TRBCX vs. VIGAX: T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Grow or Vanguard Growth Index Fund A?
Figures last verified October 31, 2026
T. Rowe's celebrated Blue Chip Growth fund against Vanguard's growth index. Both bet on the same mega-cap growth names; one charges twenty times more to do it.
| TRBCX | VIGAX | |
|---|---|---|
| Fund | T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth Fund | Vanguard Growth Index Fund Admiral Shares |
| Family | T. Rowe Price | Vanguard |
| Category | Large Growth | Large Growth |
| Type | Active | Index |
| Expense ratio | 0.70% | 0.05% |
| Cost per $10k/yr | $70 | $5 |
| Minimum | $2,500 | $3,000 |
| Strategy | Active large-growth fund concentrated in dominant franchise companies — historically heavy in mega-cap tech and consumer names. | Tracks the CRSP US Large Cap Growth Index — large companies with above-average growth characteristics. |
TRBCX dazzled through the 2010s, then fell far harder than VIGAX in 2022 — the honest shape of concentrated active growth. At 0.70% vs 0.05%, you're paying for concentration that helps and hurts in roughly equal measure. The index is the lower-variance, lower-cost default.
About TRBCX
For most of the 2010s, TRBCX was the argument for active growth investing: a concentrated book of franchise compounders that lapped the index year after year. Then 2021–2022 happened — the fund fell dramatically harder than the Russell 1000 Growth and gave back years of accumulated edge in months. The full record now reads as a high-beta growth bet: glorious in expansions, punishing in growth bears.
About VIGAX
VIGAX is what you buy when you want the Magnificent-Seven-and-friends exposure of a growth fund without paying a manager 0.70% to deliver what an index does for 0.05%. It's concentrated where growth indexes are always concentrated — the top ten holdings are a huge share of assets, dominated by the mega-cap tech names — so understand that you're buying a focused bet on the market's most expensive companies continuing to earn their multiples.
Whichever you pick, the principle is the same one that runs through this whole site: minimize cost, hold for decades, ignore the noise. See how both stack up against the field in our best index funds by category, or run the numbers yourself with the expense ratio calculator.
Expense ratios and minimums drawn from fund provider documentation; last verified October 31, 2026. Editorial opinion, not investment advice. Confirm figures against the official prospectus before investing.