Semitransparent thin silver films are employed as both the top mirrors and electrodes for GaAs vertical‐cavity surface‐emitting lasers. The semitransparent silver films allow the emission of light from the top epitaxial side. Quarter‐wave AlAs/AlxGa1−xAs stacks are used as the bottomn‐type mirrors. Light output versus excitation current measurements yields an efficiency of 0.76 mW/mA from the top silver mirror side, which corresponds to an external differential quantum efficiency of 54% at a lasing wavelength of 0.88 &mgr;m. The internal differential quantum efficiency is estimated to be ≳94%. An optical output power of 10 mW is obtained at a pulsed excitation current of 72 mA.