Best Nasdaq-100 Income ETFs in 2026

This page ranks the 25 Nasdaq-100 income ETFs by assets, with distribution rates reaching 41.9% as of July 2026. Every one owns roughly the same thing — the megacap-heavy Nasdaq-100 — and sells options against it. What separates them is how much of the index's upside they sell away, and the yield column is essentially a price list for that trade-off.

The field sorts into four strategies. ELN funds (JEPQ, ROCQ) generate income through equity-linked notes and keep meaningful upside. Index-option funds (QQQI, XQQI, QQQH) write Nasdaq-100 index options, which can qualify for Section 1256 tax treatment. Systematic overwrites (QYLD, QYLG, QRMI) sell calls on the whole portfolio for a higher, steadier payout and the most capped upside. 0DTE funds (QDTE, QDTY, QQQY, QLDY) sell same-day options for weekly distributions and the largest headline rates — and carry the most NAV erosion risk. Because all four share one underlying index, stacking several diversifies the options strategy but not the equity risk.

The Nasdaq-100 income category exists because megacap technology stocks are volatile, and volatility is what option premium is priced on. Every fund on this list owns essentially the same index and differs only in how it converts that volatility into cash. JEPQ, the largest by a wide margin, uses equity-linked notes and writes options on only part of the portfolio, which keeps more of the Nasdaq's upside intact and helps explain why it has attracted more assets than the rest of the field combined. QQQI and its NEOS siblings write Nasdaq-100 index options, which can receive Section 1256 tax treatment and make distributions more tax-efficient in a taxable account. GPIQ, QQA, and BALQ are active partial overwriters positioned close to JEPQ. QYLD sits at the other end: a fully systematic covered-call program that sells calls against the entire portfolio, producing a high, dependable distribution and the most thoroughly capped upside — in a strong Nasdaq rally, it lags badly. The 0DTE cohort — QDTE, QDTY, QQQY, QLDY — sells same-day-expiry options for weekly payouts and headline rates in the 30-40% range; those rates are the newest and least battle-tested part of the category, and the distributions frequently include substantial return of capital. Read the yield column as a price list rather than a ranking: a higher rate on this page almost always means more of the index's growth has been sold away, so the comparison that matters is total return, not distribution rate.

A high distribution rate is not the same as a high return. Your actual result is total return — the distributions you receive plus the change in the fund's share price. A fund can pay a large distribution while its price falls, and part of a distribution can be return of capital: your own money paid back to you, which lowers your cost basis rather than adding new profit. So a headline rate near 100% paired with a steep price decline can still leave a position underwater, which is why income is most meaningful read next to price performance rather than on its own.

This list is the Nasdaq-100 income category, not a filtered best-of:

• Every active ETF whose name identifies it as a Nasdaq-100 or QQQ fund and that distributes 4% or more qualifies, across all four option strategies
• Funds are ranked by assets under management, largest first — not by yield, which on this page mostly measures how much upside a fund has sold
• Leveraged and inverse products are excluded (their distributions are incidental), as are multi-asset blends and funds with no reported AUM