$GPIX ETF Dividend Guide 2026: Yield, Dividend History & Ex-Dates

Sponsored By Read carefully before investing. Prospectus: https://lsfunds.com/hubfs/Regulatory/Prospectus.pdf?hsLang=en

$GPIX is one of those funds that doesn't get the hype of the 15% yielders, and I think that's exactly why it's worth a closer look. It's built to pay a steady monthly check from the S&P 500 without giving up the whole upside, and so far it has done that pretty well.

A lot of people land on its ticker page just wanting the dates and the numbers. So I put everything in one place: every payment, every ex-date, what drives the yield, and the parts most people skip.

What Is $GPIX?

$GPIX is the Goldman Sachs S&P 500 Premium Income ETF. It launched on October 24, 2023, and until April 30, 2025 it was called the Goldman Sachs S&P 500 Core Premium Income ETF, which is why you'll still see the old name on some sites.

It's actively managed, it holds roughly the S&P 500 (about 489 stocks), and it has grown to around $6.2 billion in assets. The total expense ratio is 0.35%, but Goldman waives part of its fee to bring the net cost to 0.29%, with that waiver in place through at least April 30, 2027 per the April 2026 summary prospectus.

The goal, in Goldman's words, is current income "while maintaining prospects for capital appreciation." That second part matters, and it's what separates $GPIX from the older covered call funds.

How $GPIX Makes an 8% Yield

The S&P 500 itself only yields around 1%. The rest of $GPIX's payout comes from selling call options.

Here's the key detail. $GPIX does not sell calls on its entire portfolio. The prospectus says it writes calls on a varying slice, expected to be between 25% and 75% of the value of its stock holdings. Goldman calls this a dynamic overwrite.

• When it sells calls on less of the portfolio, more of the stock is free to run when the market rallies.
• When it sells calls on more of the portfolio, it collects more premium but caps more of the upside.

Compare that to $XYLD, which sells calls on essentially 100% of the S&P 500 every month. $XYLD gets a bigger premium, but it gives up almost all the upside, and over time that has shown up as a falling share price. $GPIX tries to sit in the middle: real income, but still enough stock exposure to grow.

$GPIX Ex-Dividend Dates and Pay Schedule

$GPIX follows a very consistent rhythm. The ex-dividend date is usually the first business day of the month, and the payment lands about four to seven days later. Here's 2026 so far:

The October 2026 payment was $0.39702, ex-dividend October 1 and paid October 7. If the pattern holds, the next ex-date should fall right around Monday, November 2, 2026. Goldman hadn't announced it as of October 22, so treat that as an estimate and check the fund page before you trade around it.

One thing I'd never do is buy right before the ex-date just to "catch" the dividend. The share price drops by roughly the payout on the ex-date, so you're not getting free money. You're just converting part of your share price into a taxable or basis-reducing event.

Full $GPIX Dividend History (2023 to 2026)

$GPIX has made 35 monthly payments since its first one in December 2023, totaling $12.37 per share. Here's the year-by-year picture:

What I like here: the trend is up. The October 2026 payout of $0.39702 is about 7.6% higher than the October 2025 payout of $0.36904. That's not guaranteed to continue, because the payout tracks the fund's value and option premiums. But a payout that grows alongside a rising share price is exactly what you want from an income fund. It's the opposite of what happens in a fund with price decay.

What Yield Does $GPIX Actually Pay?

You'll see different yield numbers depending on where you look, and they're all "right." They just measure different things:

• Trailing 12-month yield: about 8.2%. The last 12 payments added up to $4.58647 per share. Divide by a price near $56 and you get roughly 8.2%. That's the number I use, because it's what the fund actually paid.
• Annualized latest payout: about 8.5%. Take the October payout of $0.39702, multiply by 12 ($4.76) and divide by the price. Goldman's own "annualized distribution rate" uses this method with NAV.
• SEC yield: much lower. The SEC yield only counts dividends and interest from the stocks, not option premium. For a covered call fund, it badly understates what you actually receive.

Our $GPIX scorecard shows 8.20% today, which lines up with the trailing figure.

$GPIX Taxes: The Return of Capital Story

This is where $GPIX gets interesting for anyone holding it in a taxable account.

Goldman publishes a Section 19(a) notice with each payment estimating where the money came from. Its October 2026 notice estimated that, for the fiscal year through September 30, 2026, about 90.7% of $GPIX's distributions were return of capital and only about 9.3% was ordinary income.

Return of capital (ROC) is generally not taxed in the year you receive it. Instead, it lowers your cost basis. You pay tax later, when you sell, and usually at capital gains rates if you've held over a year.

For comparison, $QQQI and $SPYI from NEOS get their tax edge from Section 1256 index options. I broke that down in my $SPYI dividend guide and $QQQI dividend guide.

How Much $GPIX for $500, $1,000 or $2,000 a Month?

Using the trailing $4.58647 per share and a $55.84 share price (about 8.2%):

Want to see what reinvesting those payouts does over 10 or 20 years? Run $GPIX through DividendProjection.com. If you'd rather get paid every week instead of every month, WeeklyETFs.com tracks every weekly payer.

$GPIX vs $JEPI vs $SPYI vs $XYLD

These are the four S&P 500 income funds people compare most. Yields and assets are from our live data today:

$GPIX vs $JEPI

These two are the closest match. Similar yield, both pay monthly, both avoided price decay. The difference is the engine. $JEPI holds a lower-volatility basket of stocks and generates income through equity-linked notes, so it tends to hold up better in selloffs and lag more in big rallies. $GPIX holds the actual S&P 500 and only overwrites part of it, so it tracks the index more closely. It's also a bit cheaper. If you want something that feels more like "the S&P 500 with a paycheck," $GPIX fits that better. See the $JEPI scorecard for its live numbers.

$GPIX vs $XYLD

$XYLD pays a little more but caps nearly all the upside, and it carries a price decay flag in our data. I'd rather own the fund that can still grow. That's how I think about income in general: the yield only matters if the share price isn't quietly shrinking underneath it.

$GPIX vs $SPYI

$SPYI pays a noticeably higher yield and has a strong tax setup through Section 1256 options. $GPIX is cheaper and keeps more upside. Two different flavors of the same idea.

Want to see how these funds performed once you count every dividend? ETFTotalReturns.com is built for exactly that.

Total Return: Does $GPIX Keep Up?

Here's the honest scoreboard. Per the April 2026 summary prospectus, through December 31, 2025:

So $GPIX trailed the index, which is expected in a strong bull market. Selling calls means giving up some upside. But it trailed by a modest amount while paying out 8% a year along the way. For an income fund, that's a solid result. Most covered call funds would have lagged by far more over the same stretch.

The Real Risks

• Capped upside. In a ripping bull market, $GPIX will lag the S&P 500. That's the price of the income.
• Full downside. Option premium only cushions a selloff a little. If the S&P 500 drops 20%, $GPIX is going down with it.
• Variable payouts. The payout dipped to $0.35339 in April 2026 before climbing back. Monthly income can and will move around.
• Active management. The overwrite level is a judgment call by the managers. Good calls help, bad calls hurt.
• Short history. It launched in October 2023 and hasn't been tested through a long bear market yet.

My Take

$GPIX is one of the more sensible ways to turn the S&P 500 into monthly income. It's cheap, it's big enough, it has grown its payout, and it hasn't shown price decay. It's not trying to be a 15% yielder, and I see that as a feature.

Who's it for? Someone who wants a core income holding that still behaves mostly like the market, and who's fine giving up some upside for a steady monthly check. If you need the highest yield possible, look elsewhere. If you want income you don't have to babysit, it belongs on the shortlist next to $JEPI.

For more options, see my list of the best ETFs for monthly income in 2026, or browse every monthly dividend ETF we track. Its Nasdaq-100 sibling, $GPIQ, has its own $GPIQ dividend scorecard and a full $GPIQ dividend guide with every payment and ex-date. And if you want live yields and price decay for all of these side by side, that's what TopDividendETFsPRO is for.

$GPIX Dividend FAQ

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Sponsored By Read carefully before investing. Prospectus: https://lsfunds.com/hubfs/Regulatory/Prospectus.pdf?hsLang=en