Cortical GABAergic interneurons (INs) are comprised of distinct types that provide tailored inhibition to pyramidal cells (PCs) and other INs, thereby enabling precise control of cortical circuit activity. INs expressing the neuropeptide vasoactive-intestinal peptide (VIP) have attracted attention recently following the discovery that they predominantly function by inhibiting dendritic-targeting somatostatin (SST) expressing INs, thereby disinhibiting PCs. This VIP-SST disinhibitory circuit motif is observed throughout the neocortex from mice to humans, and serves as a key mechanism for top-down (feedback) and context-dependent information processing. Thus, VIP IN-mediated disinhibition has been found to play an important role in sensory processing, control of executive functions, attention, sensorimotor integration and other cortico-cortical and thalamocortical feedback interactions. Furthermore, VIP INs have been implicated in mediating the effects of reinforcement signals, both reward and aversive, via their responsiveness to neuromodulators such as acetylcholine (ACh), and in facilitating synaptic plasticity and learning. While it is evident from transcriptomic analyses that VIP INs are a molecularly heterogeneous group, the physiological significance of this diversity is unclear at present. Here, we have characterized the functional diversity of VIP INs in the primary somatosensory cortex by leveraging intersectional genetic approaches to study distinct VIP IN subtypes. We found that VIP INs can be divided into four different populations: a group that expresses the Ca