The US Treasury owes $31.83 trillion in debt that investors can trade, as of 30 September 2026. Treasury bills, notes and bonds are the three main kinds. Notes make up $16.28 trillion of that. Bills make up $7.12 trillion, while bonds make up $5.55 trillion.
The name marks how long the Treasury has before it repays.
What are Treasury bills, notes and bonds? They are the three main kinds of debt the US government sells to borrow money. The Treasury repays bills within a year, notes in 2 to 10 years, while bonds take 20 or 30 years.
Bills pay their interest at maturity. The buyer pays less than the amount the Treasury repays. The gap is the interest.
Notes and bonds pay a fixed rate of interest every six months.
Notes were 51.1% of tradable Treasury debt on 30 September 2026. Bills were 22.4% and bonds 17.4%. Three other types made up the remaining 9.1%: inflation-protected securities, floating rate notes and a tiny Federal Financing Bank category.
What are Treasury bills, notes and bonds?
The US Treasury borrows by selling securities, which are tradable promises to repay. Each one has a face value, also called par value, which is the amount repaid at maturity. Maturity is the repayment date.
The Treasury calls them marketable, which means a holder can sell them before maturity.
The Treasury sells five types: bills, notes, bonds, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) and Floating Rate Notes. This guide covers the first three.
How much of each type is outstanding?
Outstanding means issued and not yet repaid. The Monthly Statement of the Public Debt lists it by type. Marketable securities came to $31.83 trillion on 30 September 2026. The statement also counts $8.34 trillion of nonmarketable debt, which a holder cannot sell.
Source: US Department of the Treasury, Monthly Statement of the Public Debt (Table 1), 30 September 2026
Notes are more than half the total. Bills were 22.4% and bonds 17.4%. TIPS were 6.8% and Floating Rate Notes 2.2%. A tiny Federal Financing Bank category brings the three other types to 9.1%.
How has the mix of bills, notes and bonds changed?
We read the statement for the end of September, 2006 to 2026 (21 readings).
Source: US Department of the Treasury, Monthly Statement of the Public Debt (Table 1)
The bill share swung from 28.5% in 2008 to 10.6% in 2015, the high and low of those 21 readings. The bond share rose from 9.7% in 2009 to 17.4% in 2026. The note share fell from 66.9% in 2013 to 51.1% in 2026.
How do bills, notes and bonds differ?
The term at issue sets the name. A bill runs from 4 to 52 weeks, a note from 2 to 10 years and a bond for 20 or 30 years.
Bills | Notes | Bonds | |
|---|---|---|---|
Terms at issue | 4, 6, 8, 13, 17, 26 and 52 weeks | 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 years | 20 and 30 years |
Interest | Paid at maturity, as the gap between the price paid and face value | Fixed rate, paid every six months | Fixed rate, paid every six months |
Auctions | Weekly for 4 to 26 weeks. Every four weeks for 52 weeks | Monthly for 2, 3, 5 and 7 years. February, May, August and November for 10 years, with 8 reopenings a year | 4 a year, with 8 reopenings a year |
Minimum purchase | $100 | $100 | $100 |
Can be stripped | No | Yes | Yes |
Outstanding, 30 September 2026 | $7.12 trillion | $16.28 trillion | $5.55 trillion |
Terms, interest, auctions and minimums from the Treasury's TreasuryDirect pages on bills, notes and bonds, opened 28 October 2026. Source: US Department of the Treasury (TreasuryDirect; Monthly Statement of the Public Debt)
The table sets the types side by side.
Notes and bonds follow the same interest rule. The Treasury sets a fixed rate at auction. That rate never changes over the life of the security. Federal tax applies to the interest on all three. State and local tax does not.
How does a Treasury bill pay interest?
A bill pays nothing while the buyer holds it. The buyer pays less than face value, then receives the full face value at maturity. The gap is the interest.
The Treasury auctioned a 26-week bill on 26 October 2026. It issues on 29 October and matures on 29 April 2027, 182 days later. The auction set a discount rate of 4.210%. That is an annual rate, quoted on the face value.
The Treasury's formula gives the price per $100 of face value:
Price = 100 × (1 − discount rate × days ÷ 360)
For this bill, 100 × (1 − 0.04210 × 182 ÷ 360) = $97.871611. That matches the price the auction reported.
On $10,000 of face value the price is $9,787.16. The buyer receives $10,000 on 29 April 2027, a gain of $212.84. The bill runs for 182 days, so the buyer earns 2.175% on the amount paid over that period.
How do Treasury notes and bonds pay interest?
Notes and bonds pay a coupon, a fixed rate of interest on the face value, every six months. The Treasury sets the coupon at auction.
The Treasury auctioned a 2-year note on 26 October 2026. Its coupon is 4.625% and it matures on 31 October 2028. Each $10,000 of face value pays $231.25 every six months.
The auction price was 99.843155 per $100 of face value, at an auction yield of 4.708%. A yield is the annual return from buying at that price and holding to maturity.
The yield sat above the coupon, so the price sat below face value. A buyer who pays less than face value also collects the gap at maturity, so the return is higher than the coupon alone.
The 30-year bond auctioned on 13 August 2026 had a 5.125% coupon, which pays $256.25 every six months on $10,000. It sold at 98.627017 per $100, at an auction yield of 5.216%.
Why does the price of a Treasury note change?
The coupon stays fixed, so the price moves when the yield changes.
On 12 August 2026 the Treasury sold a 10-year note with a 4.625% coupon, due 15 August 2036. The price was 99.540696 and the auction yield was 4.683%.
On 7 October 2026 it sold more of the same note, with 9 years and 10 months left. The Treasury calls that a reopening. The coupon and maturity match the original. The price was 94.864261 and the auction yield was 5.300%.
The yield rose 0.617 percentage points in 56 days. The price fell 4.70%. Our explainer on bond prices and yields covers the link.
Do longer Treasuries pay higher yields?
Not always. The Treasury estimates a yield for each maturity from bid prices on its latest auctioned securities. The chart plots 12 maturities on two dates.
Source: US Department of the Treasury, Daily Treasury Par Yield Curve Rates
On 26 October 2026 yields rose with maturity from 4.11% at 1 month to 5.35% at 20 years. The 30-year yield was 5.31%.
On 1 June 2023 the 3-month yield was higher than the 10-year yield. From 4 January 2021 to 26 October 2026, that was the widest such gap, at 1.89 percentage points. The curve fell from 5.50% at 3 months to 3.61% at 10 years. The gap on 4 May 2023 matched it.
Our explainers on the yield curve and the inverted yield curve cover the shape.
What are TIPS and Floating Rate Notes?
TIPS run for 5, 10 or 30 years. Their principal rises and falls with the Consumer Price Index. At maturity the holder receives the larger of the adjusted and the original principal. Our explainer on TIPS has the detail.
Floating Rate Notes run for two years and pay interest every three months. Their rate is the latest 13-week bill discount rate plus a spread fixed at the first auction.
Separate Trading of Registered Interest and Principal of Securities (STRIPS) splits a note, bond or TIPS into pieces. A security with 10 years left becomes 21 pieces. Each piece pays once, at maturity. Bills cannot be stripped.
How are Treasury securities bought?
The Treasury sells new securities at auction. All auctions are open to the public.
TreasuryDirect, the Treasury's own site, takes bids from $100 in steps of $100, up to $10 million per auction. That is a non-competitive bid, which accepts the rate the auction sets. The buyer must hold a new security for 45 days before selling or transferring it.
A competitive bid names the rate the bidder will accept. A bidder places it through a financial institution. One bidder can win up to 35% of the offering.
Funds that hold bills are another route. Our explainer on Treasury bill ETFs compares three.
Bills repay within a year, at a discount. Notes and bonds pay a fixed coupon every six months and repay in 2 to 30 years. Their prices move with yields, as the 10-year note's 4.70% fall between two auctions showed.
Get the next explainer
The Academy is free to read, here on the web. The Long Trend, our free weekly letter, comes by email.
Learn more with YX Insights
This explainer is part of the YX Insights Academy. Each one takes a single idea and checks it against real data.
The same approach runs through everything else we publish:
Systematic Portfolio: ready-made portfolios for Macro & Megacaps and for Commodities. We publish the holdings and every change.
Multi-model Signals: a daily long-or-flat call on every name we cover. Each call shows how strongly our four models agree.
Research: company deep dives, macro commentary and essays on how we test.
Good places to start on the website:
Academy: more explainers like this one.
Start here: get our free weekly letter by email.
Macro & Megacaps Systematic Portfolio and Commodities: the two portfolios in detail.
Track record: live results since 3 August 2026, plus the ten-year backtest.
Upgrade: get the Systematic Portfolio, Multi-model Signals and research in full.
Common questions about Treasury bills, notes and bonds
How long do Treasury bills, notes and bonds last?
Bills last 4, 6, 8, 13, 17, 26 or 52 weeks. Notes last 2, 3, 5, 7 or 10 years. Bonds last 20 or 30 years. The length is the time until maturity, the date the Treasury repays the face value, which is the amount the security promises to pay back at the end.
Do Treasury bills pay interest?
Yes, but only at maturity. The buyer pays less than face value and receives the full face value when the bill matures. The gap is the interest. A 26-week bill auctioned on 26 October 2026 cost $9,787.16 per $10,000 of face value and repaid $10,000, a gain of $212.84.
When do Treasury notes and bonds pay their coupon?
Treasury notes and bonds pay interest every six months. The rate, called the coupon, is a fixed percentage of face value. The Treasury sets it at auction and it never changes. A 2-year note with a 4.625% coupon pays $231.25 every six months on $10,000 of face value.
Is a Treasury bond the same as a savings bond?
No. A Treasury bond is a marketable security that runs for 20 or 30 years. A holder can sell it before maturity. A US savings bond is a different product. It is registered to one person's Social Security number. The owner cannot sell or transfer it.
What is the minimum to buy a Treasury security?
The minimum is $100 on TreasuryDirect, the Treasury's own site, in steps of $100. This applies to bills, notes and bonds alike. A buyer can bid up to $10 million per auction. The bid is non-competitive, which means it accepts the rate the auction sets.
DISCLAIMER: This article is intended for educational purposes only. Any information or analysis in this note does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Nothing in this note is intended to be investment advice, nor should it be relied upon to make investment decisions. Any opinions, analyses, or probabilities expressed in this note are those of the author as of the note's date of publication and are subject to change without notice.
