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Label Element Value
Prospectus: rr_ProspectusTable  
Document Type dei_DocumentType 485BPOS
Document Period End Date dei_DocumentPeriodEndDate May 16, 2016
Entity Registrant Name dei_EntityRegistrantName Global X Funds
Central Index Key dei_EntityCentralIndexKey 0001432353
Amendment Flag dei_AmendmentFlag false
Document Creation Date dei_DocumentCreationDate May 06, 2016
Document Effective Date dei_DocumentEffectiveDate May 06, 2016
Prospectus Date rr_ProspectusDate May 06, 2016
Global X Scientific Beta Emerging Markets ETF (Prospectus) | Global X Scientific Beta Emerging Markets Series  
Prospectus: rr_ProspectusTable  
Risk/Return [Heading] rr_RiskReturnHeading Global X Scientific Beta Emerging Markets ETF
Objective [Heading] rr_ObjectiveHeading INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE
Objective, Primary [Text Block] rr_ObjectivePrimaryTextBlock
The Global X Scientific Beta Emerging Markets ETF (“Fund”) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Scientific Beta Emerging Multi-Beta Multi-Strategy (Country Neutral) Equal Risk Contribution Index (“Underlying Index”).
Expense [Heading] rr_ExpenseHeading FEES AND EXPENSES
Expense Narrative [Text Block] rr_ExpenseNarrativeTextBlock
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares (“Shares”) of the Fund. You will also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying and selling Shares.
Operating Expenses Caption [Text] rr_OperatingExpensesCaption Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment):
Portfolio Turnover [Heading] rr_PortfolioTurnoverHeading Portfolio Turnover:
Portfolio Turnover [Text Block] rr_PortfolioTurnoverTextBlock
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or "turns over" its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. Because the Fund is newly organized, no portfolio turnover figures are available for the Fund.
Expense Exchange Traded Fund Commissions [Text] rr_ExpenseExchangeTradedFundCommissions You will also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying and selling Shares.
Expense Example [Heading] rr_ExpenseExampleHeading Example:
Expense Example Narrative [Text Block] rr_ExpenseExampleNarrativeTextBlock
The following example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. This example does not take into account customary brokerage commissions that you pay when purchasing or selling Shares of the Fund in the secondary market.
Expense Example by, Year, Caption [Text] rr_ExpenseExampleByYearCaption The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your Shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund's operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:
Strategy [Heading] rr_StrategyHeading PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES
Strategy Narrative [Text Block] rr_StrategyNarrativeTextBlock
The Fund invests at least 80% of its total assets in the securities of the Underlying Index and in American Depositary Receipts ("ADRs") and Global Depositary Receipts ("GDRs") based on the securities in the Underlying Index. The Fund’s 80% investment policy is non-fundamental and requires 60 days’ prior written notice to shareholders before it can be changed.

The Underlying Index generally comprises approximately 700 or less common stocks listed in emerging markets, selected based on a proprietary methodology developed by EDHEC Risk Institute Asia Ltd. (“EDHEC” or the “Index Provider”).

The objective of the Underlying Index is to outperform traditional market capitalization-weighted indexes, with a limited amount of relative risk against that reference. The method to achieve outperformance relative to traditional market capitalization-weighted indexes is derived from a proprietary process for selecting and weighting index components from the initial universe.

The components of the Underlying Index are selected from a universe of 700 large- and mid-capitalization stocks, as measured by free float market capitalization, which are highly liquid and are traded principally on a stock exchange in and incorporated or domiciled (i.e., maintain a principal place of business) in emerging markets, as determined by the Index Provider. As of April 29, 2016, the index included the following emerging market countries: Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
The Underlying Index’s components are selected by applying four factors that have been widely recognized by academic literature to outperform market capitalization weighted-indexes over the long run: Value, Size, Low-Volatility and Momentum. Each of these factors is applied by using the following metrics: price-to-book ratio for Value; free-float market capitalization for Size; historical volatility over the trailing 104 week period for Low-Volatility; and one-year-minus-one-month total returns Momentum.

Finally, components are weighted by employing a proprietary, multi-step process that combines multiple weighting methodologies to diversify the risks associated with any one weighting scheme. For additional details on the weighting methodology, please see Information Regarding the Index and the Index Provider.The Fund's investment objective and Underlying Index may be changed without shareholder approval.

The Underlying Index is sponsored by the Index Provider, which is an organization that is independent of the Fund and Global X Management Company LLC, the investment adviser for the Fund (“Adviser”). The Index Provider determines the relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index.

The Adviser uses a “passive” or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund’s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to “outperform” the Underlying Index and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued.

The Fund generally will use a replication strategy. A replication strategy is an indexing strategy that involves investing in the securities of the Underlying Index in approximately the same proportions as in the Underlying Index. However, the Fund may utilize a representative sampling strategy with respect to the Underlying Index when a replication strategy might be detrimental or disadvantageous to shareholders, such as when there are practical difficulties or substantial costs involved in compiling a portfolio of equity securities to replicate the Underlying Index, in instances in which a security in the Underlying Index becomes temporarily illiquid, unavailable or less liquid, or as a result of legal restrictions or limitations (such as tax diversification requirements) that apply to the Fund but not the Underlying Index.

The Adviser expects that, over time, the correlation between the Fund’s performance and that of the Underlying Index, before fees and expenses, will exceed 95%. A correlation percentage of 100% would indicate perfect correlation. If the Fund uses a replication strategy, it can be expected to have greater correlation to the Underlying Index than if it uses a representative sampling strategy.

The Fund concentrates its investments (i.e., holds 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. Currently, the Underlying Index is not concentrated in a sector.
Strategy Portfolio Concentration [Text] rr_StrategyPortfolioConcentration The Fund concentrates its investments (i.e., holds 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated.
Risk [Heading] rr_RiskHeading SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL RISKS
Risk Narrative [Text Block] rr_RiskNarrativeTextBlock
As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund's performance could trail that of other investments. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund's net asset value ("NAV"), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective, as well as other risks that are described in greater detail in the Additional Information About the Fund’s Strategies and Risks section of the Prospectus and in the Statement of Additional Information ("SAI").

ADR/GDR Risk: To the extent the Fund seeks exposure to foreign companies, the Fund’s investments may be in the form of depositary receipts or other securities convertible into securities of foreign issuers, including ADRs and GDRs. While the use of ADRs and GDRs, which are traded on exchanges and represent an ownership in a foreign security, provide an alternative to directly purchasing the underlying foreign securities in their respective national markets and currencies, investments in ADRs and GDRs continue to be subject to certain of the risks associated with investing directly in foreign securities.

African Economic Risk: Investment in African securities involves heightened risks including, among others, expropriation and/or nationalization of assets, confiscatory taxation, political instability, including authoritarian and/or military involvement in governmental decision-making, armed conflict, the impact on the economy as a result of civil war, and social instability as a result of religious, ethnic and/or socioeconomic unrest and, in certain countries, genocidal warfare. Certain countries in Africa generally have less developed capital markets than traditional emerging market countries, and, consequently, the risks of investing in foreign securities are magnified in such countries.

Asian Economic Risk: Investments in Asian markets involve risks not typically associated with investments in securities of issuers in more developed countries that may negatively affect the value of your investment in the Fund. The countries in Asia present different economic and political conditions from those in Western markets, and less social, political and economic stability. Political instability could have an adverse effect on economic or social conditions in these economies and may result in outbreaks of civil unrest, terrorist attacks or threats or acts of war in the affected areas, any of which could materially and adversely affect the companies in which the Fund may invest.

Asset Class Risk: Securities in the Underlying Index or the Fund's portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.

Authorized Participants Concentration Risk:  The Fund may have a limited number of financial institutions that may act as Authorized Participants (“APs”).   Only APs who have entered into agreements with the Fund’s distributor may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund.  To the extent that those APs exit the business or are unable to process creation and/or redemption orders, and no other AP is able to step forward to create and redeem in either of these cases, Shares may trade like closed-end fund shares at a discount to NAV and possibly face delisting.

Cash Transaction Risk: Unlike most exchange-traded funds, the Fund intends to effect all creations and redemptions partially for cash, rather than in-kind securities. As a result, an investment in the Fund may be less tax-efficient than an investment in a more conventional ETF

Commodity Exposure Risk: The Fund invests in securities and markets that are susceptible to fluctuations in certain commodity markets. Any negative changes in commodity markets could have a great impact on these economies.

Currency Risk: The Fund may invest in securities denominated in foreign currencies. Because the Fund's NAV is determined in U.S. dollars, the Fund's NAV could decline if the foreign currencies depreciate against the U.S. dollar.

Custody Risk: Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.

Emerging Market Risk: The Fund is expected to invest in securities in emerging market countries, including Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. The Fund’s investment in an emerging market country may be subject to a greater risk of loss than investments in developed markets. Securities markets of emerging market countries are less liquid, subject to greater price volatility, have smaller market capitalizations, have less government regulation, and are not subject to as extensive and frequent accounting, financial, and other reporting requirements as the securities markets of more developed countries.

Equity Securities Risk: Equity securities are subject to changes in value and their values may be more volatile than other asset classes, as a result of such factors as a company’s business performance, investor perceptions, stock market trends and general economic conditions.

European Economic Risk: The economies of Europe are highly dependent on each other, both as key trading partners and as in many cases as fellow members maintaining the Euro. Reduction in trading activity among European countries may cause an adverse impact on each nation’s individual economies. The European financial markets have recently experienced volatility and adverse trends due to concerns about rising government debt levels, ability to service debt, and potential for defaults of several European countries, including Greece, Spain, Ireland, Italy and Portugal. Investments in Eastern European markets involve risks not typically associated with investments in securities of issuers in more developed countries that may negatively affect the value of your investment in the Fund. An investment in Eastern European issuers may subject the Fund to legal, regulatory, political, currency, security and economic risks specific to Eastern Europe. The securities markets in Eastern European countries are substantially smaller and inexperienced, with less government supervision and regulation of stock exchanges and less liquid and more volatile than securities markets in the United States or Western European countries.

Foreign Security Risk: Investments in the securities of foreign issuers are subject to the risks associated with investing in those foreign markets, such as heightened risks of inflation or nationalization. In addition, securities of foreign issuers may lose value due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market. During periods of social, political or economic instability in a country or region, the value of a foreign security traded on U.S. exchanges, nonetheless, could be affected by, among other things, increasing price volatility, illiquidity, or the closure of the primary market on which the security is traded. The Fund may lose value due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market.

Geographic Risk: A natural disaster could occur in a geographic region in which the Fund invests, which could affect the economy or particular business operations of companies in the specific geographic region, causing an adverse impact on the Fund’s investments in the affected region.

Issuer Risk: Fund performance depends on the performance of individual companies in which the Fund invests. Changes to the financial condition of any of those companies may cause the value of their securities to decline.

Latin American Economic Risk: Many economies in Latin America have experienced high interest rates, economic volatility, inflation, currency devaluations and high unemployment rates. Any adverse economic event in one country can have a significant effect on other countries of this region. In addition, commodities (such as oil, gas and minerals) represent a significant percentage of the region's exports and many economies in this region, are particularly sensitive to fluctuations in commodity prices.

Management Risk: The Fund is subject to the risk that the Adviser’s investment management strategy may cause the Fund to underperform the market or its relevant benchmark or adversely affect the ability of the Fund to achieve its investment objective.

Market Risk: The Fund's NAV could decline over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.

Market Trading Risk: The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. Any of these factors may lead to the Shares trading at a premium or discount to NAV. In addition, if the Fund’s underlying securities trade on an exchange that is open at a different time than the exchange the Fund trades on, there could be deviations between current and stale security pricing, resulting in larger premiums or discounts. If the underlying securities become less liquid or markets are experiencing heavy order flow, the result may mean higher transaction costs, leading to larger premiums and discounts. The underlying foreign securities in the Fund-the basis for the Fund’s NAV-may be closed for trading in their respective local markets while the ETF itself continues to trade, but market participants make bid and ask prices on the Fund based upon those participants' estimates of where the underlying securities would be trading if their markets were still open. Because of the uncertainty of these estimates, the Fund is likely to trade at a premium or discount to NAV.

Middle East Economic Risk: Certain economies in the Middle East depend to a significant degree upon exports of primary commodities such as oil. A sustained decrease in commodity prices could have a significant negative impact on all aspects of the economy in the region. Middle Eastern governments have exercised and continue to exercise substantial influence over many aspects of the private sector. Countries in the Middle East may be affected by political instability, war or the threat of war, regional instability, terrorist activities and religious, ethnic and/or socioeconomic unrest. Recent unrest and instability in the larger Middle East region has adversely impacted many economies in the region. Recent political instability and protests in the Middle East and North Africa (which has ethnic, religious and economic ties to the Middle East) have caused significant disruptions to many industries.

Model Portfolio Risk: The risk that investments selected using a proprietary methodology (i.e., quantitative model) may perform differently from the market as a whole or from their expected performance. There can be no assurance that use of a quantitative model will enable the Fund to achieve positive returns or outperform the market.

Non-Correlation Risk: The Fund’s return may not match the return of the Underlying Index for a number of reasons. For example, the Fund incurs operating expenses not applicable to the Underlying Index, and incurs costs in buying and selling securities, especially when rebalancing the Fund’s securities holdings to reflect changes in the composition of the Underlying Index. In addition, the performance of the Fund and the Underlying Index may vary due to asset valuation differences and differences between the Fund’s portfolio and the Underlying Index resulting from legal restrictions, costs or liquidity constraints.

Non-Diversification Risk: The Fund is classified as a “non-diversified” investment company under the 1940 Act. As a result, the Fund is subject to the risk that it will be more volatile than a diversified fund because the Fund may invest its assets in a smaller number of issuers or may invest a larger proportion of its assets in a single issuer. As a result, the gains and losses on a single investment may have a greater impact on the Fund’s NAV and may make the Fund more volatile than more diversified funds.

Passive Investment Risk: The Fund is not actively managed and the Adviser does not attempt to take defensive positions in declining markets. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not utilize an investing strategy that seeks returns in excess of its Underlying Index. Therefore, it would not necessarily buy or sell a security unless that security is added or removed, respectively, from the Underlying Index, even if that security generally is underperforming.

Privatization Risk: The countries in which the Fund invests have privatized certain entities and industries. Historically, investors in some newly privatized entities have suffered losses due to inability of the newly privatized company to adjust quickly to a competitive environment or to changed regulatory and legal standards. There is no assurance that similar losses will not recur.

Reliance on Trading Partners Risk: The Fund may invest in economies that are heavily dependent upon trading with key partners. Any reduction in this trading, institution of tariffs or other trade barriers or a slowdown in the economies of any of their key trading partners may cause an adverse impact on the economies of the markets in which the Fund invests.

Risks Related to Investing in Large-Capitalization Stocks: Large-capitalization stocks may trail the returns of the overall stock market. Large-capitalization stocks tend to go through cycles of doing better – or worse – than the stock market in general. These periods have, in the past, lasted for as long as several years.

Tracking Error Risk: The performance of the Fund may diverge from that of the Underlying Index.

Valuation Risk: The sales price the Fund could receive for a security may differ from the Fund’s valuation of the security and may differ from the value used by the Underlying Index, particularly for securities that trade in low value or volatile markets or that are valued using a fair value methodology. The value of the securities in the Fund's portfolio may change on days when shareholders will not be able to purchase or sell the Fund's Shares.
Risk Lose Money [Text] rr_RiskLoseMoney As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund's performance could trail that of other investments.
Risk Nondiversified Status [Text] rr_RiskNondiversifiedStatus The Fund is classified as a “non-diversified” investment company under the 1940 Act. As a result, the Fund is subject to the risk that it will be more volatile than a diversified fund because the Fund may invest its assets in a smaller number of issuers or may invest a larger proportion of its assets in a single issuer. As a result, the gains and losses on a single investment may have a greater impact on the Fund’s NAV and may make the Fund more volatile than more diversified funds.
Bar Chart and Performance Table [Heading] rr_BarChartAndPerformanceTableHeading PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
Performance Narrative [Text Block] rr_PerformanceNarrativeTextBlock
The Fund does not have a full calendar year of performance. Thus, no bar chart or Average Annual Total Returns table is included for the Fund.
Performance One Year or Less [Text] rr_PerformanceOneYearOrLess The Fund does not have a full calendar year of performance. Thus, no bar chart or Average Annual Total Returns table is included for the Fund.
Global X Scientific Beta Emerging Markets ETF (Prospectus) | Global X Scientific Beta Emerging Markets Series | Global X Scientific Beta Emerging Markets ETF  
Prospectus: rr_ProspectusTable  
Trading Symbol dei_TradingSymbol SCIM
Management Fees (as a percentage of Assets) rr_ManagementFeesOverAssets 0.45%
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees rr_DistributionAndService12b1FeesOverAssets none
Other Expenses (as a percentage of Assets): rr_OtherExpensesOverAssets none
Expenses (as a percentage of Assets) rr_ExpensesOverAssets 0.45%
Expense Example, with Redemption, 1 Year rr_ExpenseExampleYear01 $ 46
Expense Example, with Redemption, 3 Years rr_ExpenseExampleYear03 $ 144