Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) is one of the most popular ETFs in the world with $420B in assets. We screened every single holding — all 3500 stocks — against Shariah standards using the Halal Terminal API to give you a definitive, data-backed answer.

Verdict: VTI is NOT Shariah-Compliant

NOT Shariah-compliant. With 3,500+ holdings including banks, tobacco, alcohol, and insurance companies, VTI cannot be halal. Use SPUS or HLAL for broad US equity exposure.

Screening Results at a Glance

MetricValue
Total Holdings3500
Compliant Holdings2240
Non-Compliant Holdings1260
Compliance Rate64.0%
Weighted Compliance60.5%
Purification Rate4.8%
Expense Ratio0.03%
AUM$420B

Why VTI Fails Shariah Screening

VTI holds virtually every publicly traded US stock — over 3,500 securities. That breadth means it includes every sector, including those that are fundamentally non-compliant: banks, insurance companies, tobacco producers, alcohol manufacturers, and gambling operators.

With 64% of holdings passing Shariah screening, VTI actually has a lower compliance rate than the S&P 500 (67%). This is because VTI includes small-cap banks, regional insurance companies, and niche consumer companies that the S&P 500 doesn't. The broader you go, the more non-compliant holdings you pick up.

The weighted compliance of 60.5% is even lower because some non-compliant companies (Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan) carry significant portfolio weight.

Top Compliant Holdings

These VTI holdings pass Shariah screening:

  1. AAPL
  2. MSFT
  3. NVDA
  4. AMZN
  5. META
  6. GOOGL
  7. TSLA
  8. AVGO
  9. LLY
  10. UNH

Non-Compliant Holdings

These holdings fail and are the primary reason VTI is not compliant:

  1. JPM (banking)
  2. BAC (banking)
  3. WFC (banking)
  4. BRK.B (insurance/finance)
  5. V (financial services)
  6. AIG (insurance)
  7. MET (insurance)
  8. PM (tobacco — Philip Morris)
  9. MO (tobacco — Altria)
  10. BUD (alcohol — AB InBev)

Halal Alternatives

For similar market exposure with full Shariah compliance:

For a full comparison, see our Best Halal ETFs for 2026 guide.

Screen VTI Yourself

curl https://api.halalterminal.com/api/etf/VTI/screening \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY"
import requests

resp = requests.get(
    "https://api.halalterminal.com/api/etf/VTI/screening",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "YOUR_KEY"}
)
data = resp.json()

print(f"Compliance Rate: {data['compliance_rate']}%")
print(f"Compliant: {data['compliant_holdings']}/{data['total_holdings']}")
print(f"Purification: {data['purification_rate']:.1%}")

for h in data["holdings"]:
    if h["compliance_status"] != "compliant":
        print(f"  FAIL: {h['symbol']} ({h['weight']:.1%} weight)")

Two ways to screen

Halal Terminal

Screen stocks and ETFs interactively with real-time data, multi-methodology verdicts, and transparent financial ratios.

Open Terminal → Developers: Use the API

Key Takeaways