You're looking at your brokerage account, ready to grab a piece of the search engine giant, but then you see it. Two different tickers. GOOG and GOOGL. They both say Alphabet Inc., they both track the same massive company, and their prices are usually so close it feels like a glitch in the matrix.
Honestly, it’s enough to make any sane person hesitate. Are you buying the "wrong" one? Is one of them a scam?
Don't worry. It’s not a mistake, and you aren't about to lose all your money by picking the "wrong" letter. The split between these two tickers is actually a calculated move by Google’s founders to keep the company running exactly how they want it to.
The Real Deal on Voting Rights
Basically, the whole GOOG vs GOOGL drama boils down to one word: voting.
When you buy a share of a company, you usually get a say in how things are run. You get to vote on board members, executive pay, and big mergers. But back in 2014, Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google's founders) realized that if they kept issuing regular stock to employees and for big acquisitions, they’d eventually lose their majority control.
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They didn't want that. They wanted to keep the "Other Bets" and the long-term moonshots alive without worrying about activist investors demanding a quick profit.
So, they split the stock into three classes:
- Class A (GOOGL): These are the "regular" shares. You get one vote for every share you own. If you want to feel like you actually have a tiny, microscopic voice in the room, this is your ticker.
- Class C (GOOG): These are the "hush-up" shares. You get zero votes. You own the same amount of the company's earnings, but you have no say in the boardroom.
- Class B: You can’t buy these. These are held by the founders and insiders. They carry 10 votes per share, which is why Larry and Sergey still call the shots despite owning a minority of the total shares.
Does the Price Actually Matter?
You’d think the one with voting rights would be way more expensive, right? Power usually costs extra.
Surprisingly, the gap is tiny. As of mid-January 2026, GOOGL and GOOG are both trading in the neighborhood of $335 to $336 per share. Sometimes GOOGL carries a slight "voting premium" of a few cents or a dollar, but occasionally, GOOG actually trades higher.
Why? It mostly comes down to liquidity and share buybacks. Alphabet often focuses its massive share buyback programs on the Class C (GOOG) shares. When a company buys back its own stock, it reduces supply, which can nudge the price up.
Also, most retail investors—people like us—realize our 10 or 100 shares won't change a single thing at a company worth nearly $4 trillion. Since our votes are essentially symbolic, many people just buy whichever one is cheaper at that exact moment.
The 2022 Split and Why Things Look Different Now
If you haven't checked Google's price in a few years, you might be shocked to see it at $330 instead of $2,500.
Back in July 2022, Alphabet did a massive 20-for-1 stock split. If you held one share of $2,000 stock, you suddenly woke up with 20 shares worth $100 each. It didn't change the value of your investment, but it made the stock much more accessible for people who didn't want to drop two grand on a single share.
This split applied to both GOOG and GOOGL. It’s part of why the trading volume has stayed so high; more people can afford to jump in and out of the stock now.
Which One Should You Actually Buy?
If you’re a long-term investor, you’ve probably realized by now that it doesn't matter much. But if you’re a perfectionist, here is the breakdown of how to choose.
Go with GOOGL (Class A) if:
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- You care about the principle of shareholder democracy.
- You actually intend to cast your proxy votes every year.
- It happens to be trading at a discount to GOOG (it happens!).
Go with GOOG (Class C) if:
- You literally do not care about voting and just want the growth.
- You’re a day trader looking for the highest liquidity (GOOG often has slightly higher volume).
- It’s currently the cheaper of the two.
There’s also a weird quirk with indices. The S&P 500 actually includes both classes, but they are weighted differently. If you own an S&P 500 index fund, you already own both!
The Bottom Line
Don't overthink this. Whether you pick the "L" or not, you’re betting on the same search algorithms, the same YouTube ad revenue, and the same AI future. The "difference" is a legal distinction that protects the founders' control, not a difference in the quality of the business.
If you're looking to start a position, check your broker for the current "Ask" price on both. If GOOGL is cheaper, take the votes for free. If GOOG is cheaper, take the savings and run.
Actionable Next Steps:
- Check the Spread: Open your trading app and look at the "Last Price" for both tickers right now.
- Look at the Gap: If the difference is more than 1%, there might be a temporary arbitrage opportunity, but usually, it's under 0.5%.
- Pick and Commit: Don't let "analysis paralysis" stop you from investing. Pick the one that’s a few cents cheaper and focus more on your overall portfolio allocation than the ticker symbol.