FXAIX holds $832 billion in assets and charges just 0.015% annually, which works out to $15 on a $100,000 balance, with no minimums or load fees at Fidelity.
For taxable accounts, VOO and IVV deliver the same S&P 500 exposure with ETF tax efficiency and intraday tradability that FXAIX's mutual fund structure can't match.
FXAIX returned 313% over ten years through August 2026, turning a $10,000 investment into roughly $41,000 on price alone, before reinvested dividends.
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Fidelity's flagship S&P 500 index fund has quietly grown into one of the largest mutual funds on the planet, with roughly $832 billion in net assets as of May 31, 2026. It charges a published expense ratio of 0.015%, which works out to $1.50 a year on a $10,000 balance. That combination, a giant, boring vehicle that costs almost nothing to own, is the entire story of why Fidelity 500 Index Fund (NASDAQ:FXAIX) sits inside so many 401(k)s and Roth IRAs.
FXAIX is a plain-vanilla index mutual fund tracking the S&P 500. There is no active manager making calls, no minimum investment at Fidelity, and no load or transaction fee for Fidelity customers. It closed at $267 on August 21, 2026, and pays income quarterly, with a trailing 12-month distribution of $2.065 per share.
The fund is a mirror of the S&P 500, so the mega-cap tech complex dominates. As of the May 31, 2026 filing, the largest positions were Apple at 7.0453654735% of net assets, Microsoft at 5.141418639519%, Amazon at 4.065723867955%, Alphabet's Class A shares at 3.405259178227%, Broadcom at 3.257502047937%, Alphabet's Class C shares at 2.707242181367%, and Meta Platforms at 2.127439205603%. Rounding out the top of the book were Eli Lilly at 1.346552532365%, Berkshire Hathaway at 1.338012121776%, AMD at 1.294006895301%, and JPMorgan Chase at 1.241020483119%.
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Beyond the top of the list, holdings extend deep into financials (Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Mastercard), health care (AbbVie, Merck, Johnson & Johnson), energy (Exxon Mobil, Chevron), industrials (Caterpillar, GE Aerospace), and real estate (American Tower, Equinix). Investors who buy FXAIX for "diversification" should know the top handful of names carry meaningful weight, but the tail is genuinely broad.
Because FXAIX tracks an index, its performance is the market's performance minus a rounding error. Through August 21, 2026, the fund was up 12.63% year to date, 21.56% over one year, 85.02% over five years, and 312.86% over ten years. A $10,000 investment ten years ago would be worth roughly four times that today on price alone, before reinvested dividends.
Recent action has been choppier. The fund fell 1.39% in the week ending August 21, 2026, a reminder that even a low-cost index vehicle rides the same waves as the underlying market.
The 0.015% fee is as cheap as retail investing gets. On a $100,000 balance, that is $15 a year in expenses. Vanguard's admiral share cousin, Vanguard 500 Index Admiral (NASDAQ:VFIAX), and Schwab's Schwab S&P 500 Index Fund (NASDAQ:SWPPX) compete in the same neighborhood but not below it.
The tradeoff is structural: FXAIX is organized as a mutual fund rather than an ETF. That means it prices once per day at the closing NAV, cannot be bought intraday, and can distribute taxable capital gains to shareholders in a way ETFs generally avoid. In a taxable brokerage account, this matters. FXAIX has historically kept gains distributions modest, but the $0.875 December 2018 distribution and a follow-up $0.106 payment later that month show that lumpy year-end payouts do occur. ETF wrappers on the same index tend to be more tax-efficient.
The other quiet cost is buying FXAIX outside Fidelity. Rival brokerages often charge a transaction fee on Fidelity-family mutual funds, which is one reason the ETF twins have overtaken it in taxable accounts even as it dominates 401(k) menus.
FXAIX suits long-horizon investors holding the S&P 500 inside a tax-advantaged account, especially at Fidelity, where the zero minimum and zero transaction fee make dollar-cost averaging painless. Retail sentiment reflects that: Reddit chatter on FXAIX has scored bullish across weekly, monthly, and quarterly windows, though activity levels are low.
Investors holding it in a taxable account, or trading through a non-Fidelity broker, have cleaner options. Anyone who wants intraday liquidity, options coverage, or the ability to move positions between brokerages without friction should look at an ETF.
Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:VOO): the ETF alternative most FXAIX holders should consider for taxable accounts.
iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:IVV): BlackRock's version of the same index, comparable fee, ETF structure.
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