The actively managed side of the ETF world grew at a record pace last month and accounted for just over half of all net inflows worldwide into exchange-traded funds and other exchange-traded products, according to the latest data from the folks at an ETF-focused research firm.

Today, Debbie Fuhr, managing partner of ETFGI, reveals that $76.43 billion net flowed into active ETFs and ETPs in January 2026, making for their best January ever and surpassing the prior January 2025 record by $24.72 billion. Active ETFs and ETPs accounted for 50.8 percent of total worldwide ETF and ETP inflows of $150.41 billion last month, the industry's second best January (down by $180.37 billion month-over-month from December 2025 and down $2.16 billion year-over-year from the prior January record in January 2025). U.S. ETFs and ETPs netted $166.65 billion in net inflows in January 2026, a record January that actually surpassed worldwide flows (down by $56.35 billion M/M, up by $76.4 billion Y/Y from the prior January record).

The ETFGI team reports that the active ETF and ETP industry reached a record $2.04 trillion in AUM on January 31, 2026, up by $120 billion (6.25 percent) M/M from the prior record on December 31, 2025). As of the end of last month, active funds now account for about 9.9 percent of a record $20.64 trillion in worldwide ETF and ETP AUM, up by $790 billion (4 percent) M/M from the prior record and up by $5.19 trillion (33.6 percent) Y/Y. U.S. ETFs and ETPs accounted for 67.6 percent of worldwide AUM after growing to a record $13.96 trillion in AUM at the end of last month, up by $530 billion (3.9 percent) M/M from the prior record and up by $3.23 trillion (30.1 percent) Y/Y.

January 2026 extended the ETF industry's multi-year inflows streaks. Worldwide ETFs and ETPs have now had 80 months of net inflows in a row, active ETFs and ETPs have had 70 consecutive months of inflows, U.S. ETFs and ETPs have had 45 months of inflows running.

As of January 31, 2026, the worldwide asset management industry offered 4,747 active ETFs and ETPs. That's 29.7 percent of the total of 15,997 worldwide ETFs and ETPs, which was up by 190 (1.2 percent) M/M. The U.S. had 4,947 ETFs and ETPs at the end of last month, accounting for 30.9 percent of the worldwide total and up by 64 (1.3 percent) M/M and by 954 (23.9 percent) Y/Y.

Per ETFGI's data, 674 firms worldwide offered active ETFs or ETPs as of January 31, 2026; that's 69.3 percent of the 972 total ETF and ETP providers around the globe (which was up by 5 M/M). 462 of those providers (47.5 percent) offers ETFs or ETPs in the U.S., up by 2 (0.4 percent) M/M and up by 90 (24.2 percent) Y/Y. 

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