Two tickers, one company — GOOG vs GOOGL in two minutes
Type "Google shares" into any broker search and you'll meet the thing that stumps every first-time buyer: two tickers. GOOGL and GOOG, both Alphabet Inc., both on NASDAQ, both within pennies of each other.
Here's the whole story. GOOGL is Class A — one vote per share at the AGM. GOOG is Class C — no vote at all. Economically they are the same instrument: identical dividend, identical claim on Alphabet's earnings, prices that track each other almost perfectly. The vote is the only difference, and it's worth less than it sounds — Larry Page and Sergey Brin control the company through unlisted Class B shares carrying ten votes each, so the public Class A vote decides nothing the founders don't want decided.
For a retail investor the practical answer is: buy whichever your broker lists and stop worrying. eToro lists GOOG, so that's the ticker used throughout this guide. As of July 2026 it trades around 371 USD — call it £275 at the current GBP/USD rate of roughly 1.35, though FX moves daily.
How to buy GOOG, step by step
I walked the full eToro flow step by step for this guide, from the sign-up screens to a live order ticket, and verified what applies — so the steps below are what actually happens, not what a brochure says happens.
- Open the account. Register at eToro with email or a Google/Apple login. eToro UK Ltd is FCA-authorised (FRN 583263) with FSCS protection up to £85,000.
- Pass KYC. Photo ID, proof of address, and an investment questionnaire. This is a regulatory requirement every broker must run — you can't skip it anywhere, so don't hold it against eToro. Approval typically clears within hours; allow up to a day.
- Deposit pounds. Card, bank transfer or PayPal. eToro gives UK users a GBP base account, so your deposit stays in sterling. Conversion happens only when you buy a dollar-priced asset — the right place for it.
- Search GOOG. Not GOOGL — eToro lists the Class C share. Same company, as covered above.
- Set leverage to X1 and buy. This toggle matters more than anything else on the ticket. X1 means a real share you own. Anything above X1 is a CFD — a leveraged bet with overnight financing fees and no ownership, built for short-term punts, not investing. Fractional buying starts at 10 USD, so a tenner's worth of Alphabet is a legitimate first order.
- Done. The position sits in your portfolio; the dividend accrues pro-rata even on a fraction.
Timing note: NASDAQ is open 2:30pm–9:00pm UK time, Monday to Friday. Orders placed outside those hours queue for the open.
Costs, honestly: $1 to buy and $1 to sell on real stock trades (never believe anyone claiming US shares are commission-free here — that's ETFs, not stocks), a spread, an FX conversion when your pounds become dollars at trade time, and a flat $5 withdrawal fee that irritates me on principle every single time, though it stings less on larger withdrawals.
What to know before you click buy
Five things about Alphabet in July 2026 that a buyer should have priced in mentally:
- Ads still pay for everything. Search and YouTube advertising remain the engine behind Search, Gemini, Waymo and the rest. Whatever the AI headlines say, you are mostly buying an advertising business.
- AI cuts both ways. Alphabet builds its own models (Gemini) and its own chips (TPUs) — genuine assets. But AI-native search rivals attack the very ad business funding it all. Same technology, sword and shield.
- Antitrust is a live wire. Regulators in both the US and the EU have ongoing cases against Alphabet. Remedies, if they come, are the kind of risk you can't chart.
- It's already run hard. The 52-week range is roughly 181–404 USD — the price has approximately doubled in a year. Whatever that implies for the next year, "cheap entry" isn't obviously it.
- The dividend is a newborn. First ever, introduced 2024, currently 0.88 USD per share annually — about 0.2%. A signal about capital discipline, not an income stream. If yield is your interest, Microsoft's decade-plus of annual rises tells a different story, and Nvidia's token payout tells a third. How these mega-caps differ is worth understanding — which one, if any, you buy depends on your own risk tolerance and horizon, and that decision is yours alone.
The buying mechanics, by the way, are identical for any US-listed share — the Apple guide follows the exact same six steps with a different ticker.
💡 One aside for completeness: eToro currently runs a promotion for new clients that credits a chosen real asset to your account after the first deposit as a sign-up reward — the full terms are in our eToro sign-up reward article. It has no effect whatsoever on the buying steps above.
Tax on Google shares in the UK
The standard eToro account is a general investment account, not an ISA — you can't wrap a self-directed GOOG position in one, so normal UK tax rules apply (2026/27 figures):
- Capital gains: profits above the £3,000 annual exemption are taxed at 18% within your basic-rate band and 24% above it. Gains over the allowance go on Self Assessment.
- Dividends: you get a £500 dividend allowance; above it, rates rose in April 2026 to 10.75% (basic), 35.75% (higher) and 39.35% (additional). The US also withholds 15% at source under the UK–US treaty — eToro files the W-8BEN for you — and that 15% can be offset against your UK dividend bill via Foreign Tax Credit Relief.
- No stamp duty on US-listed shares; the 0.5% SDRT applies only to UK-listed stocks like Rolls-Royce, not to NASDAQ tickers.
We're not tax advisors — for your own situation check GOV.UK or speak to one who is.
Over to you
That's the whole job: two tickers demystified, six steps, one X1 toggle to respect, and a tax section to bookmark for April. Has the GOOG/GOOGL split ever tripped you up, or did your broker's search box quietly decide for you? Tell me in the comments — especially if your order flow looked different from the steps above.