How to Use USAspending.gov to See Who Won a Government Contract

USAspending.gov is the federal government's free, official spending website, and its Advanced Search shows who won past contracts, what agencies paid, and when those contracts end. You don't need an account. Filter by your NAICS code, an agency and a location, then open any award to see the incumbent, the dollar amounts and the end dates you need to plan your next bid.

What is USAspending.gov?

USAspending.gov is where the federal government publishes what it spends. The Treasury Department's Bureau of the Fiscal Service runs it under two laws: the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA) and the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act).

It covers contracts, grants, loans and other awards. For contracts, the data comes from FPDS, the system where contracting officers report each contract action. USAspending.gov says award data in Advanced Search starts in fiscal year 2008 (FY2008), and older records back to FY2001 are available through its download tool.

For a small business, it answers the questions a commercial buyer would never tell you: who has the work now, what it cost, and when it's up again.

USAspending vs. SAM.gov: which one do you need?

You'll use both, for different jobs.

• SAM.gov is where you register, find open contract opportunities, and search contract award data. FPDS.gov's old search site shut down on February 24, 2026, and its award data moved into SAM.gov. You need a free SAM.gov account to search it, but no special role.
• USAspending.gov shows past awards with no account. It also has subcontract data, company profiles and the money trail from agency budgets.

Both draw their contract awards from FPDS, so the core facts match. Contracting officers must report an award to FPDS within three business days under both the current Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR 4.604) and the FAR overhaul text agencies have adopted (RFO 4.301).

What you can learn from past contract awards

Here's where each piece of seller intelligence lives on USAspending.gov, as of September 2026:

The Number of Offers Received field is easy to miss and very useful. It tells you whether a contract drew one or two bids or a crowd.

How to use USAspending Advanced Search, step by step

The screen labels below were checked on September 28, 2026. The site updates about every two weeks, so a label may move.

1. Open Advanced Search. Go to usaspending.gov/search, or choose Search Award Data, then Search by Award & Transactions. Leave "View By" on Prime Awards and Transactions.
2. Pick a time period. Choose one or more fiscal years (each runs October 1 to September 30) or custom dates. Without one, you'll get results going back years. An award shows up if the span from its first to its latest contract action overlaps your dates, so an older contract with a recent change can show up too.
3. Choose the award type. Under Award Type, pick contracts. Results come back in tabs, and Contracts and Contract IDVs are separate. IDVs are umbrella vehicles such as an IDIQ, explained under gotchas below.
4. Add your NAICS code. Use the NAICS filter rather than the keyword box. A keyword matches text anywhere in a record, while the NAICS filter matches the industry code the agency assigned. Add a Product and Service Code (PSC) if you want to narrow by what was bought. For picking codes, see how to choose NAICS codes.
5. Pick an agency. The Agency filter has Awarding Agency (who signed the contract) and Funding Agency (whose budget paid). Sellers usually want the awarding agency.
6. Set the location. The Location filter has two tabs: Place of Performance, where the work happens, and Recipient Location, where the winner is based. Use place of performance to find work near you and recipient location to find local competitors.
7. Add optional filters. Type of Set Aside, Extent Competed, Award Amount and Recipient all help you focus.
8. Submit and read the results. The table lists the award ID, recipient, obligations, awarding agency, place of performance, start and end dates, NAICS and PSC. Click a column heading to sort, click an award ID to open its page, or use Download to get a spreadsheet.

Worked example: janitorial contracts at one agency in one state

Say you run a janitorial company in Ohio and want to sell to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Here's how to size up that market.

Set the filters. Choose the last two fiscal years. Under Award Type, choose contracts. In the NAICS filter, add 561720 (Janitorial Services). Under Agency, add the Department of Veterans Affairs as the awarding agency. Under Location, choose Place of Performance and add Ohio. Then submit.

Scan the list. You'll see purchase orders and contracts, each with a recipient, obligated amount and period of performance. Sort by amount to see the biggest jobs, or by end date to see what's wrapping up. Note the names that keep appearing: those are the incumbents you'd compete against, and possible partners.

Open an award. On the award page, read these parts:

• Dates. Start Date, Current End Date and Potential End Date. USAspending.gov defines the potential end date as the end "after exercising any pre-determined extension options."
• Award Amounts. Obligated Amount is what the agency has committed so far. Current Award Amount covers the base period and exercised options. Potential Award Amount is the total if every option is exercised.
• Transaction History. Each change to the contract is a row. Rows labeled "Exercise an option" show when the agency kept the contract going for another option period and how much it added, which is a good read on the yearly price.
• Additional Information. Awarding Office names the specific contracting office. Place of Performance gives the site address. Competition Details shows the solicitation ID, the set-aside type, how it was competed and how many offers came in.

Put it to work. When a contract's potential end date is coming up, the agency has to decide how to buy that work next, and for most larger buys the FAR requires market research first. Look up the solicitation ID in SAM.gov's Contract Opportunities to read the original requirements, if the notice is still posted. Then watch for sources sought notices from that office, and consider sending its small business office your capability statement.

Limits and gotchas in USAspending data

The data is official, but it isn't complete or instant. Keep these in mind before you draw conclusions.

The data lags, and Defense lags most

For most agencies, an award reaches USAspending.gov within about five days: three business days to report it to FPDS, then a day or two to publish. Defense Department and Army Corps of Engineers contract data is delayed 90 days in FPDS. So a recent military award may not show up yet.

Small purchases are mostly missing

Agencies must report contract actions above the micro-purchase threshold, which is $15,000 for most purchases. Individual purchase-card buys below it aren't reported to FPDS unless an agency's own rules require it, so small card purchases mostly won't appear as awards. If you sell low-dollar items, the market is bigger than USAspending.gov shows.

Subawards are reported separately

Subcontracts don't come from FPDS. Prime contractors report subcontracts of $30,000 or more to SAM.gov by the end of the month after they're made. To see them, switch "View By" to Subawards, or open the Sub-Awards tab on a contract. USAspending.gov warns that duplicate subaward records have been common, so don't add subaward totals to prime award totals.

An IDIQ's search amount leaves out its orders

For an IDV, such as an IDIQ, the amount in search results (labeled Total Obligations to Date) counts only money obligated on the IDV itself. It's often $0, even when the orders under it add up to millions. An IDIQ guarantees only its stated minimum, and the real money flows through task orders and delivery orders. On an IDV's page, the Awards Under this IDV tab shows combined obligations, and the Orders Made Under this IDV table lists each order. Its end date is the Ordering Period End Date, the last day new orders can be placed. Orders already placed can run past it. See IDIQ contracts explained for how orders are competed.

Other things to watch

• Obligated isn't paid. Obligations are money the agency has promised. Outlays, money actually paid, can show as zero when an award isn't linked to the agency's financial data.
• Coverage isn't total. USAspending.gov notes that some smaller executive branch agencies, and the legislative and judicial branches, aren't required to report to it.
• Names follow SAM.gov. Recipient names match SAM.gov registrations, so a company may appear under a legal name you don't recognize. Search by its UEI to be sure.

Using award data to find teaming partners

The companies that keep winning in your NAICS code are more than competitors. Big winners are your best subcontracting prospects, and a small firm with a matching certification could be a teaming partner for a bid neither of you could win alone.

• Find the primes. Filter by your NAICS code and agency, then sort by amount to see who wins the largest awards.
• Check their subcontracting. Open their awards and look at the Sub-Awards tab, which lists the subcontractors they've reported. The Subcontracting Plan field under Additional Information shows whether a plan was required. Large prime contractors need one above $900,000, or $2 million for construction.
• Read the profile. A company's recipient profile shows its UEI and the federal money it has received, so you can see if it's growing in your market.

Doing this by hand across many agencies takes time. A free FedReady account includes market research pages built on USAspending data: agency and company pages, plus past awards shown next to each opportunity. Free accounts also get a preview of the recompete radar, which lists contracts ending soon, and paid plans show the full list.

Next steps

Use what you learn here to aim your search. How to find government contracts shows where open opportunities are posted, and how to win your first federal contract turns this research into a 90-day plan. When a contract you're tracking nears its end, watch for sources sought notices from that office.

This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice. Rules and thresholds change, so confirm details on SAM.gov and the official agency sites linked above before you act. FedReady is an independent company and is not affiliated with any government agency.