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Risk/Return: rr_RiskReturnAbstract  
Registrant Name dei_EntityRegistrantName GREAT-WEST FUNDS INC
Prospectus Date rr_ProspectusDate Apr. 29, 2020
Great-West International Index Fund  
Risk/Return: rr_RiskReturnAbstract  
Risk/Return [Heading] rr_RiskReturnHeading Fund Summary
Objective [Heading] rr_ObjectiveHeading Investment Objective
Objective, Primary [Text Block] rr_ObjectivePrimaryTextBlock The Fund seeks investment results, before fees and expenses, that track the total return of the common stocks that comprise the MSCI EAFE (Europe, Australasia, Far East) Index (the “Benchmark Index”).
Expense [Heading] rr_ExpenseHeading Fees and Expenses of the Fund
Expense Narrative [Text Block] rr_ExpenseNarrativeTextBlock This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund. This table does not reflect the fees and expenses of any Permitted Account. If the fees and expenses imposed by a Permitted Account were reflected, the fees and expenses shown below would be higher.
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)
Fee Waiver or Reimbursement over Assets, Date of Termination rr_FeeWaiverOrReimbursementOverAssetsDateOfTermination April 30, 2021
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 generally indicates higher transaction costs. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s turnover rate was 8% of the average value of its portfolio.
Portfolio Turnover, Rate rr_PortfolioTurnoverRate 8.00%
Expense Example [Heading] rr_ExpenseExampleHeading Example
Expense Example Narrative [Text Block] rr_ExpenseExampleNarrativeTextBlock This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example does not reflect the fees and expenses of any Permitted Account. If the fees and expenses of any Permitted Account were reflected, the fees and expenses in the Example would be higher.

The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and applies whether you hold or redeem all of your shares at the end of each period. The Example also assumes that the Expense Limit is in place for the first year, that your investment has a 5% return each year, that all dividends and capital gains are reinvested, and that the Fund’s operating expenses are the amount shown in the fee table and remain the same for the years shown. 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 Below is a summary of the principal investment strategies of the Fund.

The Fund is not actively managed, but is designed to track the performance of its Benchmark Index. Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in common stocks of the Benchmark Index or in derivative securities economically related to the Benchmark Index. The Fund will seek investment results, before fees and expenses, that track the total return of the Benchmark Index. This may be accomplished through ownership of all the stocks in the Benchmark Index, a statistically selected sampling of the stocks in the Benchmark Index, and/or through a combination of stock ownership, owning derivatives such as futures contracts on the Benchmark Index and options on futures contracts, and owning exchange-traded funds that seek to track the Benchmark Index. The Fund does not necessarily invest in all of the stocks in the Benchmark Index, or in the same weightings as the stocks have in the Benchmark Index. The Fund’s sub-adviser chooses investments so that the market capitalizations, industry weightings, and other fundamental characteristics of the stocks chosen are similar to those of the Benchmark Index.

The Fund’s Benchmark Index is the MSCI EAFE Index. The MSCI EAFE Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure the equity performance of developed markets, excluding the U.S. and Canada. As of February 28, 2020, the MSCI EAFE Index consisted of 21 developed market country indices.
Risk [Heading] rr_RiskHeading Principal Investment Risks
Risk Narrative [Text Block] rr_RiskNarrativeTextBlock Below is a summary of the principal investment risks of investing in the Fund. These risks are presented in an order that reflects GWCM’s current assessment of relative importance, but this assessment could change over time as the Fund’s portfolio changes or in light of changes in the market or the economic environment, among other things. The Fund is not required to and will not update this prospectus solely because its assessment of the relative importance of the principal risks of investing in the Fund changes.

Foreign Securities Risk - Foreign markets can be more volatile than the U.S. market due to increased risks of adverse issuer, political, regulatory, market, currency valuation or economic developments.

Equity Securities Risk - The value of a company’s stock may fall as a result of factors which directly relate to that company, such as lower demand for the company’s products or services or poor management decisions. In addition, a company’s stock generally pays dividends only after the company makes required payments to holders of its bonds and other debt. For this reason, the value of the stock will usually react more strongly than bonds and other debt to actual or perceived changes in a company’s financial condition or progress.

Geographic Concentration Risk - Geographic concentration risk is the risk that economic, political and social conditions in a single country, a limited number of countries or a particular geographic region in which the Fund is invested will have a significant impact on the performance of the Fund.

Market Risk - The value of the Fund's investments may decrease, sometimes rapidly or unexpectedly, due to factors affecting specific issuers held by the Fund, particular industries represented in the Fund's portfolio, or the overall securities markets. A variety of factors can increase the volatility of the Fund's holdings and markets generally, including political or regulatory developments, recessions, inflation, rapid interest rate changes, war or acts of terrorism, natural disasters, outbreaks of infectious illnesses or other widespread public health issues, or adverse investor sentiment generally. Certain events may cause instability across global markets, including reduced liquidity and disruptions in trading markets, while some events may affect certain geographic regions, countries, sectors, and industries more significantly than others. These adverse developments may cause broad declines in an issuer’s value due to short-term market movements or for significantly longer periods during more prolonged market downturns.

Currency Risk - Adverse fluctuations in exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and other currencies may cause the Fund to lose money on investments denominated in foreign currencies.

Index Risk - It is possible the Benchmark Index may perform unfavorably and/or underperform the market as a whole. The Fund is not actively managed and the portfolio managers do not attempt to take defensive positions in declining markets. Maintaining investments in securities regardless of market conditions or the performance of individual securities could cause the Fund’s return to be lower than if the Fund employed an active strategy.

Medium and Large Size Company Securities Risk - The stocks of medium size companies often involve more risk and volatility than those of larger companies. Among other things, medium size companies are often dependent on a small number of products and have limited financial resources, and there is generally less publicly available information about them. Securities of medium size companies have lower trading volume and are less liquid than securities of larger, more established companies. Companies with large market capitalizations go in and out of favor based on market and economic conditions, and could underperform returns of smaller companies.

Tracking Error Risk - The Fund may not be able to precisely track the performance of the Benchmark Index.

Liquidity Risk - Securities in which the Fund invests may be less readily marketable and may be subject to greater fluctuation in price than other securities. Investments in many, but not all, foreign securities tend to have greater exposure to liquidity risk than domestic securities.

Derivatives Risk - The Fund may invest in derivative instruments, including but not limited to, futures contracts and forward foreign currency contracts. Using derivatives can disproportionately increase losses and reduce opportunities for gains when security prices, currency rates or interest rates are changing. The Fund may not fully benefit from or may lose money on derivatives if changes in their value do not correspond accurately to changes in the value of the Fund’s holdings. The other parties to certain derivative contracts present the same types of credit risk as issuers of fixed income securities. Derivatives can also make a fund less liquid and harder to value, especially in declining markets, and may increase the Fund’s volatility. There can be no assurance that the Fund’s use of derivative contracts will work as intended, and it is possible for the Fund to lose more than its original investment.

Exchange-Traded Fund (“ETF”) Risk - An ETF is subject to the risks associated with direct ownership of the securities comprising the index on which the ETF is based. An ETF may trade at a premium or discount, and it is possible that an active trading market will not be maintained or that trading will be halted. For index ETFs, there is no guarantee that an ETF will achieve a high degree of correlation to the performance of its index. Fund shareholders indirectly bear their proportionate share of the expenses of the ETFs in which the Fund invests. Lack of liquidity in an ETF could result in it being more volatile.

Management Risk - A strategy used by the portfolio managers may fail to produce the intended results.

An investment in the Fund is not a deposit with a bank, is not insured, endorsed or guaranteed by the FDIC or any government agency, and is subject to the possible loss of your original investment.
Risk Lose Money [Text] rr_RiskLoseMoney is subject to the possible loss of your original investment.
Risk Not Insured Depository Institution [Text] rr_RiskNotInsuredDepositoryInstitution An investment in the Fund is not a deposit with a bank, is not insured, endorsed or guaranteed by the FDIC or any government agency,
Bar Chart and Performance Table [Heading] rr_BarChartAndPerformanceTableHeading Performance
Performance Narrative [Text Block] rr_PerformanceNarrativeTextBlock The bar chart and table below provide an indication of the risk of investment in the Fund by showing changes in the performance of the Fund’s Investor Class shares in each full calendar year since inception and by comparing the Fund's average annual total return to the performance of a broad-based securities market index. The returns shown below are historical and are not an indication of future performance. Total return figures assume reinvestment of dividends and capital gains distributions and include the effect of the Fund’s recurring expenses, but do not include fees and expenses of any Permitted Account. If the fees and expenses of any Permitted Account were reflected, the performance shown would be lower.

Updated performance information may be obtained at www.greatwestfunds.com (the website does not form a part of this Prospectus).
Performance Information Illustrates Variability of Returns [Text] rr_PerformanceInformationIllustratesVariabilityOfReturns The bar chart and table below provide an indication of the risk of investment in the Fund by showing changes in the performance of the Fund’s Investor Class shares in each full calendar year since inception and by comparing the Fund's average annual total return to the performance of a broad-based securities market index.
Performance Availability Website Address [Text] rr_PerformanceAvailabilityWebSiteAddress www.greatwestfunds.com
Performance Past Does Not Indicate Future [Text] rr_PerformancePastDoesNotIndicateFuture The returns shown below are historical and are not an indication of future performance.
Bar Chart [Heading] rr_BarChartHeading Calendar Year Total Returns
Bar Chart Does Not Reflect Sales Loads [Text] rr_BarChartDoesNotReflectSalesLoads Total return figures assume reinvestment of dividends and capital gains distributions and include the effect of the Fund’s recurring expenses, but do not include fees and expenses of any Permitted Account. If the fees and expenses of any Permitted Account were reflected, the performance shown would be lower.
Bar Chart Closing [Text Block] rr_BarChartClosingTextBlock
  Quarter Ended Total Return
Best Quarter September 2013 11.26%
Worst Quarter December 2018 -13.84%
Performance Table Heading rr_PerformanceTableHeading Average Annual Total Returns for the Periods Ended December 31, 2019
Great-West International Index Fund | Institutional Class  
Risk/Return: rr_RiskReturnAbstract  
Management Fees rr_ManagementFeesOverAssets 0.25%
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees rr_DistributionAndService12b1FeesOverAssets none
Shareholder Services Fees rr_Component1OtherExpensesOverAssets none
Other Expenses rr_Component2OtherExpensesOverAssets 0.02%
Total Other Expenses rr_OtherExpensesOverAssets 0.02%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses rr_ExpensesOverAssets 0.27%
Fee Waiver and Expense Reimbursement rr_FeeWaiverOrReimbursementOverAssets none [1]
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and Expense Reimbursement rr_NetExpensesOverAssets 0.27%
1 Year rr_ExpenseExampleYear01 $ 28
3 Years rr_ExpenseExampleYear03 87
5 Years rr_ExpenseExampleYear05 152
10 Years rr_ExpenseExampleYear10 343
1 Year rr_ExpenseExampleNoRedemptionYear01 28
3 Years rr_ExpenseExampleNoRedemptionYear03 87
5 Years rr_ExpenseExampleNoRedemptionYear05 152
10 Years rr_ExpenseExampleNoRedemptionYear10 $ 343
One Year rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear01 21.80%
Five Years rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear05
Since Inception rr_AverageAnnualReturnSinceInception 4.08% [2]
Inception Date rr_AverageAnnualReturnInceptionDate May 01, 2015
Great-West International Index Fund | Investor Class  
Risk/Return: rr_RiskReturnAbstract  
Management Fees rr_ManagementFeesOverAssets 0.25%
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees rr_DistributionAndService12b1FeesOverAssets none
Shareholder Services Fees rr_Component1OtherExpensesOverAssets 0.35%
Other Expenses rr_Component2OtherExpensesOverAssets 0.04%
Total Other Expenses rr_OtherExpensesOverAssets 0.39%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses rr_ExpensesOverAssets 0.64%
Fee Waiver and Expense Reimbursement rr_FeeWaiverOrReimbursementOverAssets none [1]
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and Expense Reimbursement rr_NetExpensesOverAssets 0.64%
1 Year rr_ExpenseExampleYear01 $ 65
3 Years rr_ExpenseExampleYear03 205
5 Years rr_ExpenseExampleYear05 357
10 Years rr_ExpenseExampleYear10 798
1 Year rr_ExpenseExampleNoRedemptionYear01 65
3 Years rr_ExpenseExampleNoRedemptionYear03 205
5 Years rr_ExpenseExampleNoRedemptionYear05 357
10 Years rr_ExpenseExampleNoRedemptionYear10 $ 798
2012 rr_AnnualReturn2012 17.92%
2013 rr_AnnualReturn2013 21.13%
2014 rr_AnnualReturn2014 (6.19%)
2015 rr_AnnualReturn2015 (1.08%)
2016 rr_AnnualReturn2016 0.65%
2017 rr_AnnualReturn2017 24.62%
2018 rr_AnnualReturn2018 (13.84%)
2019 rr_AnnualReturn2019 21.25%
Highest Quarterly Return, Label rr_HighestQuarterlyReturnLabel Best Quarter
Highest Quarterly Return, Date rr_BarChartHighestQuarterlyReturnDate Sep. 30, 2013
Highest Quarterly Return rr_BarChartHighestQuarterlyReturn 11.26%
Lowest Quarterly Return, Label rr_LowestQuarterlyReturnLabel Worst Quarter
Lowest Quarterly Return, Date rr_BarChartLowestQuarterlyReturnDate Dec. 31, 2018
Lowest Quarterly Return rr_BarChartLowestQuarterlyReturn (13.84%)
One Year rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear01 21.25%
Five Years rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear05 5.32%
Since Inception rr_AverageAnnualReturnSinceInception 4.45% [3]
Inception Date rr_AverageAnnualReturnInceptionDate Jan. 13, 2011
Great-West International Index Fund | Class L  
Risk/Return: rr_RiskReturnAbstract  
Management Fees rr_ManagementFeesOverAssets 0.25%
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees rr_DistributionAndService12b1FeesOverAssets 0.25%
Shareholder Services Fees rr_Component1OtherExpensesOverAssets 0.35%
Other Expenses rr_Component2OtherExpensesOverAssets 0.08%
Total Other Expenses rr_OtherExpensesOverAssets 0.43%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses rr_ExpensesOverAssets 0.93%
Fee Waiver and Expense Reimbursement rr_FeeWaiverOrReimbursementOverAssets 0.01% [1]
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and Expense Reimbursement rr_NetExpensesOverAssets 0.92%
1 Year rr_ExpenseExampleYear01 $ 94
3 Years rr_ExpenseExampleYear03 295
5 Years rr_ExpenseExampleYear05 514
10 Years rr_ExpenseExampleYear10 1,142
1 Year rr_ExpenseExampleNoRedemptionYear01 94
3 Years rr_ExpenseExampleNoRedemptionYear03 295
5 Years rr_ExpenseExampleNoRedemptionYear05 514
10 Years rr_ExpenseExampleNoRedemptionYear10 $ 1,142
One Year rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear01 20.93%
Five Years rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear05
Since Inception rr_AverageAnnualReturnSinceInception 6.99% [4]
Inception Date rr_AverageAnnualReturnInceptionDate Sep. 10, 2018
Great-West International Index Fund | MSCI EAFE Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | Institutional Class  
Risk/Return: rr_RiskReturnAbstract  
One Year rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear01 22.01%
Five Years rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear05
Since Inception rr_AverageAnnualReturnSinceInception 4.11%
Great-West International Index Fund | MSCI EAFE Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | Investor Class  
Risk/Return: rr_RiskReturnAbstract  
One Year rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear01 22.01%
Five Years rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear05 5.67%
Since Inception rr_AverageAnnualReturnSinceInception 5.20%
Great-West International Index Fund | MSCI EAFE Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | Class L  
Risk/Return: rr_RiskReturnAbstract  
One Year rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear01 22.01%
Five Years rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear05
Since Inception rr_AverageAnnualReturnSinceInception 8.14%
[1] GWCM has contractually agreed to waive management fees or reimburse expenses if total annual fund operating expenses of any Class exceed 0.32% of the Class's average daily net assets, excluding Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees, Shareholder Services Fees, brokerage expenses, taxes, dividend interest on short sales, interest expenses, and any extraordinary expenses, including litigation costs (the "Expense Limit"). The agreement's current term ends on April 30, 2021 and automatically renews for one-year terms unless it is terminated by Great-West Funds or GWCM upon written notice within 90 days of the end of the current term or upon termination of the investment advisory agreement. Under the agreement, GWCM may recoup, subject to Board approval, these waivers and reimbursements in future periods, not exceeding three years following the particular waiver/reimbursement, provided Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses of the Class plus such recoupment do not exceed the lesser of the Expense Limit that was in place at the time of the waiver/reimbursement or the Expense Limit in place at the time of recoupment.
[2] Since inception on May 1, 2015
[3] Since inception on January 13, 2011
[4] Since inception on September 10, 2018