To find awarded Department of Defense contracts, use SAM.gov’s Contract Awards search: go to SAM.gov → Contracting → Contract Awards, sign in, and search by company name, keyword, solicitation or notice identifier, or PIID. For broader federal spending research, search USAspending.gov and refine the results with agency, recipient, award ID, and date filters. The former FPDS.gov ezSearch was decommissioned on February 24, 2026; contract-award searches now belong in SAM.gov.
Which site should you use?
| Your goal | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Find reported contract actions and inspect contract-award records | SAM.gov Contract Awards | It is the current public-facing home for contract award search formerly associated with FPDS.gov. A SAM.gov account and sign-in are required. |
| Explore federal awards by keyword, agency, recipient, period, or award type | USAspending.gov Keyword Search, then Advanced Search | Keyword search is useful for broad discovery; advanced search provides filters for more focused analysis. |
| Build a report or work programmatically with contract data | SAM.gov Data Bank / Data Services | SAM.gov’s Contract Award Data help page points users to contract-data reporting and APIs. |
Search for a DoD contract in SAM.gov
- Sign in to SAM.gov. Contract award data search requires a SAM.gov account and sign-in, including for public users. The account requirement is for access to search data; it does not mean you need to register a business to look up awards.
- Open Contract Awards. Use the Contracting area and choose Contract Awards. SAM.gov’s Contracting page and Contract Award Data page provide the current entry points.
- Search using what you know. Try a recipient’s legal business name, a keyword in the award description, a solicitation or notice identifier, or the PIID (Procurement Instrument Identifier). If your first query is too broad, SAM.gov offers keyword modes for any words, all words, exact phrase, and a structured Search Editor.
- Limit the results. Apply available filters such as agency and legal business name, along with relevant keywords. Use the narrowest known identifier first; broaden the query if it returns no records.
- Open and verify the award record. Review the award details and its modifications. Check whether a result represents an award record or an individual transaction, and note dates and reported values before comparing records.
Find DoD awards in USAspending.gov
- Start at USAspending.gov Keyword Search for broad exploration using a company, project, product, or other term.
- Move to Federal Awards Advanced Search when you need targeted results. Set the agency and time period, then narrow with available filters such as recipient, award ID, award type, NAICS, and award description.
- Inspect award and transaction details and confirm the period covered by the data before treating a missing result as evidence that no contract exists.
Why a DoD contract may not appear
Neither search should be treated as a complete, real-time inventory of every DoD purchase. SAM.gov describes public contract-award search as including publicly available information on unclassified contract actions exceeding the micro-purchase threshold, plus modifications that change previously reported data regardless of dollar value. Its Contract Award Data help page separately describes agency-reported contract actions with estimated value of $10,000 or more. These are page-specific descriptions; reporting rules and record types matter, so do not assume every purchase must be present.
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USAspending.gov publishes disclosures covering prime-award start dates, reporting thresholds, update frequency, and data limitations, including a disclosure titled “Delay in Department of Defense (DOD) Procurement Data.” A newly awarded or recently modified DoD record may therefore not be visible yet. Check the relevant disclosures for the period you are researching, and distinguish “not found in this search” from “not awarded.”
What changed from FPDS.gov?
SAM.gov’s contract-award announcement says FPDS ezSearch was decommissioned on February 24, 2026, and directs users to search contract awards in SAM.gov. The announcement was last updated August 18, 2026. SAM.gov’s transition information also says the ATOM Feed is planned for retirement later in FY 2026 and points data consumers toward the SAM.gov Contract Awards API at open.gsa.gov. For routine searches, use SAM.gov’s Contract Awards interface rather than an old FPDS ezSearch link.
Read SAM.gov’s Contract Awards Data and Searching Now in SAM.gov announcement for the transition notice. For contract-data search help, consult SAM.gov Contract Award Data help.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Use a screenshot when you need to document a result
If you need a visual record of a public search result or award page, you can capture it in your browser and save the screenshot. For an API-based option, ScreenshotNeo is a website screenshot API and MCP server: its clean shots remove supported cookie banners, popups, and chat widgets before capture, and bot checks, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads, and cache hits are not billed. This does not replace checking the official record or its reporting caveats.
Or skip the browser setup
One GET request can return a screenshot. Replace the example URL with the SAM.gov page you can access, and use your ScreenshotNeo API key:
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curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://sam.gov/fpds -o shot.webpSee the ScreenshotNeo API documentation for request options. Cookie banners, popups, and chat widgets are removed before the shot; bot checks, blank pages, and failed loads are never billed. An MCP server lets AI agents take screenshots, and the free plan includes 1,000 screenshots a month with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000. Sign up for ScreenshotNeo free.
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