Let's be direct: if you work in defense acquisition (on either side of the table) and you're not using SAM.gov and USASpending.gov regularly, you are working with incomplete information.
That's not a knock. Most people know the names. Most contractors know they need to register on SAM.gov. Most contracting officers know to post opportunities there. But knowing a tool exists and actually using it are two completely different things.
These two sites, taken together, tell you almost everything you need to know about the federal contracting market: who's registered, who's competing, who's already won, what the government paid last time, and where the next dollar is likely to go.
This guide breaks both down: what they are, how they work, and specifically how contracting officers (KOs), program managers (PMs), business developers, and proposal managers should be using them every day.
What SAM.gov Actually Is
SAM.gov (the System for Award Management) is the federal government's single, consolidated portal for registration and contracting. It replaced a patchwork of older systems: the Central Contractor Registration (CCR), the Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA), the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS), and FedBizOpps (FBO), among others. The consolidation is still going: in February 2026 GSA retired FPDS.gov and the eSRS subcontract reporting site and moved contract award data and subcontract reporting into SAM.gov as well.
If FedBizOpps rings a bell, that's because it used to be the go-to site for federal contract opportunities. That system was shut down in 2019 and moved to beta.SAM.gov, which merged into the main SAM.gov site in 2021. Everything it did now lives in SAM.gov under the Contract Opportunities section.
Why Every Contractor MUST Be Registered
There is almost no workaround here: to compete for and win a federal contract, you need an active SAM.gov registration. FAR 4.1102 allows only a short list of exceptions, such as government purchase card buys under the micro-purchase threshold, classified work, and urgent or contingency buys.
Registration is free. It's not complicated. But it needs to be renewed every 365 days, and lapses cause real problems: awards get delayed, invoices get rejected, and opportunities get missed because a company's registration expired two weeks before an RFP closed.
Set a calendar reminder 60 days before your registration expiration date. One reminder has saved more than one contract.
The UEI: What Replaced DUNS
Until April 2022, federal contractors identified themselves using a DUNS number, a nine-digit code issued by Dun & Bradstreet, a private company. On 4 April 2022, the federal government replaced DUNS with the Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), a 12-character alphanumeric code assigned directly by SAM.gov at no cost.
If your company registered before April 2022, you already have a UEI. It was assigned automatically. If you're registering for the first time, you'll get one as part of the registration process. This UEI is what goes on your proposals, invoices, and every government form that asks who you are.
What's Actually Inside SAM.gov
Most people think of SAM.gov as a registration site. It's much more than that. Here's what's actually in there:
- Entity Registration: Your company's official registration, certifications, socioeconomic status (small business, veteran-owned, 8(a), HUBZone, etc.), and representations and certifications.
- Contract Opportunities: Publicized federal solicitations and notices: Requests for Proposals (RFPs), Requests for Quotations (RFQs), Sources Sought notices, presolicitation notices, and draft RFPs. (Orders placed under existing contract vehicles often never appear here.)
- Contract Awards: The federal contract award data that used to live in FPDS.gov. It moved into SAM.gov in February 2026, and FPDS.gov now redirects here.
- Exclusions (Debarment List): A searchable list of individuals and companies that have been debarred, suspended, or otherwise excluded from receiving federal awards.
- Wage Determinations: Service Contract Act and Davis-Bacon Act wage rates by location and occupation.
- Assistance Listings: Formerly the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA), this covers federal grant programs.
How Contracting Officers Use SAM.gov
For KOs, SAM.gov is a daily work environment. Before any award, a KO is required to verify that the proposed awardee has an active SAM.gov registration and is not on the exclusions list. This is not optional. It's a compliance requirement.
Beyond that compliance check, KOs use SAM.gov to:
- Post solicitations and track responses
- Publish Sources Sought notices to gauge market interest before committing to a procurement strategy
- Search for potential sources during market research
- Verify contractor certifications and socioeconomic status
- Issue and post contract award notices
How Contractors Use SAM.gov
For contractors, the use cases go well beyond registration. The biggest ones:
- Finding opportunities: The Contract Opportunities search lets you filter by agency, North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code, set-aside type, place of performance, and more.
- Responding to Sources Sought notices: More on this in a moment.
- Verifying competitors or teammates: Before teaming with another company, check their SAM.gov registration status and certifications. Before worrying about a competitor's past performance, check whether they're even eligible to receive an award.
- Staying current on regulatory certifications: Your reps and certs live in SAM.gov. Keep them accurate. Misrepresenting your status is a federal offense.
Pro Tip (Sources Sought): Sources Sought notices are the government asking "who's out there that can do this?" They're market research tools, not solicitations. There's no award attached, and responding doesn't commit you to anything. Plenty of contractors skip them. That's a mistake.
Responding to a Sources Sought costs you a few hours and gets you visibility with the program office before the RFP drops. Your capability statement goes into the acquisition file. Your name is on the KO's radar. When the solicitation comes out and the set-aside strategy gets decided, your voice was already in the room. Contractors who respond to Sources Sought are playing a different game than those who only chase posted RFPs.
What USASpending.gov Actually Is
USASpending.gov is the federal government's official open database of all federal spending: contracts, grants, loans, direct payments, and more. It's the transparency window into what the government has already bought, from whom, and for how much.
The site was created under the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA). The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (commonly called the DATA Act) amended FFATA and required agencies to report standardized spending data. Today the Department of the Treasury runs the site.
This isn't a curated summary. It's the actual award data: individual award records going back to FY2001, searchable by agency, contractor, NAICS code, place of performance, contract type, and dozens of other filters.
What's in the Database
Every federal award carries a substantial data package in USASpending:
- Award amount: Obligated dollars, ceiling value for indefinite delivery contracts, and modifications over time
- Contractor name and location: Who won the award and where they're based
- Awarding agency and office: Which specific contracting office issued the award
- Funding agency: Which program office's appropriation paid for it (sometimes different from the awarding office)
- NAICS code: The industry classification of the work
- Product or Service Code (PSC): A more granular code that describes what was bought
- Place of performance: Where the work is being done
- Period of performance: Start and end dates
- Contract type: Fixed-price, cost-plus, time-and-materials, etc.
- Set-aside type: Small business, 8(a), SDVOSB, full and open, etc.
- Description of work: Often brief, but sometimes detailed enough to understand exactly what was procured
How Contracting Officers Use USASpending
Market research is a legal requirement before most acquisitions (Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 10). KOs and PMs use USASpending to satisfy that requirement in concrete ways:
- Price benchmarking: What did the government pay for similar work last year? What's the unit price trend over time? This data supports price reasonableness determinations and helps build the Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE).
- Identifying prior contractors: Who held the previous contract for this requirement? Are they still eligible? Are they likely to protest?
- Market picture: How many companies are competing for work in this NAICS code with this agency? Is the market concentrated or competitive?
- Justifying set-aside decisions: Above the simplified acquisition threshold, KOs must set a requirement aside for small businesses when they reasonably expect offers from at least two responsible small businesses at fair market prices (the rule of two). USASpending data supports that analysis.
How Contractors Use USASpending
This is where most contractors leave money on the table. USASpending is the best free competitive intelligence tool in federal contracting. Full stop.
Competitor research: For example (hypothetical): want to know what a particular competitor won from a particular Army command last fiscal year? Search it. You'll find the award amounts, the contract vehicles used, the period of performance, and the place of performance. That's your competitive picture, built from public data in an afternoon or less.
Incumbent identification: Before pursuing a recompete, find out who's holding the current contract. The incumbent contractor has significant advantages: past performance, existing relationships, transition risk. Knowing who they are and how long they've held the work shapes your entire capture strategy.
Agency buying pattern analysis: Does a target agency buy mostly through governmentwide vehicles like GSA's Alliant 2 Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) or the OASIS+ multiple-award contracts? Do they use small business set-asides for your NAICS code? What's their typical contract size? Are they an agency that prefers small task orders or large single awards? All of this is answerable from USASpending data.
NAICS code validation: If you're unsure which NAICS code best fits your services for a particular agency, look at what they've already been buying under which codes. Align to their vocabulary, not yours.
Teaming intelligence: Who are the small business subcontractors appearing repeatedly under large prime awards at your target agency? Those are potential teammates, and potential competition.
The Advanced Search Is Underused
Most people who find USASpending search by contractor name and stop there. The Advanced Search is a different tool entirely. You can layer filters: agency + NAICS code + set-aside type + fiscal year + award amount range + place of performance. That combination lets you answer very specific questions:
"How many service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses won contracts from the Army Contracting Command in NAICS 541330 (Engineering Services) between FY2023 and FY2025, and what was the average award value?"
That is a searchable, answerable question. The answer shapes your pursuit strategy, your pricing, and your teaming plan before you've written a single word of a proposal.
Pro Tip (Capability Statements): Before you write a capability statement for a target agency, spend twenty minutes on USASpending looking at what they've been buying, from whom, and for how much. You'll learn their vocabulary, their preferred contract types, and who their existing relationships are with.
Most capability statements read like company brochures. The ones that work sound like the contractor already understands the agency's mission. USASpending is how you get there.
When to Use Each: Decision Table
| Situation | Use This |
|---|---|
| Registering your business to receive federal awards | SAM.gov |
| Finding open solicitations, RFPs, and RFQs | SAM.gov |
| Checking if a company is debarred or suspended | SAM.gov |
| Responding to a Sources Sought notice | SAM.gov |
| Verifying a contractor's registration before award | SAM.gov |
| Researching what an agency has bought historically | USASpending.gov |
| Finding competitors' past contract wins | USASpending.gov |
| Benchmarking your price against past awards | USASpending.gov |
| Identifying the incumbent contractor on a recompete | USASpending.gov |
| Understanding an agency's buying patterns and vehicles | USASpending.gov |
| Validating which NAICS codes an agency uses for your work type | USASpending.gov |
| Supporting price reasonableness in market research | USASpending.gov |
The Contracting Officer's Perspective
KOs live in SAM.gov. It is part of the daily workflow: posting opportunities, checking registrations, verifying the Unique Entity Identifier, publishing award notices. There is no award without SAM.gov in the process.
What's less obvious is how much KOs lean on USASpending for the analytical side of acquisition planning. Price reasonableness is a legal requirement. Before a KO can determine that a price is fair and reasonable, they need some basis for comparison. For established markets with commercial pricing data, that's the easy part. For specialized defense services, the best available data is often historical award data, which lives in USASpending.
The other use case that doesn't get enough attention: source identification. Before issuing a Sources Sought, a KO or market research team will often query USASpending to see who's already been competing for similar work. That shapes the set-aside decision, the socioeconomic goal analysis, and the list of companies to notify.
If you're on the contractor side and wondering why your Sources Sought response matters: the KO is doing this research. Being findable (in SAM.gov and in USASpending's award history) is part of being competitive before a solicitation ever hits the street.
The Contractor's Perspective
Registration in SAM.gov is non-negotiable. That's the baseline. But most contractors treat it as a box to check and move on. They miss Sources Sought entirely. They use the Contract Opportunities search to find RFPs they already knew were coming. That's the surface level.
The contractors who consistently win, the ones who seem to have relationships and market intelligence that others don't, are doing something different. They're tracking Sources Sought notices in their target agencies. They're responding to every one that aligns with their capabilities. They're using SAM.gov's saved search feature to get email alerts when new opportunities post in their NAICS codes.
And they're spending real time on USASpending.
USASpending tells you what your competitors have been winning. It tells you which agencies are buying actively and which are quiet. It tells you whether your target agency prefers large omnibus contracts or smaller, more frequent awards. It tells you whether your direct competitors are winning as primes or subcontractors. None of this requires a paid subscription. All of it requires knowing what to look for and putting in the time.
The contractors who treat BD (business development) as a full-time intelligence discipline are using both of these sites like professionals. The ones who treat BD as "let's find RFPs and write proposals" are perpetually in reactive mode, competing for work they should have known was coming six months earlier.
"I've watched contractors pay for pricey market research subscriptions when USASpending.gov would have answered most of their questions for free."
The problem isn't access. The award data has been public for years, since a 2006 transparency law put it on USASpending.gov. The problem is knowing what to look for, and taking the time to look. Most organizations skip that step, then wonder why they're surprised by who won the award. The answer was in the database the whole time.
How to Get Started With Both Sites Today
These aren't tools that require onboarding, subscriptions, or access requests. You can start using them right now. Here's a practical starting point for each audience:
If You're a Contractor
- Check your SAM.gov registration. Go to sam.gov, search your company by UEI or name, and confirm your registration is active. Check the expiration date and note it.
- Set up a saved search. In the Contract Opportunities section, run a search with your NAICS code and target agency filters, then save it. You'll get email alerts when matching opportunities post.
- Search Sources Sought. In the same Contract Opportunities section, filter by the "Sources Sought" notice type (requests for information often show up as "Special Notice" too). These are active market research requests. Read them. Respond to the ones that match your capabilities.
- Open USASpending Advanced Search. Go to usaspending.gov, click "Advanced Search," and filter by your target agency and your primary NAICS code. Download the results. That's your competitive map.
- Find the incumbent. Search USASpending for your target requirement keywords, filter by the specific agency office, and sort by award date. The most recent award is likely the incumbent. Study their win.
If You're a Contracting Officer or Program Manager
- Use SAM.gov exclusion checks as a pre-award discipline. Every award should include a documented exclusion check. Keep a record of the date and result in the contract file.
- Run USASpending queries as part of your market research. Before setting your acquisition strategy, pull historical award data for your requirement type. Document what you found and how it informed your strategy. This goes in the acquisition plan.
- Issue Sources Sought before you've decided on the strategy. USASpending shows you who the market is. A Sources Sought confirms whether those companies are still active and interested. Use both together.
- Use USASpending price data to anchor your IGCE. Historical award amounts for similar scopes, adjusted for period of performance and inflation, give you a defensible price baseline even before receiving proposals.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is SAM.gov registration really free?
Yes. Registration on SAM.gov is completely free. Be cautious of third-party services that charge fees to "assist" with SAM.gov registration. While some legitimate consultants offer this, the registration process itself costs nothing and can be completed directly at sam.gov. The government will never call you and ask for payment to maintain your registration.
How often do I need to renew my SAM.gov registration?
SAM.gov registrations must be renewed every 365 days (one year). If your registration lapses, you cannot receive federal awards, and existing invoice payments may be delayed. Set a calendar reminder at least 60 days before your expiration date to begin the renewal process. It can take several days to process.
How far back does USASpending data go?
According to USASpending's own About the Data guide, federal award data start in FY2001, but the Advanced Search starts at FY2008, and data from agency financial systems start in FY2017 (after the DATA Act). For practical competitive intelligence purposes, the last 3–5 fiscal years will give you the most relevant and complete picture.
Can my competitors see my SAM.gov registration?
Usually, yes. Entity registrations show up in SAM.gov's public entity search by default, so details like your company name, UEI, address, NAICS codes and socioeconomic status can be seen by anyone who looks. A registrant can opt out of public search, but signed-in federal users can still see opted-out registrants, along with more sensitive details. This is by design. The point of the system is transparency in the federal contracting marketplace.
Does USASpending.gov show classified contract data?
No. Contract actions whose data would be classified, or whose reporting would compromise national security, are not reported to the federal procurement data system (FAR 4.606), so they never reach USASpending. If you're tracking agency spending in highly classified programs, USASpending will show you gaps rather than accurate totals for those specific program areas.
What's the difference between the awarding agency and the funding agency in USASpending?
The awarding agency is the organization whose contracting office issued the contract. The funding agency is the organization whose appropriation is paying for the work, often a program office or operational command. On many DoD contracts, a centralized contracting office issues the award on behalf of a funded program, and the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) may administer it after award. Both fields matter for targeting: the awarding agency is who you engage for future solicitations; the funding agency tells you whose requirements you're actually fulfilling.
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