Gold vs Silver ETFs: Silver ETF AUM Is Now ₹85,488 Crore, But Which One Fits Your Portfolio?

Silver ETFs are no longer a small corner of India’s mutual fund industry. AMFI’s August 2026 report showed 19 Silver ETF schemes with ₹85,488 crore in assets under management, or AUM. Gold ETFs were still much larger, with 26 schemes and AUM of ₹1.91 lakh crore.

The numbers make the comparison tempting. However, Gold and Silver ETFs are not interchangeable products with different return charts. They expose an investor to two metals that respond to some common forces but can play very different roles in a portfolio.

Silver ETFs Are Now an ₹85,000 Crore Category in India

August 2026 marked an important change in AMFI’s reporting. Until July, Gold ETFs appeared separately while Silver ETFs were part of the wider “Other ETFs” category. That bucket also included equity ETFs and other products, so it cannot be used as a historical Silver ETF series.

From August, AMFI began reporting Equity, Debt, Hybrid, Gold, Silver and Other ETFs separately. This gives investors the first clean category-level snapshot of Silver ETFs in the monthly report. It does not mean Silver ETFs began in August or that their AUM crossed ₹85,000 crore during that month. The earlier combined data simply does not reveal when that threshold was reached.

August should therefore be treated as the starting point for cleaner future comparisons, not as a reliable base for calculating Silver ETF growth since launch.

Gold vs Silver ETFs: What the Latest AMFI Data Shows

Source: AMFI Monthly Report, August 2026. AUM per reported folio is calculated using month-end AUM.

Gold ETF AUM was about 2.24 times Silver ETF AUM. Silver recorded slightly higher funds mobilised during August but also much higher redemptions, leaving Gold with more than twice the net inflow.

These figures need careful interpretation. AMFI’s fund mobilisation and redemption data captures transactions at the fund level. It is not the same as the value of ETF units traded between buyers and sellers on an exchange. August also provides only one month of separately reported Silver ETF data, so it cannot establish that Silver investors consistently transact more frequently.

The AUM per folio figures are simple averages, not the holding of a typical investor. Large accounts can pull an average upward and one investor may hold multiple folios.

Gold ETFs Have Quietly Become Mainstream

Silver now has scale, but Gold has a much longer clean AMFI history. Gold ETF folios increased from 3.20 lakh in April 2019 to 1.25 crore in August 2026, a rise of about 39 times. AUM expanded from ₹4,594 crore to ₹1.91 lakh crore, or about 42 times.

This does not mean investors contributed 42 times more money. ETF AUM changes for two reasons, investors add or withdraw money and the market value of the underlying Gold changes. Both contributed to the increase.

Even after that caveat, the adoption shift is hard to miss. Gold ETFs represented around 0.90% of open-ended mutual fund AUM in March 2025 and about 2.20% by August 2026. During FY2025-26 alone, Gold ETFs received approximately ₹68,868 crore of net inflows, including an exceptional ₹24,040 crore in January 2026.

The combination of more than 1.25 crore folios and a larger industry share suggests Gold is increasingly being used as a measurable financial allocation alongside jewellery, coins and bars. Yet popularity is not a return forecast. It tells us how investors are accessing Gold, not what Gold prices will do next.

Gold and Silver May Look Similar, But They Do Different Jobs

Both metals are internationally priced and Indian ETF returns are also affected by movements in the rupee. Beyond that common ground, their demand structures differ.

Gold has a strong monetary and investment identity. Demand can be influenced by inflation expectations, real interest rates, the US dollar, geopolitical stress, investment flows and central-bank purchases. Investors often evaluate it as a portfolio diversifier or defensive allocation, although Gold can still fall sharply and does not provide assured protection over every period.

Silver also has a precious-metal identity but a much larger industrial dimension. It is used in electrical and electronic applications, automobiles, power infrastructure, solar equipment and other manufacturing processes. The Silver Institute reported industrial demand of 657.4 million ounces in 2025, about 58% of total Silver demand, even after industrial use declined by 3% that year.

That dual role can pull Silver in different directions. Monetary uncertainty may support investment interest while weaker manufacturing or changes in solar technology may affect industrial demand. The result can be stronger rallies but also sharper reversals, making Silver generally more cyclical and volatile than Gold.

Silver’s industrial demand benefits from areas such as AI infrastructure, vehicles and power-grid investment. At the same time, manufacturers have been reducing Silver use or substituting materials in photovoltaic production as prices rise. Industrial demand is meaningful but will not necessarily grow in a straight line.

Gold ETF or Silver ETF: What Should Investors Compare?

The better question is not which metal produced the highest recent return. It is which exposure fits the role an investor is trying to fill.

Tracking difference shows how far an ETF’s return deviates from its benchmark after costs and implementation effects. Tracking error shows how consistently that gap fluctuates. Investors should inspect both because the cheapest ETF is not automatically the most efficient tracker.

Exchange liquidity matters too. A wide bid-ask spread can raise the effective trading cost, especially in a less active ETF. Investors should compare the market price with the indicative or published NAV where available. They can explore listed Gold ETFs and Silver ETFs on INDmoney to compare products.

Tax treatment is broadly similar for the two listed ETF categories, but the purchase date matters. For units acquired on or after April 1, 2025, gains on listed Gold and Silver ETFs held for more than 12 months are generally treated as long-term capital gains and taxed at 12.5% without indexation. Shorter holding-period gains are generally taxed at the investor’s applicable slab rate. Older holdings can fall under transitional rules, so investors should verify the treatment of their specific lot before acting.

Should Investors Own Gold, Silver or Both?

An investor seeking mainly defensive precious-metal exposure may evaluate Gold differently from someone deliberately seeking Silver’s combination of investment and industrial demand. That does not make Gold safe or Silver automatically growth-oriented. It only clarifies the risk each metal adds.

Owning both can spread exposure across two demand structures but does not guarantee better diversification. Both remain precious metals, both can respond to the dollar and interest-rate expectations and both can decline together. Adding two funds also does not solve over-allocation if precious metals already occupy too much of the portfolio.

The vehicle matters as well. ETFs trade on an exchange and normally require a demat and trading account. Gold and Silver fund of funds commonly offer a conventional mutual fund SIP without requiring demat, while some brokers may also provide recurring ETF purchase features. A fund of funds adds another cost layer, so convenience should be compared with total expense, tracking and tax treatment.

There is no universal allocation. The decision should reflect the goal, time horizon, existing exposure and ability to tolerate volatility. Recent inflows and rising AUM should never substitute for that assessment.

What Investors Should Watch Next

Future AMFI reports will show whether the separate Silver ETF disclosure continues and will gradually create a usable history for folios, flows and AUM. Investors should also monitor Gold’s monetary and central-bank demand, Silver’s industrial-demand trends and the rupee’s movement against the dollar.

At the individual ETF level, liquidity, bid-ask spreads, expenses and tracking difference deserve regular attention. Tax or regulatory changes can also alter the relative convenience of ETFs and fund of funds.

Silver ETF AUM of ₹85,488 crore confirms that Silver has become a meaningful part of India’s ETF market. Gold remains more than twice as large and has a far longer clean reporting history. But category size cannot decide which metal belongs in a portfolio. The real choice is the job an investor wants the asset to perform and the volatility, cyclicality and concentration risk they are willing to accept.