Treasury Bonds at Vanguard
Key takeaways:
• With a brokerage account at Vanguard, it’s possible to invest in Treasury securities.
• Vanguard also offers trading in Treasury funds.
• Most Treasury investments are commission-free at Vanguard, although there can be exceptions.
Are you interested in trading Treasury debt issued by the U.S. government? If so, Vanguard is worth considering, especially if you’re on a budget.
Treasuries That Can Be Traded at Vanguard
Vanguard offers trading in all three maturities available with Treasury debt: bills, notes, and bonds. STRIPS and TIPS can be traded as well. During our probing, we found securities with maturities from 1 month to 30 years.
Treasury Education
Vanguard’s website hosts a variety of materials on investment topics; some of these focus on bonds, and some of those focus on Treasuries. To find these useful resources, simply click on the Products & Services tab and select the link for bonds or click on the Resources & Education tab and choose from a variety of links.
During our research, we found these articles:
• Choosing between funds & individual securities
• U.S. Treasury securities
• Are bonds a good investment right now?
Finding Treasuries
Once you have the necessary understanding of how fixed income in general and Treasuries in particular work, it’s time to actually buy something. To find Treasury securities available for purchase on the Vanguard platform, click on the same Products & Services tab we saw in the previous section; this time, click on the link in the drop-down menu for bonds. On the next page, find the button for bond rates. Click on this and you’ll get a matrix of hyperlinked bond yields. Treasuries will be in the third row down after brokered CDs.
Click on the maturity length you want and you’ll get a new page with a list of bonds that match the desired expiration. Columns on this page include coupon, yield, price, and exact maturity date.
If you are interested in Treasuries at auction, look for the Treasuries tab that appears in the menu above the matrix of hyperlinked yields. On the Treasuries page, you can search specifically for Treasuries on the primary or secondary market. Results will include similar pieces of information already noted.
How to Buy Treasury Bonds on Vanguard
In addition to all the data points already mentioned in the search results, Vanguard’s software includes buy and sell links in each row for each security. Click on a buy link to enter a purchase order. The quantity field on the bond ticket is in thousands, so simply enter the number of bonds desired (e.g., a 5 would be for $5,000). Submit the order when everything looks good.
Treasury Funds
Besides individual Treasury bonds, bills, and notes, Vanguard offers trading in mutual and exchange-traded funds, some of which hold such Treasury securities. These funds offer diversification because they hold multiple Treasury securities. Some funds hold Treasury debt plus other assets.
To find Treasury funds available for trading at Vanguard, go back to the Products & Services tab once again. This time, select the link in the drop-down window for mutual funds. On the fund page, you can perform a search for mutual funds (and ETFs) filtered by criteria such as asset class. Scan through the results to find Treasury funds.
Vanguard Treasury Fees and Minimums
Vanguard charges nothing for primary or secondary online trades of Treasury securities. On secondary-market fixed-income transactions placed by phone, a $25 broker-assisted commission may be assessed in addition to the standard rate above, although the fee is waived for clients who hold at least $1 million in qualifying Vanguard ETFs and Vanguard funds and for fixed-income products that are unavailable for trading online. Vanguard could act as principal on some bond trades, which means there could be a markup or markdown on the price displayed. There is a $1,000 minimum purchase amount for each bond.
ETFs at Vanguard are commission-free. Most mutual funds are as well, although some transaction-fee mutual funds cost $20 per trade for clients with less than $1 million in qualifying Vanguard assets and $8 per trade after the free-trade allotment for larger balances.
Vanguard ETFs can be purchased in dollar amounts with a minimum purchase amount of just $1. On the mutual-fund side, the minimum purchase amount varies by the fund traded.
Schwab as a Replacement
Another investment firm that offers Treasury trading is Charles Schwab. Like Vanguard, Schwab offers both advisory and brokerage accounts that can invest in securities issued by the U.S. Treasury Department. To find individual Treasury securities at Schwab, log into the website (the mobile app can’t be used for this) and click on the Trade tab in the main menu. In the drop-down list of choices, select the link for bonds. You’ll get a similar matrix of hyperlinked Treasury yields. Schwab’s trade ticket doesn’t have the three zeroes that Vanguard’s ticket has, so you’ll need to enter the full trade amount (such as $5,000 instead of 5). And Schwab’s ticket offers market and limit orders for Treasuries (Vanguard only provides market orders).
Like Vanguard, Schwab offers trading in a lot of mutual funds and ETFs that hold Treasury debt. It’s easy to find these on Schwab’s site; just pull up the screeners underneath the Research tab.
Free Charles Schwab Account
Final Verdict
Traders at both Vanguard and Schwab have very good resources for trading Treasury bonds, notes, and bills. Although the digital tools vary a bit, either broker can be a good place to be.
Updated on 4/4/2026.
Chad Morris is a financial writer with more than 20 years experience
as both an English teacher and an avid trader. When he isn’t writing
expert content for Brokerage-Review.com, Chad can usually be found
managing his portfolio or building a new home computer.
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