Last Updated: September 27, 2026 Reading Time: 11 min
The TSP F Fund vs G Fund question has a computable answer, and it changed in 2022. Across the 29 rolling 10-year windows since the F Fund opened in 1988, the F Fund won 25. Every window that ended before 2022 went to the F Fund. All four that have ended since went to the G Fund. Below is every calendar-year return for both funds as TSP publishes them, every rolling decade, and what $10,000 became on four different start dates, with the arithmetic laid out so you can check any cell.
Quick Answers: F Fund vs G Fund
Has the F Fund ever beaten the G Fund over 10 years?
Yes, in 25 of the 29 rolling 10-year windows since 1988, by an average of 1.09 percentage points a year across all 29 windows. The four exceptions are the four most recent windows: 2013 to 2022, 2014 to 2023, 2015 to 2024 and 2016 to 2025. FedTools 2026 analysis of TSP's published annual returns.
Which fund is winning right now?
The G Fund, and not narrowly. Over 2016 to 2025 the G Fund returned 2.76% a year against the F Fund's 2.11%, per TSP's own fund sheet. Over the last five calendar years the F Fund is slightly negative at −0.30% a year while the G Fund returned 3.48% a year. Through August 2026 the G Fund is up 3.00% and the F Fund is down 0.16%.
Why did the F Fund lose a decade it won six calendar years of?
- The F Fund fell 12.83% while the G Fund earned 2.98%, a 15.8-point gap in twelve months. The F Fund won six of the ten calendar years from 2016 to 2025, by margins from 1.09 to 6.53 points, and that did not cover one year at minus 12.83%.
Is the F Fund still ahead over the full history?
Yes. TSP's fund sheet through December 31, 2025 puts the F Fund at 5.30% a year since its January 1988 start against 4.65% for the G Fund since April 1987. TSP's own $100-since-inception panels show $709 in the F Fund and $581 in the G Fund. As of August 31, 2026 the lifetime figures are 5.20% and 4.64%, so the gap is narrowing.
How much can the F Fund lose?
Its worst calendar year was −12.83% in 2022, and it has had five losing years in 38: 1994, 1999, 2013, 2021 and 2022. The G Fund has never had a losing year; its weakest was +0.97% in 2020. The F Fund is a bond index fund, not a guaranteed account.
Why does the G Fund never lose money?
Its rate is set by statute, not by the market. Under 5 U.S.C. 8438(e)(2)(A) the G Fund pays the average market yield on Treasury securities with four or more years to maturity, computed monthly, with no price movement on the principal. The F Fund holds real bonds whose prices fall when yields rise.
If the G Fund is winning, why do the L Funds still hold the F Fund?
Because FRTIB's consultant models the F Fund as the better long-run fixed-income holding. At the May 21, 2024 Board meeting, Aon's analyst said the F Fund performs better due to the additional expected return from credit spreads and earns from price changes as well as yield, while the G Fund is affected primarily by changes in yield. The same review found that replacing only L 2040's fixed-income allocation with the F Fund raised its modeled median replacement ratio only from 75.0% to 75.4%.
Should I move my F Fund money to the G Fund?
The historical pattern is that the F Fund loses to the G Fund in windows that end in a rate shock and beats it in almost everything else, which is a statement about interest rates, not about which fund is better. The F Fund is the more volatile of the two and the one with the lower floor, so short-horizon money has no business there. Compare separate assumption runs in the TSP Calculator (custom annual return from 1% to 15% in 0.5-point steps) before switching.
Every Year Since 1988: F Fund and G Fund Returns
All 38 annual returns below are TSP's published calendar-year rates of return, read from the data file behind tsp.gov's rates-of-return page on September 27, 2026. Nothing in the two return columns is computed by FedTools. The gap column and the two $10,000 columns are FedTools arithmetic: an index set to $10,000 on December 31, 1987 and multiplied by each year's return in turn, unrounded until the final cent. The F Fund opened January 29, 1988, so its 1988 figure covers eleven months.
| Year | G Fund | F Fund | F minus G (pts) | $10,000 in G since 1988 | $10,000 in F since 1988 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 8.81% | 3.63% | −5.18 | $10,881 | $10,363 | G |
| 1989 | 8.81% | 13.89% | +5.08 | $11,840 | $11,802 | F |
| 1990 | 8.90% | 8.00% | −0.90 | $12,893 | $12,747 | G |
| 1991 | 8.15% | 15.75% | +7.60 | $13,944 | $14,754 | F |
| 1992 | 7.23% | 7.20% | −0.03 | $14,952 | $15,817 | G |
| 1993 | 6.14% | 9.52% | +3.38 | $15,870 | $17,322 | F |
| 1994 | 7.22% | −2.96% | −10.18 | $17,016 | $16,810 | G |
| 1995 | 7.03% | 18.31% | +11.28 | $18,212 | $19,887 | F |
| 1996 | 6.76% | 3.66% | −3.10 | $19,444 | $20,615 | G |
| 1997 | 6.77% | 9.60% | +2.83 | $20,760 | $22,594 | F |
| 1998 | 5.74% | 8.70% | +2.96 | $21,952 | $24,560 | F |
| 1999 | 5.99% | −0.85% | −6.84 | $23,266 | $24,351 | G |
| 2000 | 6.42% | 11.67% | +5.25 | $24,760 | $27,193 | F |
| 2001 | 5.39% | 8.61% | +3.22 | $26,095 | $29,534 | F |
| 2002 | 5.00% | 10.27% | +5.27 | $27,400 | $32,567 | F |
| 2003 | 4.11% | 4.11% | 0.00 | $28,526 | $33,906 | tie at two decimals |
| 2004 | 4.30% | 4.30% | 0.00 | $29,752 | $35,364 | tie at two decimals |
| 2005 | 4.49% | 2.40% | −2.09 | $31,088 | $36,213 | G |
| 2006 | 4.93% | 4.40% | −0.53 | $32,621 | $37,806 | G |
| 2007 | 4.87% | 7.09% | +2.22 | $34,209 | $40,486 | F |
| 2008 | 3.75% | 5.45% | +1.70 | $35,492 | $42,693 | F |
| 2009 | 2.97% | 5.99% | +3.02 | $36,546 | $45,250 | F |
| 2010 | 2.81% | 6.71% | +3.90 | $37,573 | $48,287 | F |
| 2011 | 2.45% | 7.89% | +5.44 | $38,494 | $52,096 | F |
| 2012 | 1.47% | 4.29% | +2.82 | $39,060 | $54,331 | F |
| 2013 | 1.89% | −1.68% | −3.57 | $39,798 | $53,419 | G |
| 2014 | 2.31% | 6.73% | +4.42 | $40,717 | $57,014 | F |
| 2015 | 2.04% | 0.91% | −1.13 | $41,548 | $57,532 | G |
| 2016 | 1.82% | 2.91% | +1.09 | $42,304 | $59,207 | F |
| 2017 | 2.33% | 3.82% | +1.49 | $43,290 | $61,468 | F |
| 2018 | 2.91% | 0.15% | −2.76 | $44,549 | $61,561 | G |
| 2019 | 2.24% | 8.68% | +6.44 | $45,547 | $66,904 | F |
| 2020 | 0.97% | 7.50% | +6.53 | $45,989 | $71,922 | F |
| 2021 | 1.38% | −1.46% | −2.84 | $46,624 | $70,872 | G |
| 2022 | 2.98% | −12.83% | −15.81 | $48,013 | $61,779 | G |
| 2023 | 4.22% | 5.58% | +1.36 | $50,039 | $65,226 | F |
| 2024 | 4.40% | 1.33% | −3.07 | $52,241 | $66,094 | G |
| 2025 | 4.44% | 7.21% | +2.77 | $54,561 | $70,859 | F |
| 2026 through Aug 31 | 3.00% | −0.16% | −3.16 | G so far |
Source: Thrift Savings Plan, rates of return, annual rows 1988 through 2025 and the 2026 year-to-date row as of August 31, 2026 (tsp.gov/rates-return, retrieved September 27, 2026). The $10,000 columns are a FedTools 2026 computation; TSP's own "Growth of $100 since inception" panel prints $709 for the F Fund, which matches the $70,859 above to within 0.06%, and $581 for the G Fund, which includes the G Fund's April to December 1987 stub of +6.43% that this table excludes. The 2003 and 2004 rows are ties only at TSP's two-decimal rounding.
Calendar-year scoreboard, 1988 to 2025: F Fund 22, G Fund 14, two rounding ties. Last ten years: F Fund 6, G Fund 4.
Every Rolling 10-Year Window: F Won 25, Then Lost Four Straight
Each row compounds the ten annual returns above and annualizes the result. The gap is the F Fund's annualized return minus the G Fund's, in percentage points per year.
| Window | G Fund, annualized | F Fund, annualized | Gap (F minus G) | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 to 1997 | 7.58% | 8.49% | +0.91 | F |
| 1989 to 1998 | 7.27% | 9.01% | +1.74 | F |
| 1990 to 1999 | 6.99% | 7.51% | +0.52 | F |
| 1991 to 2000 | 6.74% | 7.87% | +1.13 | F |
| 1992 to 2001 | 6.47% | 7.19% | +0.72 | F |
| 1993 to 2002 | 6.24% | 7.49% | +1.25 | F |
| 1994 to 2003 | 6.04% | 6.95% | +0.91 | F |
| 1995 to 2004 | 5.75% | 7.72% | +1.97 | F |
| 1996 to 2005 | 5.49% | 6.18% | +0.68 | F |
| 1997 to 2006 | 5.31% | 6.25% | +0.94 | F |
| 1998 to 2007 | 5.12% | 6.01% | +0.88 | F |
| 1999 to 2008 | 4.92% | 5.68% | +0.76 | F |
| 2000 to 2009 | 4.62% | 6.39% | +1.77 | F |
| 2001 to 2010 | 4.26% | 5.91% | +1.65 | F |
| 2002 to 2011 | 3.96% | 5.84% | +1.88 | F |
| 2003 to 2012 | 3.61% | 5.25% | +1.64 | F |
| 2004 to 2013 | 3.39% | 4.65% | +1.26 | F |
| 2005 to 2014 | 3.19% | 4.89% | +1.70 | F |
| 2006 to 2015 | 2.94% | 4.74% | +1.80 | F |
| 2007 to 2016 | 2.63% | 4.59% | +1.95 | F |
| 2008 to 2017 | 2.38% | 4.26% | +1.88 | F |
| 2009 to 2018 | 2.30% | 3.73% | +1.43 | F |
| 2010 to 2019 | 2.23% | 3.99% | +1.76 | F |
| 2011 to 2020 | 2.04% | 4.06% | +2.02 (widest F lead) | F |
| 2012 to 2021 | 1.93% | 3.13% | +1.19 | F |
| 2013 to 2022 | 2.09% | 1.29% | −0.79 | G (the flip) |
| 2014 to 2023 | 2.32% | 2.02% | −0.30 | G |
| 2015 to 2024 | 2.52% | 1.49% | −1.03 | G |
| 2016 to 2025 | 2.76% | 2.11% | −0.66 | G |
FedTools 2026 analysis of TSP's published annual returns. Validation: this series reproduces every published cell we could find. TSP's fund sheet through December 31, 2025 prints the F Fund's 10-year return as 2.11% and the G Fund's as 2.76%; FRTIB's December 2022 Investment Program Review prints the 10-year through 2022 as F 1.29% and G 2.08% (we print 2.09%, a rounding split of 0.005 points), the 5-year as F 0.10% and G 2.09%, and the 3-year as F −2.62% and G 1.77%. Twelve published cells, one rounding split, no other discrepancy.
The F Fund's best decade was 9.01% a year (1989 to 1998). The G Fund's best was 7.58% (1988 to 1997). The F Fund's worst decade, 1.29% a year over 2013 to 2022, was worse than the G Fund's worst, 1.93% over 2012 to 2021. Neither fund had a negative rolling 10-year return in this series; the F Fund, the fund that can lose a year, is the one whose floor sits lower, and it trailed the G Fund in the latest four windows.
Federal Hiring Data published a similar count this month, 24 of 28 windows starting from 1989. The table above adds the 1988 to 1997 window, which the F Fund won even though 1988 itself was an eleven-month inception year the F Fund lost, and the checks against TSP's published multi-year figures.
Six of Ten Years, and Still the Losing Decade
From 2016 through 2025 the F Fund beat the G Fund in six calendar years: 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2023 and 2025. It lost the decade anyway, 2.11% a year to 2.76%.
The arithmetic is one row of the table. In 2022 the F Fund returned −12.83% and the G Fund +2.98%, a gap of 15.81 points. The six winning years were worth between 1.09 and 6.53 points each. Add them up (19.68 points), subtract the three other losing years (2018, 2021 and 2024, 8.67 points together), and the simple sum is 11.01 points, still 4.80 points short of covering 2022's 15.81 alone; compounding, not this sum, is what decides the decade, and it points the same way.
That is also why the last five calendar years look the way they do. From January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2025 the F Fund returned −0.30% a year. The G Fund returned 3.48%. Through August 31, 2026, TSP's rates page shows the G Fund up 3.00% for the year and the F Fund down 0.16%, which would make 2026 the fourth year of the last six in which the F Fund trails the G Fund (2021, 2022, 2024 and, so far, 2026).
What $10,000 Became, on Four Start Dates
| $10,000 invested on | G Fund value, Dec 31, 2025 | F Fund value, Dec 31, 2025 | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 through 2025 (F Fund's inception year, compounded from each fund's published annual returns) | $54,561 | $70,859 | F by $16,298 |
| January 1, 2013 | $13,969 | $13,042 | G by $927 |
| January 1, 2016 | $13,132 | $12,316 | G by $816 |
| January 1, 2021 | $11,864 | $9,852 | G by $2,012 |
FedTools 2026 computation from TSP's published annual returns; each row compounds the returns from its start date. TSP's own "Growth of $100 since inception" panels corroborate the top row: $709 in the F Fund, $581 in the G Fund, against $281 and $291 of inflation respectively. The G Fund panel includes its 1987 stub, which this table excludes.
The since-inception row alone is the number secondary sites quote, and it is true. The bottom row is also true. On a $10,000 stake made at the start of 2021, the F Fund finished 2025 about $2 below where it stood at the end of 2021 and about $148 below the original stake, four full calendar years with nothing to show, while the G Fund gained 17.0% over 2022 to 2025.
The Rolling 5-Year Windows Tell the Same Story
Across the 34 rolling 5-year windows from 1988 to 2025, the F Fund won 28. The G Fund's six wins land on windows that end in a rate shock: 1990 to 1994 (the 1994 bond selloff), 2003 to 2007, and every window ending in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. The F Fund's widest 5-year lead was 3.37 points a year over 2008 to 2012, as rates fell after the financial crisis. The G Fund's widest lead is the most recent window, 2021 to 2025, at 3.77 points a year.
The pattern is about interest rates, not about fund quality. When yields rise sharply, the F Fund's bond prices fall and the G Fund's principal does not move. When yields fall or hold steady, the F Fund collects both its coupon and a price gain, and the G Fund collects only its rate.
Why the G Fund Cannot Lose, and Why the L Funds Still Hold the F Fund
The G Fund's rate is written into law. Under 5 U.S.C. 8438(e)(2)(A), the securities it holds bear interest "at a rate equal to the average market yield… on all marketable interest-bearing obligations of the United States then forming a part of the public debt which are not due or callable earlier than 4 years after the end of such calendar month." The rate resets monthly and the principal never moves. Its weakest year in 38 was +0.97% in 2020.
The F Fund tracks the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index and holds real bonds. In 2022 the index lost 13.01% and the F Fund lost 12.83%, beating its benchmark by 18 basis points on the way down. Over ten years through 2025 the F Fund returned 2.11% against the index's 2.01%.
So why do the L Funds keep any F Fund at all? Because FRTIB's investment consultant models it as the better long-run holding. At the May 21, 2024 Board meeting, according to the minutes, Aon's Mr. Choudhury told the Board that "the F Fund performs better due to the additional expected return from credit spreads. Also, the F Fund experiences returns from yield as well as price changes whereas the G Fund is affected primarily by changes in yield." The same L Fund review found the difference small in practice: replacing only L 2040's fixed-income allocation with the F Fund raised the modeled median replacement ratio from 75.0% to 75.4%. As of July 2024, L Income held 68.45% G Fund and 5.55% F Fund; L 2040 held 21.20% and 7.05%.
That is a statement about L Fund modeling, not a recommendation to participants. For the G Fund's inflation problem, see the G Fund analysis; for what the L Funds' G-heavy glide path costs a worker who stays in L Income, see the L Fund lifecycle trap post.
Methodology and Data Provenance
- Annual returns: TSP's published calendar-year rates of return for the G Fund and F Fund, 1988 through 2025, and the 2026 year-to-date row through August 31, 2026, from the data file behind tsp.gov/rates-return (retrieved September 27, 2026). Compounding TSP's own monthly rows reproduces each published annual row to within 3 basis points for every year before 2004.
- Index: $1.00 on December 31, 1987 for each fund, multiplied by (1 + annual return) year by year, unrounded.
- Windows: cumulative = index at end year ÷ index at the year before the start; annualized = cumulative to the power of 1/N, minus 1.
- Rounding: returns as published, to two decimals; annualized results to two decimals; no intermediate rounding.
- Validation: twelve published cells from TSP's fund sheet and FRTIB's December 2022 and January 2026 Investment Program Reviews, one 0.005-point rounding split, no other discrepancy.
- Refresh trigger: January 2027, when FRTIB publishes the 2026 annual returns. That adds the 2017 to 2026 window and, on the year-to-date pattern, could make it five straight G Fund decades.
Model Your Own Split
Use the free TSP Calculator to project a balance under a return assumption you choose (a custom annual return from 1% to 15% in 0.5-point steps, so a G-like, F-like or blended figure), before you move money between the two; it does not model the two funds separately or replay a historical path. Try it now. The fund pages for the G Fund and the F Fund carry the current-month figures.
Related Resources
- TSP G Fund Analysis 2026: Why the fund that never loses money can still lose to inflation.
- The TSP L Fund Lifecycle Trap: What the G-heavy glide path costs.
- Best TSP Allocation 2026: How the F Fund fits a full portfolio.
- TSP Front-Loading and the Match: The contribution-timing mistake that costs more than fund choice.
- TSP Calculator: Project a balance at a return you choose.
Sources
- Thrift Savings Plan, Rates of Return (annual and monthly returns data file, retrieved September 27, 2026)
- Thrift Savings Plan, Fund Information sheet (tsplf14), information as of December 31, 2025
- FRTIB, Investment Program Review, January 2026
- FRTIB, December 2022 Investment Program Review
- FRTIB, Board Meeting Minutes, May 21, 2024 and 2024 L Funds Asset Allocation Review
- 5 U.S.C. 8438, Investment of Thrift Savings Fund