<prompt> Human: Forgive me for this newbie question.If I buy VGT on Vanguard, the expense rate is 0.10. If I buy the same ETF on Robinhood, I dont pay any fees and no expense is paid yearly. So why buy Vanguard ETFs on Vanguard instead of buying them on Robinhood? Am I missing something?Ive been using both Vanguard and Robinhood for about a year and Im very with them so far. However, I just realized that if I buy ETFs on Robinhood, I dont pay have any expenses.  <response>: If I buy VGT on Vanguard, the expense rate is 0.10. If I buy the same ETF on Robinhood, I dont pay any fees and no expense is paid yearly.Totally incorrect. You apparently havent yet learned the difference between an expense ratio and a trading commission. Thats ok as a new investor but it is actually made rather clear in the prospectus, fact sheet, etc. for funds, and in the documents and commission info for brokerages like Vanguard Brokerage and Robinhood Brokerage. Every ETF has some management expense ratio MER often just called expense ratio ER. True even if its an index fund practicing passive investing. The fund itself still has trading expenses, traders on salary, decisions made about how and how often and in how big a block it will buy and sell the stocks that the index rules say it has to buy. This costs money, and that money comes out of the assets of the fund. Repeat: The ER comes out of the assets of the fund - it is reflected in the nightly price, the Net Asset Value NAV of the fund. Thus it is indirectly reflected in the market price you buy or sell the ETF at, and in the nightly closing market price that your brokerage shows, and in the intraday prices it shows.You are never CHARGED this fee. Its already in the value of the ETF.Thus, whether you buy VGT free at Robinhood, or free at Vanguard Brokerage because Vanguard Brokerage does not charge commissions for buying funds from its afilliated company Vanguard Funds, you are getting the exact same 0.10 ER factored into the price of the fund.A trade commission is how much a brokerage firm charges to buy and sell stocks, and buy and sell ETFs, which because they are literally Exchange Traded Funds, trade like stocks. Robinhood Brokerage doesnt charge trade commissions for anything. So you dont pay a trade commission for VGT. So pay 0 at Vanguard for a Vanguard ETF, pay 4.95 at Fidelity for a Vanguard ETF, or pay 0 at Robinhood to buy a Vanguard ETF, VANGUARD still takes their expense ratio. You can never get out of paying the expense ratio of a fund no matter where you buy it, but you also never actually PAY it. 