Pension funds with the lowest fees (June 2026 update)

The fees charged by your pension fund are either a fixed-dollar amount or based on a percentage of your balance, or both, and are deducted from your account balance. Fees vary based on your account balance and the investment option you choose (such as Growth, Balanced or Conservative).

Your pension fund must report all fees and costs in the product disclosure statement (PDS) for your chosen option and in your annual statement.

You might also find a schedule of fees on your fund’s website. If in doubt, call your fund and ask them to explain how much you’re being charged.

How fees compare: Median benchmarks

The table below shows median total fees by risk category as at June 2026. There is no single ‘average’ pension fund fee – fees vary substantially by category, fund and balance size.

We show fee data at two balance points: $50,000 and $500,000.

• A $50,000 balance represents a smaller account-based pension, for example where a retiree has also taken a partial lump sum or is well into drawdown. At this level, a 1% fee costs $500 a year.
• A $500,000 balance is representative of a member transitioning to retirement or in the earlier years of retirement. At this level, even a 0.1% fee difference costs $500 a year.

Fee percentages often look lower at higher balances because fixed-dollar administration charges become proportionally smaller as the balance grows. But the funds with the lowest fees at $50,000 are not always the same as those at $500,000, so both matter.

Risk category	Growth assets (%)	Median: $50,000 balance	Median: $500,000 balance
All Growth	96–100%	1.01%	0.84%
High Growth	81–95%	0.93%	0.81%
Growth	61–80%	0.90%	0.79%
Balanced	41–60%	0.83%	0.73%
Conservative	21–40%	0.78%	0.66%

Source: Chant West, June 2026. Actively managed options only.

The 20 cheapest funds

The 20 cheapest pension options across all investment categories are index or low-cost passive options. Index funds – also known as passive funds – aim to track and replicate the performance of a market index such as the ASX 200 or a global equities benchmark. They do this by investing in all the underlying assets in that index rather than selecting individual securities, which significantly reduces management and transaction costs.

Since the cheapest options are all index or low-cost passive options, we have removed indexed options from the per-category tables later in this article. Those tables show the cheapest actively managed funds in each risk category.

20 cheapest funds: $50,000 balance

Fund	Investment option	Total fee ($ per year)	Total fee (% per year)
Super SA	Indexed High Growth	$131	0.26%
Super SA	Indexed Balanced	$131	0.26%
AustralianSuper	Choice Income – Indexed Diversified	$137	0.27%
Brighter Super	Indexed Balanced	$156	0.31%
Aware Super	Conservative Indexed	$167	0.33%
OnePath	OneAnswer Frontier – High Growth Index	$170	0.34%
Aware Super	Conservative Balanced Indexed	$172	0.34%
Rest	Growth Indexed	$173	0.35%
Vision Super	Balanced Low Cost	$175	0.35%
OnePath	OneAnswer Frontier – OnePath Growth Index	$175	0.35%
CFS FirstChoice	Wholesale – CFS Index Diversified	$175	0.35%
CFS FirstChoice	Wholesale – CFS Index Conservative	$175	0.35%
CFS FirstChoice	Wholesale – CFS Index Moderate	$175	0.35%
CFS FirstChoice	Wholesale – CFS Index Balanced	$180	0.36%
CFS FirstChoice	Wholesale – CFS Index Growth	$180	0.36%
CFS FirstChoice	Wholesale – CFS Index High Growth	$180	0.36%
OnePath	OneAnswer Frontier – OnePath Balanced Index	$180	0.36%
OnePath	OneAnswer Frontier – OnePath Conservative Index	$180	0.36%
Equip Super	Index Diversified	$182	0.36%
Australian Retirement Trust	Super Savings – Balanced Index	$182	0.36%

Source: Chant West, June 2026.

The fee difference between indexed and actively managed options is particularly striking at higher balances. Indexed options typically have a fixed or near-fixed administration fee, plus a very low investment fee.

At $500,000, that fixed administration fee becomes a tiny fraction of the balance, which is why the percentage fees below look dramatically lower.

20 cheapest funds: $500,000 balance

Fund	Investment option	Total fee ($ per year)	Total fee (% per year)
Hostplus	Indexed Defensive	$382	0.08%
Hostplus	Indexed High Growth	$432	0.09%
Hostplus	Indexed Stable	$482	0.10%
Hostplus	Indexed Conservative Pension	$482	0.10%
Hostplus	Indexed Balanced	$482	0.10%
Hostplus	Indexed Growth	$482	0.10%
AustralianSuper	Choice Income – Indexed Diversified	$902	0.18%
Super SA	Indexed Balanced	$938	0.19%
Super SA	Indexed High Growth	$938	0.19%
Rest	Growth Indexed	$1,028	0.21%
Aware Super	Conservative Indexed	$1,202	0.24%
Aware Super	Conservative Balanced Indexed	$1,252	0.25%
Brighter Super	Indexed Balanced	$1,276	0.26%
Australian Retirement Trust	Super Savings – Balanced Index	$1,307	0.26%
Australian Retirement Trust	Super Savings – High Growth Index	$1,307	0.26%
Equip Super	Index Diversified	$1,352	0.27%
OnePath	OneAnswer Frontier – High Growth Index	$1,500	0.30%
CFS FirstChoice	Wholesale – CFS Index Conservative	$1,550	0.31%
CFS FirstChoice	Wholesale – CFS Index Diversified	$1,550	0.31%
Vision Super	Balanced Low Cost	$1,550	0.31%

Source: Chant West, June 2026.

At a $500,000 balance, Hostplus Indexed Growth costs just $482 per year (0.10%). By comparison, the median actively-managed growth pension fund at the same balance costs 0.79% – or $3,933 a year. That’s a difference of about $3,450 a year, before investment returns are considered.

Cheapest actively managed funds by category

The following tables show the ten cheapest actively managed funds in each risk category. Index funds are excluded – they are listed separately above.

When SuperGuide publishes fee information, we group funds into five investment categories so that options are compared with others of a similar risk profile:

• All Growth (96–100% growth assets)
• High Growth (81–95% growth assets)
• Growth (61–80% growth assets)
• Balanced (41–60% growth assets)
• Conservative (21–40% growth assets).

As a general rule, the higher the proportion of growth assets, the higher the fees. This is because defensive assets such as cash typically carry lower management costs than equities or alternative investments.

All Growth (96–100% growth assets)

How this category compares (actively managed options):

Benchmark	$50,000 balance	$500,000 balance
Lowest quartile	0.70%	0.57%
Median	1.01%	0.84%
Upper quartile	1.22%	0.97%

Source: Chant West, June 2026.

5 cheapest funds: $50,000 balance

Fund	Investment option	Fee (% of balance)
Vision Super	Just Shares	0.51%
ESSSuper	Shares Only	0.67%
UniSuper	Flexi Pension – High Growth	0.70%
REI Super	Growth Plus	0.87%
Perpetual	WealthFocus – Perpetual Global Alloc. Alpha	0.91%

Source: Chant West, June 2026.

5 cheapest funds: $500,000 balance

Fund	Investment option	Fee (% of balance)
Vision Super	Just Shares	0.47%
UniSuper	Flexi Pension – High Growth	0.53%
ESSSuper	Shares Only	0.57%
REI Super	Growth Plus	0.76%
Hostplus	High Growth	0.80%

Source: Chant West, June 2026.

High Growth (81–95% growth assets)

How this category compares (actively managed options):

Benchmark	$50,000 balance	$500,000 balance
Lowest quartile	0.79%	0.66%
Median	0.93%	0.81%
Upper quartile	1.10%	0.96%

Source: Chant West, June 2026.

10 cheapest funds: $50,000 balance

Fund	Investment option	Fee (% of balance)
ANZ Staff Super	Aggressive Growth	0.57%
GESB	Growth	0.60%
Australian Food Super	Growth	0.62%
Team Super	High Growth	0.62%
Vision Super	Growth	0.63%
UniSuper	Flexi Pension – Growth	0.71%
AustralianSuper	Choice Income – High Growth	0.72%
ESSSuper	Growth	0.74%
NESS Super	High Growth	0.78%
Australian Retirement Trust	QSuper – High Growth	0.79%

Source: Chant West, June 2026.

10 cheapest funds: $500,000 balance

Fund	Investment option	Fee (% of balance)
Australian Food Super	Growth	0.46%
UniSuper	Flexi Pension – Growth	0.54%
ANZ Staff Super	Aggressive Growth	0.57%
Vision Super	Growth	0.59%
GESB	Growth	0.60%
Team Super	High Growth	0.62%
AustralianSuper	Choice Income – High Growth	0.63%
NESS Super	High Growth	0.64%
ESSSuper	Growth	0.64%
GuildSuper	Growth	0.67%

Source: Chant West, June 2026.

Growth (61–80% growth assets)

How this category compares (actively managed options):

Benchmark	$50,000 balance	$500,000 balance
Lowest quartile	0.81%	0.71%
Median	0.90%	0.79%
Upper quartile	1.12%	0.95%

Source: Chant West, June 2026.

10 cheapest funds: $50,000 balance

Fund	Investment option	Fee (% of balance)
Vision Super	Balanced Growth	0.60%
ANZ Staff Super	Balanced Growth	0.65%
UniSuper	Flexi Pension – Balanced	0.65%
Team Super	Balanced	0.67%
AustralianSuper	Choice Income – Balanced	0.73%
CSCri	Aggressive	0.77%
Australian Retirement Trust	QSuper – Balanced	0.77%
Super SA	Balanced	0.80%
Active Super	Balanced	0.81%
Aware Super	Balanced	0.81%

Source: Chant West, June 2026.

10 cheapest funds: $500,000 balance

Fund	Investment option	Fee (% of balance)
UniSuper	Flexi Pension – Balanced	0.48%
Vision Super	Balanced Growth	0.56%
AustralianSuper	Choice Income – Balanced	0.64%
ANZ Staff Super	Balanced Growth	0.65%
Team Super	Balanced	0.67%
Australian Retirement Trust	QSuper – Balanced	0.67%
CSCri	Aggressive	0.68%
Prime Super	Balanced	0.68%
NESS Super	MyPension Balanced	0.71%
Australian Retirement Trust	Super Savings – Balanced	0.71%

Source: Chant West, June 2026.

Balanced (41–60% growth assets)

How this category compares (actively managed options):

Benchmark	$50,000 balance	$500,000 balance
Lowest quartile	0.76%	0.63%
Median	0.83%	0.73%
Upper quartile	0.96%	0.88%

Source: Chant West, June 2026.

10 cheapest funds: $50,000 balance

Fund	Investment option	Fee (% of balance)
GESB	Balanced	0.53%
Vision Super	Balanced	0.56%
Team Super	Moderate	0.62%
UniSuper	Flexi Pension – Conservative Balanced	0.66%
Super SA	Moderate	0.68%
AustralianSuper	Choice Income – Conservative Balanced	0.70%
ESSSuper	Balanced	0.72%
Australian Retirement Trust	QSuper – Conservative Balanced	0.75%
CareSuper	Conservative Balanced	0.77%
Active Super	Conservative Balanced	0.77%

Source: Chant West, June 2026.

10 cheapest funds: $500,000 balance

Fund	Investment option	Fee (% of balance)
UniSuper	Flexi Pension – Conservative Balanced	0.49%
Vision Super	Balanced	0.52%
GESB	Balanced	0.53%
Super SA	Moderate	0.61%
AustralianSuper	Choice Income – Conservative Balanced	0.61%
First Super	Conservative Balanced	0.62%
Team Super	Moderate	0.62%
ESSSuper	Balanced	0.62%
CareSuper	Conservative Balanced	0.64%
Australian Retirement Trust	QSuper – Conservative Balanced	0.65%

Source: Chant West, June 2026.

Conservative (21–40% growth assets)

How this category compares (actively managed options):

Benchmark	$50,000 balance	$500,000 balance
Lowest quartile	0.68%	0.57%
Median	0.78%	0.66%
Upper quartile	0.93%	0.80%

Source: Chant West, June 2026.

10 cheapest pension funds: $50,000 balance

Fund	Investment option	Fee (% of balance)
GESB	Conservative	0.46%
Vision Super	Conservative	0.51%
ANZ Staff Super	Cautious	0.52%
Aware Super	Defensive	0.55%
Team Super	Defensive	0.56%
Super SA	Stable	0.63%
ESSSuper	Capital Stable	0.63%
AustralianSuper	Choice Income – Stable	0.65%
Active Super	Conservative	0.66%
UniSuper	Flexi Pension – Conservative	0.68%

Source: Chant West, June 2026.

10 cheapest pension funds: $500,000 balance

Fund	Investment option	Fee (% of balance)
GESB	Conservative	0.46%
Aware Super	Defensive	0.46%
Vision Super	Conservative	0.47%
UniSuper	Flexi Pension – Conservative	0.51%
ANZ Staff Super	Cautious	0.52%
ESSSuper	Capital Stable	0.53%
Super SA	Stable	0.56%
Team Super	Defensive	0.56%
AustralianSuper	Choice Income – Stable	0.56%
Australian Food Super	Capital Stable	0.57%

Source: Chant West, June 2026.

Fees are not the whole story

While low fees grab the headlines, it’s important to remember that net investment returns after fees are what matter most in the long run.

A fund with slightly higher fees may still deliver stronger net returns if its investment performance is good enough to compensate. See our Best performing super funds section to compare fund performance.