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Freedom251 › Blog › federal contract awards

How to Find a List of U.S. Federal Government Contracts Awarded

By Freedom251 Team · · 6 min read

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To find awarded U.S. federal contracts, search SAM.gov Contract Awards for a specific company, agency, solicitation, notice, PIID, or keyword. For a filterable, downloadable list, use USAspending.gov Advanced Search. SAM.gov is the current public-facing contract-award search; the old FPDS ezSearch was decommissioned on February 24, 2026. These federal systems do not provide a complete list of state, local, tribal, or foreign-government awards.

Choose the right federal awards search

Your goal Use What it is best for
Find a particular award or search by company, agency, solicitation, notice, PIID, or keyword SAM.gov Contract Awards Searching public contract-action records. GSA says public-facing FPDS functionality transitioned to SAM.gov; ezSearch was decommissioned February 24, 2026. [GSA guidance]
Build and download a list using date, recipient, agency, award, or procurement filters USAspending.gov Advanced Search Filtering prime awards and transactions or subawards, then downloading results. [USAspending search]
Analyze contract actions and modifications in report form SAM.gov DataBank standard reports Running contract-data reports with report-dependent filtering, sorting, graphing, and export. [SAM.gov Contract Data] [SAM.gov standard reports]

Search SAM.gov for a specific award

  1. Open SAM.gov Contract Awards and sign in to a SAM.gov account to view search results. Public users do not need a special role. The requirement is an account sign-in, not a special contracting permission. [GSA guidance]

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  2. Enter the most precise identifier you have: a PIID (Procurement Instrument Identifier), solicitation number, notice number, or another distinctive keyword. SAM.gov’s consolidated search accepts these identifiers and keywords. [GSA guidance]

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  3. If you are looking for a company, try its legal business name first. If that returns nothing, try a shorter distinctive name or keyword; SAM.gov supports legal business name and keyword filters. [GSA guidance]

  4. Apply agency or other available filters to narrow the results. Open the individual record and check the award identifiers and reported details before treating a match as definitive.

What SAM.gov’s public search includes

GSA describes the public search as covering publicly available, unclassified contract actions above the micro-purchase threshold, as well as modifications that change previously reported information regardless of dollar value. That scope does not guarantee that every government purchase appears. [GSA guidance]

Build a downloadable list in USAspending

  1. Open USAspending.gov Advanced Search.

  2. Choose the search mode that fits your question: Prime Awards and Transactions for prime-contract records, or Subawards for reported subcontract-level awards. These are different kinds of records; a subaward search is not a substitute for a prime-award search.

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  3. Set a fiscal year or custom date range, then narrow the results. Depending on the search mode, filters include recipient, agency, award ID, keyword, award description, award amount, NAICS, Product and Service Code (PSC), pricing type, set-aside, and extent of competition. [USAspending Advanced Search]

  4. Review what each result represents and choose the relevant spending measure and location field before comparing records.

  5. Use the page’s download controls to export the filtered results for analysis. Keep a note of the search mode, date range, filters, and fields used so the list can be interpreted later.

Useful ways to narrow a market-research list

  • Recipient: Search the company name or recipient record relevant to your question.
  • Agency: Restrict the list to the department or agency responsible for the award.
  • Period: Use a fiscal year or custom dates, and confirm whether you mean award date or another time field available in the search.
  • Procurement type: Use NAICS, PSC, set-aside, pricing type, or competition extent to focus the comparison.
  • Award identifier: Search a known award ID directly rather than relying on broad descriptive text.

Use DataBank for report-style analysis

SAM.gov separates searching individual records from managing and running reports: use the Contracting > Contract Awards route for specific award records, and DataBank for contract-data reports. Standard reports provide award and modification information; filtering, sorting, graphing, and export capabilities depend on the report. [SAM.gov Contract Data] [SAM.gov standard reports]

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Account for reporting delays and coverage limits

New awards may not appear immediately

USAspending’s data documentation says contract data generally become available within five days after an award or modification. It also describes a 90-day publication delay for Department of Defense and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contract data. Certain urgent or other authorized actions have a 30-day submission allowance; that allowance does not apply to every award. If an award was just announced, search SAM.gov first and repeat the USAspending search after several days—or later if it is a DoD or USACE action. [USAspending data documentation]

Not every purchase is necessarily in the public results

USAspending’s documentation describes a $25,000 prime-award reporting threshold in obligation value. The same documentation says the micro-purchase threshold was $10,000 as of 2022, with exceptions; that dated figure should not be treated as the current threshold. Check current Federal Acquisition Regulation rules for a live threshold question. [USAspending data documentation]

For context, the Congressional Research Service noted in its April 22, 2025 report that USAspending has ongoing data-quality issues. Treat search results as reported records, not proof that every relevant action is present or perfectly described. For an important finding, verify the award record and, where available, the agency’s notice. [CRS report]

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Read award amounts and locations correctly

Obligations are not payments

An obligation is a federal commitment of funds; an outlay is money actually paid. They are different measures. Do not describe either figure generically as a contract’s total value without checking the field definition and the question you are answering. [CRS report]

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Recipient location is not necessarily the work site

A recipient’s headquarters or registration location can differ from the place where the contract is performed. If you want to know where a project occurs, use place-of-performance information where available rather than assuming the contractor’s location answers that question. Congressional-district comparisons also need care because boundaries can change. [CRS report]

Make comparisons like-for-like

Before comparing awards, record whether each figure concerns prime awards, transactions, or subawards; the date range and award identifiers; obligations or outlays; the agency and recipient; the procurement codes and competition attributes; and recipient location or place of performance. USAspending’s search modes and filters help separate these dimensions. [USAspending Advanced Search] [CRS report]

Common search problems and fixes

  • No results for an exact company name: Try the legal business name, then a shorter distinctive keyword; confirm that the search is in the intended award mode.
  • A recently announced award is missing: Allow for the usual publication interval and repeat the search. DoD and USACE contract data can have a longer publication delay as described above.
  • The amount does not match a headline or press release: Check whether you are viewing an obligation, outlay, transaction, or another award amount field; the figures may measure different things.
  • The location seems wrong: Check whether the displayed location belongs to the recipient or describes place of performance.
  • A download omits what you expected: Confirm the selected mode—prime awards and transactions versus subawards—and review all filters and date settings before exporting again.
  • You cannot see SAM.gov results: Sign in with a SAM.gov account; GSA says a special role is not required for public search access.

Or skip the browser setup

If you need a clean screenshot of a public award-search page or result, ScreenshotNeo is a website screenshot API and MCP server. Its one-call API can return a PNG, JPEG, WebP, or PDF. For example, this cURL request captures a page; replace the target URL as needed. See the ScreenshotNeo API documentation for parameters.

curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://sam.gov/contract-awards -o shot.webp

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ScreenshotNeo accepts cookie or consent banners like a visitor and removes more than 60 known consent platforms, newsletter popups, and chat widgets before capture; each step can be turned off. Bot checks or CAPTCHAs, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads, and cache hits cost nothing, and responses identify the page verdict and billing status. Its MCP server includes take_screenshot, get_page_info, and capture_pdf for AI agents and other MCP clients. The free plan includes 1,000 shots per month with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000 shots.

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Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

federal contract awardsgovernment contractsSAM.govUSAspending.gov

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