---
title: "TER (total expense ratio)"
description: "The TER is the long-standing industry name for a fund's annual running costs as a percentage of assets; UCITS documents call it ongoing charges (OCF)."
canonical: https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/ter
published: 2026-09-04
updated: 2026-09-04
publisher: FundFacts API
---

# TER (total expense ratio) (Total expense ratio, Expense ratio, TER %)

> The TER is the long-standing industry name for a fund's annual running costs as a percentage of assets; UCITS documents call it ongoing charges (OCF).

The **total expense ratio (TER)** expresses a fund's annual operating costs as a percentage of its average net assets. It bundles the management fee with administration, depositary, audit, legal and registration costs. The TER predates UCITS disclosure rules and remains the term most factsheets, ETF product pages and comparison sites use.

In regulatory documents the same concept appears under a different name: the UCITS [KIID](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/kiid) introduced [ongoing charges](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/ongoing-charges) with a harmonised definition, and UK documents call it the [OCF](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/ocf). For most funds the TER and the ongoing charges figure are identical or within a few basis points; where they diverge it is usually because one figure is an estimate or includes a cost the other definition excludes. Under [PRIIPs](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/priips), portfolio transaction costs are disclosed as a separate line rather than inside the TER.

## Why it matters

Costs are one of the few fund characteristics known in advance, and they compound. For index funds and ETFs the TER is a large part of the expected [tracking difference](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/tracking-difference) against the benchmark, so it is usually the first filter in a [fund screener](https://fundfactsapi.com/use-cases/fund-screener) or ETF comparison.

## In the API

The headline ongoing cost the fund house publishes is returned as `headlineMetrics.ter`, a percentage per year, whatever label the source document uses.

```json
{
  "headlineMetrics": {
    "ter": 0.12
  },
  "keyFacts": { "currency": "USD" }
}
```

Example values; 0.12 means 0.12% per year.

## Common pitfalls

- TER is not the total cost of holding a fund: transaction costs, performance fees, platform fees and bid-offer spreads sit outside it.
- The figure is per [share class](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/share-class). Cheaper institutional classes of the same fund are common.

## In the FundFacts API payload

- `headlineMetrics.ter`

## About FundFacts API

FundFacts turns any fund or ETF ISIN into one dated factsheet (fees and KID costs, the 1–7 risk indicator, holdings, sector and country exposure, returns) read from the fund house's own documents: as a client-ready PDF under your firm's name for advisers and wealth managers, as JSON through its API for developers, or inside ChatGPT and Claude through its MCP server.

FundFacts works inside ChatGPT and Claude as a connector (a remote MCP server): ask about any fund or ETF by ISIN, ticker or name and the assistant answers from FundFacts' dated figures, fees, risk, holdings, exposure and returns, with fund cards, side-by-side comparisons, holdings overlap and portfolio look-through.

- Free API key, no card: https://fundfactsapi.com/signup
- Documentation: https://fundfactsapi.com/docs (OpenAPI: https://fundfactsapi.com/openapi.json)
- MCP server: https://fundfactsapi.com/api/mcp (set-up for every client: https://fundfactsapi.com/mcp-server)
- Pricing: https://fundfactsapi.com/pricing
- Site index for AI assistants: https://fundfactsapi.com/llms.txt
- Informational data, not investment advice.