Past and projected changes in global hydroclimate in Earth system models have been examined. The Budyko framework that relates the partitioning of precipitation into evaporation to a location’s aridity has been modified to account for the effect of interannual terrestrial water storage and compared to traditional methods. The new formulation better fits climate model data over most of the globe. Old and new formulations are used to quantify changes in the spatial patterns of hydroclimate based locally on year-to-year variations water and energy cycle variables. Focus is on multi-model median responses to changing climate. The changes in hydroclimate from preindustrial to recent historical (1965-2014) conditions often have different patterns and characteristics than changes due only to increasing CO₂. For simulations with gradually increasing CO₂, differing model treatments of vegetation are found specifically to have categorically different impacts on hydroclimate, particularly altering the relationship between aridity and the fraction of precipitation contributing to evaporation in models that predict vegetation changes. Models that predict vegetation phenology have consistently different responses to increasing CO₂ than models that do not. Dynamic vegetation models show more widespread but less consistent differences than other models, perhaps reflecting their less mature state. Nevertheless, there is clearly sensitivity to vegetation that illustrates the importance of including the representation of biospheric shifts in Earth system models.