It is what the whole set looks like when you line the charges up: how far apart they are, how they cluster, and how much the same market can cost depending on which fund you hold it through. The figures are computed from our own fund data when the site builds, so they move when a provider changes a fee.
In pounds, on a £10,000 holding, that range runs from about £3 a year to about £65 - the same money, in the same kind of fund, costing 22 times as much to hold.
How the charges cluster
| Ongoing charge | Funds | Share | Relative size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 0.10% | 21 | 28% | |
| 0.10% to 0.19% | 24 | 32% | |
| 0.20% to 0.39% | 21 | 28% | |
| 0.40% and over | 9 | 12% |
Most of the range sits low: 45 of 75 funds charge under 0.20% a year. Of the 9 funds at 0.40% and above, 7 are single-theme funds - water, clean energy, robotics and the like - rather than broad market trackers. Narrowing the thing being tracked is the usual reason a tracker costs more.
The same index, at different prices
This is the part that is hard to see one fund at a time. When several funds track the same index they are, for practical purposes, delivering the same thing - the same companies, in the same proportions, moving together. The charge is set by the provider, not by the index, so it varies anyway.
S&P 500
7 funds track it, charging between 0.03% and 0.07% - the higher one costs 2.3 times the lower.
| Fund | Ongoing charge | Cost a year on £10,000 |
|---|---|---|
| iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS ETF (Acc) | 0.07% | £7 |
| iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS ETF (Dist) | 0.07% | £7 |
| Invesco S&P 500 UCITS ETF Acc | 0.05% | £5 |
| SPDR S&P 500 UCITS ETF (Dist) | 0.03% | £3 |
| Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF (Acc) | 0.07% | £7 |
| Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF (Dist) | 0.07% | £7 |
| Xtrackers S&P 500 UCITS ETF 4C | 0.03% | £3 |
Listed in ticker order, not by price. On £10,000 left for 20 years at an illustrative 6.5% a year, the gap between the two ends of this range compounds to roughly £262 - arithmetic, not a forecast.
FTSE 100
4 funds track it, charging between 0.07% and 0.09% - the higher one costs 1.3 times the lower.
| Fund | Ongoing charge | Cost a year on £10,000 |
|---|---|---|
| iShares Core FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (Acc) | 0.07% | £7 |
| iShares Core FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (Dist) | 0.07% | £7 |
| Vanguard FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (Dist) | 0.09% | £9 |
| Vanguard FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (Acc) | 0.09% | £9 |
Listed in ticker order, not by price. On £10,000 left for 20 years at an illustrative 6.5% a year, the gap between the two ends of this range compounds to roughly £130 - arithmetic, not a forecast.
MSCI World
4 funds track it, charging between 0.12% and 0.20% - the higher one costs 1.7 times the lower.
| Fund | Ongoing charge | Cost a year on £10,000 |
|---|---|---|
| HSBC MSCI World UCITS ETF | 0.15% | £15 |
| iShares Core MSCI World UCITS ETF (Acc) | 0.20% | £20 |
| SPDR MSCI World UCITS ETF (Acc) | 0.12% | £12 |
| Xtrackers MSCI World UCITS ETF 1C | 0.12% | £12 |
Listed in ticker order, not by price. On £10,000 left for 20 years at an illustrative 6.5% a year, the gap between the two ends of this range compounds to roughly £514 - arithmetic, not a forecast.
FTSE All-World
3 funds track it, charging between 0.15% and 0.22% - the higher one costs 1.5 times the lower.
| Fund | Ongoing charge | Cost a year on £10,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Invesco FTSE All-World UCITS ETF Acc | 0.15% | £15 |
| Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (Dist) | 0.22% | £22 |
| Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (Acc) | 0.22% | £22 |
Listed in ticker order, not by price. On £10,000 left for 20 years at an illustrative 6.5% a year, the gap between the two ends of this range compounds to roughly £448 - arithmetic, not a forecast.
FTSE Emerging
2 funds track it, charging between 0.17% and 0.22% - the higher one costs 1.3 times the lower.
| Fund | Ongoing charge | Cost a year on £10,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets UCITS ETF (Acc) | 0.22% | £22 |
| Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets UCITS ETF (Dist) | 0.17% | £17 |
Listed in ticker order, not by price. On £10,000 left for 20 years at an illustrative 6.5% a year, the gap between the two ends of this range compounds to roughly £320 - arithmetic, not a forecast.
Beyond the charge
- 73 of 75 are domiciled in Ireland. That is not a coincidence: Irish-domiciled funds receive US dividends with 15% withheld under the treaty between Ireland and the United States, and pay out to a UK investor without a further deduction. The withholding tax page sets out what that means.
- 75 of 75 hold the actual assets rather than using a swap with a bank to deliver the index return. Synthetic funds exist and are legitimate, but the mainstream UK range is overwhelmingly physical.
- 41 reinvest their income inside the fund and 31 pay it out as cash. Many are the same fund in two forms - the accumulation versus income page explains what changes and what does not.
What this report is not
This is a description of a distribution, not a league table. It does not name a cheapest fund, does not rank one against another and does not suggest which to hold. A lower ongoing charge means more of whatever the fund returns stays with you - that is the whole of the claim. The ongoing charge is also only the fund's own cost: a platform or account fee, dealing charges and currency conversion sit on top of it, and none of those are counted here.
Where the figures come from
The ongoing charges are the published figures from each provider's own factsheet, gathered in July 2026 and last checked on 9 August 2026. They change rarely, but they do change - two figures in this set were corrected after a cross-check found our own records disagreeing with each other, so treat any single number as good to the checked date rather than to today. Only funds with a published ongoing charge are counted, and the universe is the funds this site covers rather than every fund on sale in the UK, so it describes the mainstream tracker range and not the whole market.
Every fund's own charge, and what it costs in pounds on a £10,000 and £50,000 pot, is on the fund fees page. The methodology page covers how the site's data is put together generally.
Questions about fund charges
Why do two funds tracking the same index charge different amounts?
Because the fee is set by the provider, not by the index. Tracking the S&P 500 is the same job whoever does it, so the difference is competition, scale and how long the fund has been fighting for money rather than anything about what you end up owning.
Does a lower ongoing charge mean a better fund?
It means a smaller amount is taken out each year, which is a real and certain difference. It does not tell you about how closely the fund follows its index, how easily it trades, how big it is, or whether the index is one you want at all. This page measures one thing and does not pretend to measure the others.
Is the ongoing charge the only cost?
No. Your platform or account fee, dealing charges when you trade, the gap between buying and selling prices, and currency conversion on funds priced in dollars all sit on top. For a small pot the platform fee is often the larger number of the two.
How often do these figures change?
Rarely, but a fee cut is a competitive event and they cluster. One fund in this set cut its charge from 0.09% to 0.03% in late 2025. The page rebuilds from our fund data, so a corrected figure appears here as soon as the record is updated.