Anytime I’m tasked to write about the market’s best silver ETFs, my brain immediately thinks about the same Jerry Seinfeld joke:
“The Olympics is really my favorite sporting event. Although, I think I have a problem with that silver medal. Because when you think about it, you win the gold, you feel good. You win the bronze, you think, “Well, at least I got something.” But when you win that silver, it’s like, “Congratulations, you almost won. Of all the losers, you came in first of that group. You’re the No. 1 loser. No one lost ahead of you!”
Silver is cursed with being linked to second place, and that rings true in the financial markets, too. Silver doesn’t fetch as high a price as gold. A decade-plus of experience in financial website data tells me that readers aren’t as interested in it. There are far more gold ETFs than there are silver ETFs, and for good reason—they attract far more in investor assets.
That said, silver does stand apart from gold in a few important ways—indeed, it’s a differentiated enough commodity that some investors prefer it to its lemony cousin. So today, we’re going to talk about some of the most effective ways to invest in the argent metal through a brokerage or retirement account.
Read on, and I’ll discuss some of the best silver ETFs you can buy.
Disclaimer: This article does not constitute individualized investment advice. These securities appear for your consideration and not as personalized investment recommendations. Act at your own discretion.
Why Do People Invest in Silver?
Precious metals are not all built the same.
Consider gold. It provides investors with a pair of extremely valuable benefits: low correlation to stocks, and reliable defense during market downturns. That said, it’s largely a decorative metal with few practical uses outside of jewelry and investment.
Silver is quite different. “More than half of all silver’s demand comes from heavy industry and high technology, including smartphones, tablets, automobile electrical systems, solar-panel cells and many other products and applications,” Morgan Stanley writes in a primer. So while silver also isn’t terribly correlated with stocks, it can be far more sensitive to economic changes than gold. Sure, that means silver might not enjoy the same defensive properties as gold, but on the other hand, you can trade it to express optimism about the economy.
It’s also far more volatile—”the volatility in silver prices can be two to three times greater than that of gold on a given day,” Morgan Stanley says—which can provide more opportunity to swing and day traders.
Why Should I Buy Silver ETFs Instead of Gold?
Like with virtually any commodity, the best argument for holding via funds instead of the physical item is ease.
If you want to buy physical silver, you have to have that silver transported to you, safely store it, insure it … and should you want to sell it, you’ll have to find a buyer and arrange for transportation to the seller.
If that sounds like a hassle, that’s because it is!
Conversely, you could just open up your investment account and buy a few shares of a silver ETF, which depending on the one you pick would give you either direct or indirect exposure to the metal—with the same simplicity and speed as buying some stock.
I know what I would pick.
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The Best Silver ETFs to Buy Now
If you’re convinced that ETFs are an ideal way to buy silver, the next thing to do is pick one.
The world of silver-related ETFs isn’t a big one—again, it’s even smaller than the world of gold ETFs, which itself is mighty tight. Still, like you can find beauty within a haiku’s rigid rules, you can find a cornucopia of strategies within the limited universe of silver-related funds.
Let’s look at several of the market’s best silver ETFs and discuss what makes each of them worthy of your consideration.
Related: The 16 Best ETFs to Buy for a Prosperous 2026
1. Abrdn Physical Silver Shares ETF
- Style: Physical silver
- Assets under management: $5.0 billion
- Expense ratio: 0.30%, or $3.00 per year on every $1,000 invested
The Abrdn Physical Silver Shares ETF (SIVR) is the cheapest way to own physical silver in a brokerage or retirement account.
Physical metals funds are extremely straightforward: You buy shares. Shares represent metal stored somewhere. Metal price goes up, shares go up. Metal price goes down, shares go down. Simple, right?
Let’s take this silver ETF, for instance. SIVR shares are backed by physical silver—literal silver bullion bars that are held in a secured vault in London. Indeed, SIVR parent Aberdeen Investments boasts that “Bureau Veritas Commodities UK Ltd, a leading physical commodity auditor, inspects the vault twice per year (including once at random).”
You get this exposure for 30 basis points (a basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point), which is cheaper than the only other physical silver ETF: the iShares Silver Trust (SLV).
Getting there first is a big deal in the fund world, as is having a more recognizable brand name. SLV boasts both: ETF behemoth iShares launched the fund in 2006, three years earlier than SIVR. Those are both significant reasons why SLV boasts $31 billion more in assets than Aberdeen’s silver ETF. The iShares fund’s far higher volume is also a big draw for traders.
But for buy-and-hold investors, you literally can’t do better than SIVR, which charges 20 basis points less in annual fees than SLV. And that makes it one of the best silver ETFs you can buy.
Want to learn more about SIVR? Check out the Aberdeen Investments provider site.
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2. Global X Silver Miners ETF
- Style: Silver miners
- Assets under management: $5.1 billion
- Expense ratio: 0.30%, or $3.00 per year on every $1,000 invested
Another way to invest in silver is by purchasing the shares of silver mining companies. While it’s less direct than buying physical silver, owning miners can act like an amplified bet on the metal.
The business model here is simple. Traditional silver mining companies will extract silver ore from the earth, then convert it into doré bars, which are then sent off for further refining. The goal? Sell that silver for a higher price than what it cost to extract it.
Let’s say a silver miner spends $50 to produce an ounce of silver, then sells it for $60 per ounce. That’s ideal. But if they’re forced to sell that silver for $40 ounce … well, they’ve got problems. But it’s pretty easy to see how changes in the price of silver would directly impact miners’ bottom lines, and as a result, their stock prices.
Also, understand that silver miners may trade in a more volatile fashion than silver itself. When silver rises, miners may rise by a greater degree; when it declines, miners may drop even faster. That makes sense, as publicly traded silver miners are companies, and companies have elements of risk and reward that silver itself doesn’t possess on its own.
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You can make this “leveraged” bet on silver while reducing your risk somewhat by owning silver miners in bulk via funds like the Global X Silver Miners ETF (SIL).
Global X Silver Miners ETF (SIL) owns 38 silver mining companies—some of which operate exactly how I outlined above, but some of which have somewhat different business models. For instance, Pan American Silver (PAAS, 13% of assets) is a traditional miner that extracts silver throughout the Americans, though it also has gold mining operations, as well as a few royalty interests in metals projects. SIL’s largest holding, Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM, 23%), is actually a metals “streamer” that buys other companies’ precious metals production—many of its contracts are to purchase “byproduct” silver and gold extracted from copper and lead-zinc mines.
As you can tell from the “weights” of WPM and PAAS, this is a lopsided fund with huge concentrations in some companies and small weights in others. But we’re still getting more diversification across the silver mining space than if we bought a few companies individually.
Also, unlike owning a lump of silver, silver miner funds like SIL may pay a dividend. Global X Silver Miners ETF currently pays us a modest 0.8%.
Want to learn more about SIL? Check out the Global X provider site.
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3. Amplify Silver Junior Miners ETF
- Style: Silver junior miners
- Assets under management: $4.0 billion
- Expense ratio: 0.69%, or $6.90 per year on every $1,000 invested
“Senior” miners are the aforementioned larger companies that extract silver. But junior miners are focused on an earlier part of the silver-mining process. Specifically, they search for and prove silver deposits, which they usually will sell to more established miners (though some will run operations themselves).
This is yet another step removed from physical silver itself, and it’s also a riskier business that usually involves smaller companies. Thus, junior miners’ stocks tend to move even more drastically than senior miners.
The Amplify Silver Junior Miners ETF (SILJ) is arguably the best way to invest in these companies. Just understand that it’s far from being a pure play on the theme.
Amplify’s silver ETF tracks the Nasdaq Junior Silver Miners Index, and thus it “tracks the performance of companies engaged in the silver mining industry that derive the majority of their revenues from silver mining, global silver production, or exploration and development activities related to new silver production.”
Yes, SILJ’s 62-company portfolio has an average market cap that’s about half of the aforementioned SIL. Yes, you own true juniors like Aftermath Silver and Osisko Metals. But you’re still getting plenty of exposure to regular ol’ silver producers such as Coeur Mining (CDE) and Hecla Mining (HL), too.
Regardless, if you want to own silver juniors, SILJ is the best silver ETF you can buy.
Want to learn more about SILJ? Check out the Amplify ETFs provider site.
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4. Sprott Silver Miners & Physical Silver ETF
- Style: Physical silver and miners
- Assets under management: $803.5 million
- Expense ratio: 0.65%, or $6.50 per year on every $1,000 invested
If you were to ask me (and you didn’t), I’d view owning physical silver and miners as an either/or proposition—you either prefer the straightforward exposure that the physical metal provides, or the potentially amplified exposure that miners provide.
If you disagree with me, the Sprott Silver Miners & Physical Silver ETF (SLVR) is likely right up your alley.
SLVR is the only ETF that provides exposure to both the metal and the miners. The fund tracks the Nasdaq Sprott Silver Miners Index, which tracks the performance of silver producers, developers, and explorers, as well as physical silver.
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Roughly 85% of assets are invested in equities—70% in silver producers, and 15% in “other equities” (like mixed miners). That’s a group of about 60 companies including the likes of First Majestic Silver (AG), Silvercorp Metals (SVM), and Endeavour Silver (EXK).
The remaining 15% or so is invested in physical silver, but in a roundabout way: SLVR owns shares of the Sprott Physical Silver Trust (PSLV), which itself is a closed-end fund (CEF) that owns silver bars.
This is a very young fund that launched in January 2025, so it only has a bit more than a year of life under its belt. But in the roaring bull market in silver that went parabolic that same year, SLVR was one of the best silver ETFs by performance. So far, so good, at least.
Want to learn more about SLVR? Check out the Sprott provider site.
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5. ProShares Ultra Silver
- Style: Leveraged silver
- Assets under management: $1.9 billion
- Expense ratio: 0.95%, or $9.50 per year on every $1,000 invested
I’ll say it up front: The final silver ETF on this list—ProShares Ultra Silver (AGQ)—is a trading tool.
This is not for buy-and-holders. If you’re inexperienced, if you have little investing education, if you have little stomach for risk, and/or if you only check your account every couple of months, AGQ is absolutely, 100% not for you. For you, my story is over, and I kindly ask you to browse to another of my stories instead.
For those who remain, here’s what you need to know.
ProShares Ultra Silver ETF is designed to provide 2x the daily performance (before fees and expenses) of its benchmark, the Bloomberg Silver Subindex. This means if the index climbs by 1% on Monday, this ETF will gain 2% on Monday (minus expenses, of course). But because this only occurs on a daily basis, that doesn’t mean if the index increases by 10% in a year, that this ETF will gain 20% over the same time period. That’s largely because of how returns compound over time, which is easiest to demonstrate with a table.
| Bbg Silver subindex performance | Bbg Silver subindex level | Difference from 100 | AGQ price | Difference from $100 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting value | N/A | 100.00 | 0.00 | $100.00 | $0.00 |
| Day 1 | +2% | 102.00 | 2.00 | $104.00 | $4.00 |
| Day 2 | +2% | 104.04 | 4.04 | $108.16 | $8.16 |
| Day 3 | +2% | 106.12 | 6.12 | $112.49 | $12.49 |
| Day 4 | -5% | 100.81 | 0.81 | $101.24 | $1.24 |
| Day 5 | -5% | 95.77 | -4.23 | $91.12 | -$8.88 |
And this example doesn’t even account for fees, which are much higher in AGQ than they would be in traditional physical silver fund.
Also important to note is that AGQ not only doesn’t hold physical silver, but it’s not even tied to it. Rather than giving you 2x exposure to spot silver prices, AGQ’s tracking index is tethered to silver futures, which can behave a little differently.
But as I said above, silver can be a much more jumpy metal than gold, which spells opportunity to certain traders. AGQ, while riskier than any of the aforementioned funds, is nonetheless one of the best silver ETFs to take advantage of that volatility.
Want to learn more about AGQ? Check out the ProShares provider site.
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