Bills, notes and bonds are the same promise from the same borrower, stretched over different lengths of time. A bill is repaid within a year, a note within ten years and a bond in 20 or 30. That one difference decides how you get paid, how far the price can swing before maturity and which goals each type suits. This page lines the three up in one table, adds live yields, runs the first-year cash flows on $10,000 of each and ends with a checklist for matching a Treasury to the date you need the money. For the wider menu, including TIPS and savings bonds, see the US Treasuries hub.
What is the difference between T-bills, notes and bonds?
The difference is term: bills mature in a year or less, notes in 2 to 10 years and bonds in 20 or 30 years, and that drives everything else.
| T-bills | Treasury notes | Treasury bonds | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terms sold | 4, 6, 8, 13, 17, 26 and 52 weeks | 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 years | 20 and 30 years |
| How you earn | Buy below face value, receive face value at maturity | Fixed coupon every six months, face value at maturity | Fixed coupon every six months, face value at maturity |
| Recent auction | 52-week bill, October 27, 2026: 4.290% discount rate, 4.496% investment rate | 2-year note, October 26, 2026: 4.625% coupon, 4.708% yield | 30-year bond, August 13, 2026: 5.125% coupon, 5.216% yield |
| Cash before maturity | None | Two coupons a year | Two coupons a year |
| Value change if yields rise 1 point | About −0.25% (13-week) to about −1% (52-week) | About −1.9% (2-year) to −7.5% (10-year) | About −11.3% (20-year) to −13.4% (30-year) |
| Reinvestment risk | High: the money comes back within a year | Moderate | Low |
| Federal income tax | On the discount, in the year the bill matures or is sold | On coupons, in the year paid | On coupons, in the year paid |
| State and local income tax | Exempt | Exempt | Exempt |
| Auction schedule | Weekly; the 52-week bill every four weeks | 2-, 3-, 5- and 7-year monthly; a new 10-year four times a year, reopened in other months | A new issue four times a year, reopened in the next two months |
| Minimum and limit | $100, up to $10 million per auction by noncompetitive bid | Same | Same |
| Can be split into STRIPS | No | Yes | Yes |
| Typical uses | Cash reserves, bills due within a year, short ladders | Goals 2 to 10 years away, steady income | Long-dated obligations, decades of income, hedging |
Three rows do most of the work. The term sets when you get your money back. The way interest is paid decides whether cash arrives along the way, which matters if you live on the income. And the price-risk row shows what you give up if plans change: a bill barely moves, while a 30-year bond can lose more than a year's interest on a modest rise in yields. The individual guides go deeper on each: what is a Treasury bill, Treasury notes explained and Treasury bonds explained. Two variants sit alongside them: floating rate notes for a rate that follows bills, and STRIPS for a single payment on a future date.
How much do bills, notes and bonds yield today?
Longer maturities usually pay more than bills, but the gap changes daily; the live table below shows Treasury's latest par yield for each maturity.
| Maturity | Yield | A month earlier | A year earlier |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 month | 4.06% | 4.02% | 4.05% |
| 6 weeks | 4.09% | 4.13% | 4.02% |
| 2 months | 4.16% | 4.16% | 4.04% |
| 3 months | 4.16% | 4.20% | 3.92% |
| 4 months | 4.18% | 4.29% | 3.87% |
| 6 months | 4.25% | 4.33% | 3.79% |
| 1 year | 4.36% | 4.54% | 3.70% |
| 2 years | 4.56% | 4.88% | 3.61% |
| 3 years | 4.65% | 5.00% | 3.61% |
| 5 years | 4.71% | 5.09% | 3.72% |
| 7 years | 4.80% | 5.19% | 3.90% |
| 10 years | 4.94% | 5.29% | 4.11% |
| 20 years | 5.34% | 5.68% | 4.64% |
| 30 years | 5.31% | 5.64% | 4.65% |
| 10-year minus 2-year | +0.38 pts | +0.41 pts | +0.50 pts |
| 10-year minus 3-month | +0.78 pts | +1.09 pts | +0.19 pts |
| Maturity | Real yield (TIPS) | Nominal yield | Implied inflation (nominal minus real) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 years | 2.25% | 4.71% | 2.46% |
| 7 years | 2.42% | 4.80% | 2.38% |
| 10 years | 2.60% | 4.94% | 2.34% |
| 20 years | 2.92% | 5.34% | 2.42% |
| 30 years | 3.08% | 5.31% | 2.23% |
Read the table from the top down. The 1-month to 1-year rows are bill maturities, the 2- to 10-year rows are notes, and the 20- and 30-year rows are bonds. Each figure is a par yield, meaning the coupon a new security of that maturity would need to sell at exactly face value, quoted on a bond-equivalent basis. That is why the bill rows differ slightly from the discount rates in bill auction results; T-bill discount rate vs investment rate explains the conversion.
The month-earlier and year-earlier columns show how much each maturity has moved, which tells you how quickly the trade-off between bills and longer Treasuries can shift. The two spread rows measure the slope: when 10-year minus 2-year and 10-year minus 3-month are positive, notes and bonds pay more than bills; when they turn negative, the curve is inverted and staying short pays more. The inverted yield curve explained covers what that has signaled in the past. The real yield table shows TIPS yields next to regular ones, and its implied inflation column is the inflation rate at which the two would earn the same.
Extra yield further out is payment for extra price risk, not free money. The Treasury yield curve page keeps the history, and T-bill rates today tracks the bill end in more detail.
How does each type pay you?
Bills pay everything at maturity as the gap between price and face value, while notes and bonds pay a coupon every six months.
Worked example: First-year cash from $10,000 of each type, bought in October 2026
| 52-week bill | 2-year note | 30-year bond, reopened | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auction | October 27, 2026 | October 26, 2026 | October 8, 2026 |
| Paid at settlement | $9,566.23 on October 29, 2026 | $9,984.32 plus $2.56 accrued interest, $9,986.88 on November 2, 2026 | $9,288.91 plus $84.95 accrued interest, $9,373.86 on October 15, 2026 |
| Cash received in year one | $10,000 on October 28, 2027 | $231.25 on April 30, 2027 and $231.25 on November 1, 2027 | $256.25 on February 16, 2027 and $256.25 on August 16, 2027 |
| Interest in year one | $433.77 | $462.50 | $512.50, of which $84.95 repays accrued interest |
| Still to come | Nothing; the bill has matured | Two more coupons and $10,000 on October 31, 2028 | 58 more coupons and $10,000 on August 15, 2056 |
The bill's $433.77 is all the income it will ever produce, paid in one lump when it matures. The note's $462.50 is half of its four coupons, and the bond's first two coupons include $84.95 that simply returns the accrued interest paid up front, leaving $427.55 of interest actually earned. Coupon dates that fall on a weekend or federal holiday pay on the next business day, which is why some cash arrives on the 1st or 16th.
The pattern matters for planning. Bill income comes back as one lump on a known date and then has to be reinvested at whatever rate prevails. Note and bond income arrives in small pieces for years, which suits spending but leaves each coupon to be reinvested. The Treasury bill calculator works out the price and yield of any bill if you want to test other terms.
Which Treasury carries the most price risk?
Bonds do: the longer the maturity, the more a Treasury's price moves when yields change, from a fraction of a percent for bills to over 13% for 30-year bonds.
The table shows the change in market value of $10,000 if yields moved 1 point immediately. Bills use their October 30, 2026 investment yields; notes and bonds are new securities priced at par, with coupons equal to that day's par yields.
| Treasury | Yield used | Yields rise 1 point | Yields fall 1 point |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13-week bill | 4.08% | −$25 | +$25 |
| 26-week bill | 4.25% | −$49 | +$49 |
| 52-week bill | 4.36% | −$97 | +$98 |
| 2-year note | 4.56% | −$187 | +$191 |
| 5-year note | 4.71% | −$430 | +$453 |
| 10-year note | 4.94% | −$746 | +$820 |
| 20-year bond | 5.34% | −$1,125 | +$1,328 |
| 30-year bond | 5.31% | −$1,339 | +$1,675 |
Two points matter more than the exact figures. A price drop becomes a real loss only if you sell before maturity; hold to the end and you receive face value. And what counts is the maturity left when you might need to sell: a 30-year bond bought for money needed in three years is really a bet on where 27-year yields will be at that point. In 2026 that kind of move happened quickly, when the August 30-year bond lost 5.8% of its price in eight weeks. Why bond prices fall when rates rise explains the math, and short-term vs long-term Treasuries weighs the trade-off in more depth.
Are bills, notes and bonds taxed differently?
Not in rate: all three are subject to federal income tax and exempt from state and local income tax, but the timing of the federal tax differs.
- Bills. The discount is interest, reported on your federal return for the year the bill matures or is sold. A 52-week bill bought on October 29, 2026 produces 2027 income, which can shift interest into a later tax year.
- Notes and bonds. Coupons are taxable in the year they are paid. If you paid accrued interest when you bought, that amount is a return of your money and comes off the first coupon. A discount at original issue that exceeds the small de minimis threshold is original issue discount, reported as it accrues, while a discount on a note or bond bought in the market is generally taxed as ordinary income when you sell or redeem it.
- Selling before maturity. A sale can also produce a gain or loss, measured against your purchase price as adjusted for those rules.
The state exemption is worth the most to people in high-tax states and nothing inside an IRA or 401(k), where the account's own rules apply instead; see T-bills in an IRA. Are T-bills taxable? covers reporting in depth. Tax rules change and depend on your situation, so a tax professional can confirm how they apply to you.
Which Treasury matches your time horizon?
Pick the type whose maturity lands on or just before the date you need the cash, since a Treasury held to maturity repays its face value in full.
Matching a Treasury to your time horizon
- Cash needed within 12 months on a known date: a bill maturing on or just before that date fixes the amount you will have.
- Cash needed within 12 months on an uncertain date: several short bills, or a ladder of 4- to 13-week bills, so some money frees up every few weeks without a sale.
- A goal 2 to 10 years away: a note maturing near the goal locks in today's yield for the whole stretch, as long as you can hold it to the end.
- A goal more than 10 years away: a long note, a bond or a STRIPS maturing near the date; the price will swing a lot in between, so it fits only money you can leave untouched.
- No fixed date at all: shorter maturities keep the cost of an unplanned sale small, so check the price-risk table before going longer.
- Worried about inflation over a long horizon: compare the regular and real yields in the live table, and look at TIPS for the same term.
- Wanting income along the way: notes and bonds pay coupons twice a year, while bills pay only at maturity.
- Holding at TreasuryDirect: plan to hold to maturity, since selling requires a transfer to a bank or broker after 45 calendar days.
None of these is a recommendation; each is a way of lining up a known feature of the security with a known feature of your plans. If the date is uncertain, the deciding question is how much an unplanned sale could cost, which the price-risk table answers.
Can you combine bills, notes and bonds?
Yes: spreading money across maturities means part comes due soon while part locks in a longer yield, so no single rate decides the whole outcome.
The simplest version is a ladder: equal amounts maturing at regular intervals, each reinvested at the far end as it comes due. Using October 2026 auction results, $10,000 each in the 52-week bill (4.496% investment rate) and the 2-, 3-, 5- and 7-year notes (4.708%, 4.932%, 4.845% and 4.894% yields) averages about 4.78%. A 1-point rise in yields would cut the whole $50,000 ladder by roughly 3%, against nearly 6% if it were all in 7-year notes, and $10,000 comes back each time a rung matures.
Other shapes trade differently. A barbell pairs bills with long bonds, keeping some cash close at hand while taking long-term yield on the rest, with more price risk at the long end. A bullet puts everything into maturities clustered around one future date. The T-bill ladder guide builds a ladder step by step, and the same logic applies to a CD ladder.
What are the risks of bills, notes and bonds?
Each type trades one risk for another: bills minimize price risk but maximize reinvestment risk, while bonds do the opposite and add more inflation exposure.
- Bills: reinvestment risk. The money returns within a year at whatever rate prevails then, and bill rates can move fast. The 13-week bill's auction rate ranged from 3.715% in mid-August 2026 to 4.110% at the end of September.
- Notes: a middle path. Price risk is moderate, but a 10-year note can still lose about 7.5% on a 1-point rise, and each coupon has to be reinvested.
- Bonds: price and inflation risk. The biggest price swings of any fixed-rate Treasury, plus decades of fixed dollar payments exposed to inflation.
- All three: inflation, liquidity and headlines. Fixed payments lose purchasing power when inflation runs above the yield, nothing held at TreasuryDirect can be sold there, and debt-limit standoffs have unsettled Treasuries maturing near projected default dates.
All three are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, so the payments themselves are not the usual worry. Are Treasuries risk-free? looks at where that protection ends, and types of investment risk defines each risk on this list.