EE bonds and I bonds are the two savings bonds the Treasury sells today, and on most lines they are the same product: bought only electronically in TreasuryDirect, each with its own $10,000 annual limit, locked for 12 months, earning for 30 years and taxed the same way. They differ in what the interest is promised to do. An EE bond bought now earns a fixed rate and is guaranteed to be worth at least twice what you paid once it is 20 years old. An I bond earns a fixed rate plus an inflation rate reset every six months, and Treasury's own FAQ says Series I bonds "aren’t guaranteed to grow to a particular value".
So "which is better" is two questions only you can answer: how long the money can stay put, and what inflation does meanwhile. This page prices both on illustrative numbers and prints neither bond's current rate. Both are set each 1 May and 1 November, and TreasuryDirect's side-by-side comparison of EE and I bonds shows the figures in force. How an I bond's rate is built is on the I bond interest rate page.
EE bonds vs I bonds, line by line
| EE bond | I bond | |
|---|---|---|
| How the rate is set | A fixed rate, set each 1 May and 1 November from market yields adjusted for savings-bond features; it "stays same at least 20 years" | A fixed rate kept for life, plus an inflation rate from the CPI-U; the combined rate "stays same for 6 months" |
| What is guaranteed | At least twice what you paid, at 20 years, through "a one-time adjustment, if necessary" | A rate that never falls below zero; no particular value |
| Years 21 to 30 | The original fixed rate, unless Treasury announces new terms before the bond is 20 | The same fixed rate; the inflation part keeps resetting |
| How interest builds | Monthly, compounded every six months | The same |
| Purchase limit | $10,000 a calendar year per Social Security number | $10,000 a calendar year, a separate limit |
| Price and minimum | Face value; $25, then any amount to the penny, up to $10,000 per purchase | The same |
| Cashing early | Not in the first 12 months; before 5 years you lose the last 3 months of interest | The same |
| Final maturity | 30 years, then interest stops | The same |
| Tax | Federal income tax, deferrable until you cash the bond or it stops earning; no state or local income tax | The same |
| Education exclusion | EE bonds issued after 1989, on the IRS's conditions | All I bonds, on the same conditions |
| How you buy | Electronic only, in TreasuryDirect; paper EE bonds were issued only before 2012 | Electronic only since 1 January 2025, when buying paper I bonds with a tax refund ended |
For a bond bought today, every row from the fourth down works the same way for both. The comparison lives in the top three.
The EE guarantee, in Treasury's words
TreasuryDirect's EE page: "If you buy an EE bond now, we guarantee that in 20 years it will be worth at least twice what you paid for it." Kept 20 years, the bond gets "a one-time adjustment, if necessary" to meet that promise, and the regulation says an electronic bond's value at 20 years "shall not be less than double the purchase price of the bond". Three details matter.
- Twice what you paid. Electronic EE bonds sell at face value, so $1,000 buys a promised $2,000. Older paper EE bonds sold at half their face value: a different bond, with different arithmetic.
- Once, at 20 years. Until the bond turns 20 it is worth its fixed rate compounding, and nothing more.
- Bonds bought now. TreasuryDirect says the guarantee covers EE bonds bought as far back as June 2003, and that one from before May 2005 may earn a variable rate rather than a fixed one. This page is about a bond bought today.
For the last 10 of the bond's 30 years Treasury may change the terms, but only before the bond is 20; if you do not want them, TreasuryDirect says, "you can cash it when it reaches 20 years and has at least doubled what you paid for it".
What doubling in 20 years works out to (arithmetic)
TreasuryDirect states the guarantee as a doubling, not as a percentage, so the conversion here is arithmetic on the guarantee itself: not a Treasury figure, and not an illustrative rate. Savings bonds compound twice a year, so doubling in 20 years means solving (1 + r/2)^40 = 2. That gives r = 3.4959%: about 3.50% a year compounded semiannually, or 3.53% as an annual yield, the after-compounding figure APR vs APY explains. The Rule of 72 on the compound interest page lands close: 72 ÷ 20 is 3.6.
That 3.50% is the yardstick. Below it, an EE fixed rate will not double the bond in 20 years on its own, and the adjustment closes the gap; at or above it, the bond doubles unaided and the guarantee adds nothing. As history: of the 43 EE fixed rates TreasuryDirect lists from May 2005 through May 2026, three, all set in 2005 or 2006, were at or above that line. For bonds from the other 40 periods, the guarantee is what brings them to double.
An EE bond cashed early (illustrative 2.00% fixed rate)
$1,000 in an EE bond at an illustrative 2.00% fixed rate, compounded twice a year:
| Cashed at | Value | Short of the guaranteed $2,000 by |
|---|---|---|
| Year 5 | $1,104.62 | $895.38 |
| Year 10 | $1,220.19 | $779.81 |
| Year 15 | $1,347.85 | $652.15 |
| Year 19½ | $1,474.12 | $525.88 |
| Year 20, before the adjustment | $1,488.86 | $511.14 |
| Year 20, with the guarantee | $2,000.00 | — |
At this rate the adjustment is $511.14, more than half the bond's $1,000 gain over 20 years, and it arrives on a single day. The second decade turns $1,220.19 into $2,000, an implied rate of about 5.0% a year on a bond whose stated rate is 2.00%, and the last six months alone add $525.88, about 36%.
That is what cashing early forfeits. An EE bond cashed before 20 years is not a smaller share of a doubled bond; it is a bond that earned its fixed rate. Treasury's own values accrue monthly and are rounded its way, so a real bond will not match these figures to the cent.
What an I bond needs to match it (illustrative)
An I bond promises no particular value, so the question turns round: what would it have to earn to reach the same $2,000? Its rate also compounds twice a year, so its combined rate would have to average about 3.50% over the 20 years: a steady 3.50%, or any run of six-month rates that compounds to the same.
TreasuryDirect's formula, "[Fixed rate + (2 x semiannual inflation rate) + (fixed rate x semiannual inflation rate)]", hides a useful piece of algebra: one plus half the combined rate equals one plus half the fixed rate, times one plus the six-month inflation rate. Every six months, then, an I bond grows by half its fixed rate and by the six-month rise in prices, compounded together. The inflation part keeps pace with prices as the CPI-U measures them; the fixed rate is the part that gets ahead. This is CentSheet's algebra on the published formula, not a Treasury statement. It is before tax, since federal income tax falls on all the interest, the inflation part included, and before three frictions: rounding, the zero floor, and a lag the regulation puts at "from 3 to 13 months" between a price reading and the interest it affects.
Inflation an I bond needs to match the double (illustrative fixed rates)
| I bond fixed rate (illustrative) | Six-month inflation rate needed, held steady | Roughly, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 0.00% | 1.75% | 3.5% |
| 0.50% | 1.50% | 3.0% |
| 1.00% | 1.25% | 2.5% |
| 1.50% | 1.00% | 2.0% |
Each row is a break-even: the lowest steady six-month rate, in the 0.01% steps Treasury publishes and with the combined rate rounded the way TreasuryDirect's own example rounds it, that takes $1,000 to $2,000 in 20 years. One step lower falls a few dollars short. At an illustrative 1.00% fixed rate, the I bond finishes level with the EE bond at 20 years if prices rise about 2.5% a year on average; faster, and the I bond finishes ahead in dollars; slower, and the EE bond does. The higher the fixed rate on the day you buy, the less inflation the I bond needs.
Three inflation paths (illustrative)
$1,000 in each bond for 20 years: the I bond at an illustrative 1.00% fixed rate, the inputs the I bond rate page works through; the EE bond at its guaranteed $2,000. Inflation is held at one six-month rate throughout, which no real path does.
| Six-month inflation, held steady (illustrative) | I bond's combined rate | I bond at 20 years | Prices over 20 years | The EE bond's $2,000 in purchase-day prices |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.60% | 2.21% | $1,552.05 | Up 27% | $1,574.38 |
| 1.20% | 3.41% | $1,966.49 | Up 61% | $1,241.11 |
| 2.00% | 5.02% | $2,695.56 | Up 121% | $905.78 |
In dollars, the EE bond wins the first two rows and loses the third by $695.56; the middle row's 1.20% sits just under the 1.25% break-even, so the I bond falls $33.51 short there. In what the money buys, the last column tells the rest. On the high-inflation path, the EE bond's $2,000 buys what $905.78 bought the day you paid $1,000, while the I bond comes out at about $1,220 in purchase-day prices on every row, because its fixed rate is the only part inflation does not use up. The EE bond fixes the number of dollars; the I bond fixes, roughly, what they buy.
The conditions that decide it
No row of the comparison makes one bond better in general. Four facts about your money decide which rows matter.
How long the money can stay: 20 years, or less
The guarantee's adjustment is made at 20 years and at no other time. If the money may be needed sooner, the doubling is not part of the deal, and the fair comparison is the EE fixed rate against the I bond's fixed rate plus whatever inflation turns out to be. If the money can stay 20 years, the EE bond's minimum outcome is known to the dollar on the day you buy. Both bonds stop earning at 30 years; what then happens to an electronic bond is on the page on when I bonds mature, and the same rule covers electronic EE bonds.
What inflation does, which nobody knows
The break-even table turns the choice into a view on 20 years of inflation, a figure nobody can know on the day of purchase. The EE bond does better in dollars if prices rise more slowly than the break-even for the I bond's fixed rate, and the I bond if they rise faster. In the other direction, TreasuryDirect guarantees an I bond's rate "will never fall below zero", and the regulation says that even when deflation cancels the fixed rate, its redemption value "will not be less than the value for the preceding month". A known number of dollars at a known date and protected purchasing power are different goals, and each bond serves one.
Liquidity: the same lock, a different cost of leaving
Neither bond can be cashed in its first 12 months, outside the hardship and disaster cases TreasuryDirect's FAQ allows, and either one cashed before five years loses its last three months of interest; how to cash I bonds prices that penalty, and TreasuryDirect words the rule the same way for EE bonds. After five years they diverge. An I bond cashed at year 8 or year 12 pays out everything it has earned. An EE bond cashed before year 20 leaves the adjustment, and the years that would have earned it, behind: at year 10 on the illustrative 2.00% rate it is $779.81 short of the $2,000.
Neither suits money that might be needed within the year. Where to keep an emergency fund explains why a 12-month lock rules a bond out of that job, and the Treasury's short-term product is the Treasury bill.
The limit: you do not have to choose
The limits are separate. In TreasuryDirect's words, "you may buy up to $10,000 in Series EE electronic savings bonds AND up to $10,000 in Series I electronic savings bonds for yourself" in a calendar year. Someone placing more than $10,000 a year can hold both, and someone unsure about inflation can split the money between a fixed number of dollars and a price-linked one. Each limit counts against the Social Security number of the first person named on the bond, and a gift counts against the recipient's limit in the year it is delivered.
Tax: identical, with one shared rule
TreasuryDirect says "the tax situation is the same for both EE and I bonds": federal income tax applies, state and local income tax does not, and federal estate, gift and excise taxes and state estate or inheritance taxes still do. You can report the interest yearly, or wait until you cash the bond or it stops earning at 30 years. The shared rule is in IRS Publication 550: "You must use the same method for all Series EE and Series I bonds you own."
The education exclusion on Form 8815 covers EE bonds issued after 1989 and all I bonds, on identical conditions: the bond in your name, or yours and your spouse's; you at least 24 before its issue date; no married-filing-separately return; the money spent on qualified expenses such as tuition and fees for you, your spouse or a dependent; and income under a limit adjusted every year. TreasuryDirect warns that a bond in a child's name "will not qualify even years later". The exclusion separates neither bond from the other.
Before buying either
- Read both current rates on TreasuryDirect, on the EE bond page for bonds issued since May 2005 and the I bond interest rates page. Both change each 1 May and 1 November.
- Set the EE fixed rate against the doubling rate worked out above. Below it, the guarantee is what you are buying, and it applies only at 20 years.
- Read the I bond's fixed rate as, roughly, its return above inflation before tax (the algebra above, not a Treasury figure), and find the nearest row in the break-even table.
- Be honest about the date. If 20 years is uncertain, price the EE bond at its fixed rate alone.
- Check the login. After 28 October 2026 ID.me is the only way to log in to TreasuryDirect; without it, TreasuryDirect says, you cannot sign in online or make new purchases.
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