Data through: Oct 14, 2026 · updated Oct 16 · Updates: Weekly · Next: Oct 22
WThe three bars show the last 3 weeks for this indicator, oldest left to newest right. Bar height reflects each reading relative to the other two — the tallest is the highest of the three, the shortest the lowest.
Historical context: Currently in the 79th percentile historically — elevated vs historical norms.
What this means right now: The balance sheet is between $6 and $7.5 trillion — the band it passed through on the way up in 2020 and has sat in since 2024, as the 2022–25 run-off slowed and stopped. The run-off's low was $6.54 trillion, in December 2025.
Fed Balance Sheet · Weekly · 2002–2026
NBER recessions
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Monthly values
Fed Balance Sheet — the last 12 months
Every month's reading, with the band the heatmap gives it. The chart above shows the same series in full.
Month
Value
Band
Oct 2026
$6.76T
Within normal range
Sep 2026
$6.74T
Within normal range
Aug 2026
$6.73T
Within normal range
Jul 2026
$6.74T
Within normal range
Jun 2026
$6.74T
Within normal range
May 2026
$6.70T
Within normal range
Month-end readings of the same series the chart shows, from fed_balance_sheet. Values are the current record, not point-in-time: a month that has since been revised shows its revised value.
What is the Fed Balance Sheet?
The Federal Reserve's balance sheet represents the total assets it holds — primarily US Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities accumulated through rounds of quantitative easing (QE). It is the most direct measure of the Fed's non-rate monetary intervention in the economy. Expansion = QE (accommodative); contraction = QT (tightening).
The balance sheet is the Fed's other main policy lever beside the funds rate. When the Fed buys assets (QE), it injects liquidity, compresses long-term yields, and boosts asset prices. When it shrinks the balance sheet (QT), the reverse occurs — yields rise, financial conditions tighten, and the availability of credit contracts. Tracking the balance sheet alongside the fed funds rate gives a fuller picture of the policy stance.
How We Color-Code the Fed Balance Sheet
Our heatmap colors this indicator against historically significant thresholds:
Below $4.50T
Below $4.5 trillion — the pre-QE era and the years between: about 7 weeks in 10 on record (888 of 1,244), nearly every week from 2002 to early 2020
$4.50T – $6.00T
Between the post-QE3 plateau and the COVID jump — a band the record has only crossed: 15 weeks in all, at the top of the 2014–16 plateau and three weeks on the way up in 2020
$6.00T – $7.50T
Between $6 and $7.5 trillion — the band the sheet passed through in 2020 and has sat in since 2024, 179 weeks in all
$7.50T – $8.50T
Between $7.5 and $8.5 trillion — the COVID build-up and run-down, 88 weeks in 2021 and 2023–24
Above $8.50T
Above $8.5 trillion — the COVID-era peak, 74 weeks from late 2021 to early 2023
Historical Extremes — What Happened Next?
When this indicator reaches extreme levels, history shows consistent patterns:
Aug 2008Pre-GFC baseline
$0.90T
About the size it had been for decades — the last weeks before crisis lending and QE began. By Christmas 2008 it stood at $2.2 trillion.
Jan 2015Post-QE3 plateau
$4.52T
Three rounds of post-crisis QE left the sheet at $4.3–4.5 trillion for four years (2014–18). The 2017–19 run-off then took it to $3.8 trillion by August 2019, before COVID.
Apr 2022COVID-era peak
$8.97T
All-time high after COVID purchases. QT began in June 2022.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the Fed balance sheet affect markets?
When the Fed buys bonds (QE), it adds reserves to the banking system, lowers long-term yields, and pushes investors out of safe assets into risk assets. The reverse (QT) drains reserves and pushes yields up, tightening financial conditions.
When did the run-off stop?
The 2022–25 run-off stopped in December 2025, at $6.54 trillion, and the balance sheet has grown since. The Fed's stated reasons — the level of bank reserves, strains in funding markets — are not series the site holds, so this page shows the path, not the reasoning.
How big is the balance sheet now?
About $6.76T as of Oct 2026, in the $6–7.5 trillion band it has sat in since 2024. The pre-2008 size, under $1 trillion, is far below anything seen since: the sheet has not been under $1.8 trillion since early 2009.
What is the difference between quantitative easing (QE) and quantitative tightening (QT), and how does each affect financial markets?
QE involves the Fed purchasing Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities, which injects reserves into the banking system and removes duration from the market. That compresses long-term yields and boosts asset prices. QT is the reverse: allowing securities to mature without reinvestment (or actively selling), which drains reserves and puts upward pressure on long-term yields. The two have run at very different paces on the site's data. The sheet rose from $4.2 to $7.2 trillion in the four months to June 2020, while the 2022–25 run-off took three and a half years to shed $2.4 trillion. The earlier run-off ended in August 2019, and the sheet was growing again by that September.
What is the practical limit on how small the Fed's balance sheet can get during quantitative tightening?
The modern banking system runs on far more reserves than before 2008, so the balance sheet has a practical floor well above its pre-crisis size. Estimates of that floor have run around $6–6.5 trillion, and the 2022–25 run-off stopped at $6.54 trillion in December 2025. The site holds no reserves series to check the estimates themselves. The earlier run-off ended in August 2019 at $3.8 trillion, after which the sheet grew again.