RSP and SPY hold the same roughly 500 S&P 500 companies, but SPY weights them by market value while RSP gives each one the same slice, so RSP's results depend on the typical member of the index rather than the handful of giants at the top. That one design choice explains almost everything else: the fee gap, the turnover gap, and why the two funds have taken turns leading over the past decade. Over the 10 years to the October 16, 2026 close, SPY returned 319.3% to RSP's 210.8%. In 2022, RSP beat it by 6.6 percentage points.
Here is the comparison by the numbers: costs, returns with dates, the years each fund led, and the mistakes investors make when choosing between them.
Same stocks, different weights
The State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust ($SPY) tracks the S&P 500, which its prospectus describes as a float-adjusted, capitalization-weighted index. The bigger a company's market value, the more of the fund it takes up. On October 16, 2026, SPY's top ten holdings were NVIDIA (7.85%), Apple (7.59%), Microsoft (5.95%), Amazon (3.72%), Alphabet's two share classes (3.03% and 2.43%), Meta (2.37%), Broadcom (2.37%), Eli Lilly (1.52%) and Tesla (1.51%), according to State Street's SPY page. Those ten lines add up to 38.34% of the fund. Information technology alone was 37.82% on the same date.
The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF ($RSP) tracks the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index. According to Invesco's August 28, 2026 summary prospectus, the index "assigns each component security the same weight at each quarterly rebalance." On June 30, 2026, the index had 504 constituents. One divided by 504 works out to about 0.2% each. Under that scheme NVIDIA and the smallest company in the index start each quarter at the same weight.
Put simply, SPY bets on the market as it is priced, and RSP bets on the average member of the index.
What each one costs
Both funds are cheap. SPY is cheaper.
| Fund | Expense ratio | Annual cost on a hypothetical $10,000 | Source date |
|---|---|---|---|
| $RSP | 0.20% | $10,000 x 0.0020 = $20.00 | Prospectus dated Aug 28, 2026 |
| $SPY | 0.0945% | $10,000 x 0.000945 = $9.45 | State Street page, Oct 16, 2026 |
| Gap | 0.1055 pts | $10.55 per year | Arithmetic |
That $10.55 a year on $10,000 is small next to the return gaps below. It's still a guaranteed drag every year, while any edge from equal weighting comes and goes. The fee also isn't the full cost. RSP's prospectus reports portfolio turnover of 27% in its most recent fiscal year. SPY's prospectus reports 3% for the year ended September 30, 2025. Trading costs from turnover don't show up in the expense ratio, but they do come out of returns.
Performance: the trailing numbers
All figures below are total returns from Financial Modeling Prep (FMP) dividend-adjusted closing prices, measured to the October 16, 2026 close. The annualized figures use (end / start)^(1 / years) - 1.
| Period (start date) | $RSP | $SPY | Gap (RSP - SPY) |
|---|---|---|---|
| YTD 2026 (Dec 31, 2025) | 13.1% | 12.8% | +0.3 pts |
| 1 year (Oct 16, 2025) | 16.3% | 16.8% | -0.5 pts |
| 3 years (Oct 16, 2023) | 58.2% (16.5%/yr) | 81.5% (22.0%/yr) | -23.3 pts |
| 5 years (Oct 15, 2021) | 49.4% (8.4%/yr) | 83.0% (12.8%/yr) | -33.6 pts |
| 10 years (Oct 14, 2016) | 210.8% (12.0%/yr) | 319.3% (15.4%/yr) | -108.5 pts |
The long-run numbers favor SPY by a wide margin. The short-run numbers are close to even: RSP was slightly ahead year to date in 2026, and the two were within half a point over the past year. The trailing figures alone don't tell you much, because one stretch of mega-cap leadership dominates them.
Year by year: when each one led
| Calendar year | $RSP | $SPY | Gap (RSP - SPY) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 14.5% | 12.0% | +2.5 pts |
| 2017 | 18.5% | 21.7% | -3.2 pts |
| 2018 | -7.8% | -4.6% | -3.3 pts |
| 2019 | 28.9% | 31.2% | -2.3 pts |
| 2020 | 12.7% | 18.3% | -5.7 pts |
| 2021 | 29.4% | 28.7% | +0.7 pts |
| 2022 | -11.6% | -18.2% | +6.6 pts |
| 2023 | 13.7% | 26.2% | -12.5 pts |
| 2024 | 12.8% | 24.9% | -12.1 pts |
| 2025 | 11.2% | 17.7% | -6.5 pts |
RSP led in three of those ten calendar years: 2016, 2021 and 2022. The biggest of those wins came in 2022, when RSP lost 11.6% against SPY's 18.2% loss. A gap in RSP's favor means the average member of the index held up better than the heavyweights that dominate SPY.
Then it reversed. In 2023 and 2024 RSP trailed by 12.5 and 12.1 points, a gap that size only opens up when the largest companies far outrun the typical member. When the biggest companies are rising fastest, a fund that owns 0.2% of each of them can't keep up with a fund that owns nearly 8% of the biggest one. That's the concentration effect in practice, and it accounts for most of SPY's 10-year lead.
Investors often watch the RSP/SPY gap as a rough gauge of market breadth: when RSP lags, fewer stocks are doing the heavy lifting. For the current cycle, see our coverage of narrow breadth at record S&P 500 levels.
2020: equal weight isn't the safer one
A common assumption is that spreading money evenly across 500 stocks must be lower-risk. The 2020 crash says otherwise. Measured peak to trough within 2020 on dividend-adjusted closes, RSP fell 39.0% while SPY fell 33.7%. RSP's own prospectus lists its worst quarter as the one ended March 31, 2020, at -26.63%.
Equal weighting moves money away from the largest companies and toward the smaller members of the index. That can help when the giants stumble, as in 2022. It can hurt in a broad panic, as in 2020. Diversification across names isn't the same as lower volatility.
Rebalancing, turnover and how the numbers were built
Every quarter RSP's index resets each stock to equal weight. Stocks that rose are trimmed and stocks that fell are topped up, a built-in "sell relative winners, buy relative losers" discipline. That's where the 27% turnover comes from. SPY only trades when the index itself changes, which is why its turnover was 3%.
The rebalance helps when leadership rotates and works against you when leadership persists, because it keeps cutting the stocks that keep winning. Higher turnover can also mean more taxable distributions in a taxable account. That depends on your situation, and none of this is tax advice.
A note on method: the returns above come from FMP's dividend-adjusted closes, which assume dividends are reinvested and ignore commissions and taxes. Expense ratios are already reflected because they reduce each fund's price. Issuer-reported NAV returns can differ slightly. As a cross-check, RSP's prospectus reports a 2025 return of 11.25%, against 11.2% here.
Common mistakes
- Treating equal weight as small cap. RSP holds only S&P 500 members. On June 30, 2026, their market values ranged from $5.2 billion to $4.8 trillion, per Invesco. That's a tilt toward the smaller end of large caps, not a small-cap fund.
- Ignoring cost. The 0.1055-point fee gap and a turnover rate roughly nine times higher are permanent features. The performance edge isn't.
- Chasing the last 12 months. RSP's 2022 win was followed by two years of double-digit underperformance. Picking whichever fund just led has historically meant buying after the move.
- Comparing share prices. RSP closed at $214.09 and SPY at $763.25 on October 16, 2026. The price per share says nothing about value or cost.
For more on the index's recent swings, see our report on stocks slipping as oil and Treasury yields rose, the Markets section, or the latest headlines on the What's On Finance homepage.
Bull/Bear Verdict
Bull Case: Equal weighting limits exposure to any single company. With SPY's top ten lines at 38.34% on October 16, 2026, that matters more than it used to. Historically it has helped when mega-caps lead the market down, as in 2022's 6.6-point RSP advantage.
Bear Case: It costs more (0.20% vs. 0.0945%), trades far more (27% vs. 3% turnover), fell harder in 2020 (-39.0% vs. -33.7%), and trailed by more than 100 points over the 10 years to October 16, 2026. "Diversified" doesn't mean "safer" or "better."
FAQ
Do RSP and SPY own the same stocks?
Essentially yes. Both hold the members of the S&P 500. RSP gives each about the same weight at every quarterly rebalance, while SPY weights them by float-adjusted market value.
Which is cheaper, RSP or SPY?
SPY. Its gross expense ratio is 0.0945% versus RSP's 0.20%, or $9.45 versus $20.00 a year on a hypothetical $10,000.
How often does RSP rebalance?
Quarterly. Its index resets every constituent to equal weight four times a year, and the fund generally follows the index's rebalance schedule, per Invesco's prospectus.
Has RSP ever beaten SPY?
Yes, in 2016, 2021 and 2022, and slightly in 2026 through October 16. Its biggest lead in the past decade was 6.6 points in 2022. It trailed in the other seven calendar years from 2016 to 2025.