What Is a Recompete? How to Find Expiring Federal Contracts Before the RFP

A recompete is a new competition for work the government is already buying under a contract that's about to end. When a contract runs out of option years, the agency has to buy the work again, extend the current contract, or stop buying it. A new competition is a real chance for a company that isn't the incumbent. You can spot most of these contracts months ahead, for free, with USAspending.gov and agency procurement forecasts.

What is a recompete contract?

"Recompete" isn't a formal term in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). In practice, it means the agency still needs the work, the current contract is ending, and the agency is running a new competition for the follow-on contract. The company doing the work now is the incumbent. It can bid again, but it has to win like everyone else.

Most federal contracts are built from a base period plus options. The FAR defines an option as "a unilateral right" of the government to buy more or extend the term. The contractor can't force the agency to exercise one.

USAspending.gov gives a simple example of how this adds up. A contract with a $10 million base and 3 option years at $1 million each has a potential value of $13 million. If the agency exercises every option, the contract runs its full length. Then the work is recompeted, extended or dropped.

Searching for "recompete" alone will also turn up the Economic Development Administration's Recompete Pilot Program. That's a grant program for distressed communities, not a contracting term.

How long do federal contracts run before they're recompeted?

Under codified FAR 17.204(e), "the total of the basic and option periods shall not exceed 5 years in the case of services," unless the agency approves otherwise under its own procedures. That limit doesn't apply to information technology contracts. The FAR overhaul text that agencies have been adopting since 2025 drops this general 5-year cap, but service contracts covered by the Service Contract Act are still limited to 5 years by law. Always check each contract's own dates rather than assuming.

Contracts don't always end on schedule. When the follow-on isn't ready, an agency has a few ways to keep the work going.

The 6-month extension clause allows the option to be used "more than once," but the total extension can't exceed 6 months.

Bridge contracts aren't defined in the FAR. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) defined them in a 2015 report as an extension past the end of a contract's options, or a new short-term sole-source contract to the incumbent "to avoid a lapse in service caused by a delay in awarding a follow-on contract." Bridges can run long. Of 29 contracts GAO reviewed in depth, 6 were longer than 3 years. One Army bridge planned for 12 months ended up spanning 42 months after more bridges were added.

What's the difference between the current and potential end date?

USAspending.gov shows two end dates for each contract, and the difference matters.

• Current end date: when the contract ends with only the options exercised so far. It moves each time the agency exercises another option.
• Potential end date: when the contract would end "after exercising any pre-determined extension options." In other words, the end of the last option.

Reading the two together tells you where a contract stands.

For indefinite-delivery contracts (IDIQs), the key date is different. The ordering period end date is the last day new orders can be placed, but orders already placed can run past it. See IDIQ contracts explained.

How to find expiring federal contracts on USAspending.gov

USAspending.gov is free and needs no account. It doesn't have a filter for end dates, as of October 2026. Some guides online suggest it does. The workaround is to pull contracts that are still active and then sort or download them.

1. Open Advanced Search at usaspending.gov/search and choose contracts as the award type.
2. Set the time period to recent years. This matches awards with activity in that range, which keeps out long-finished contracts.
3. Add your filters: your NAICS code, the agency you want to sell to, and the place of performance.
4. Sort by end date, or click Download for a spreadsheet. The download has both columns: period_of_performance_current_end_date and period_of_performance_potential_end_date.
5. Open the awards that end in the next 6 to 18 months. On each award page, compare the current and potential end dates, and note the incumbent, the value, how it was competed and the number of offers received.

Our USAspending guide walks through Advanced Search click by click.

Keep two limits in mind. Department of Defense and Army Corps of Engineers data is published 90 days late, so the newest Defense awards won't show up yet. And the old FPDS.gov public search closed on February 24, 2026. Contract award data is now searched in SAM.gov, with a free account.

Check agency procurement forecasts

Forecasts show what an agency plans to buy, often before anything is posted on SAM.gov.

The Small Business Act requires every agency with more than $50 million a year in contract actions to "prepare a forecast of expected contract opportunities" that small businesses can perform. The forecast must be revised during the year and made available to small businesses. Where available, it lists the number of opportunities, the dollar range, the fiscal year quarter the agency expects to issue the procurement request, and the office buying.

Where to find them:

• GSA's Forecast of Contracting Opportunities tool at acquisitiongateway.gov/forecast. GSA says "Registration is not required" to use it. You can filter by agency, NAICS code, place of performance and estimated award date.
• Agency forecast pages. Acquisition.gov lists more than 20 of them on one page.
• FedReady's forecast pages, which pull forecasts once a day from GSA's tool (which carries several departments' forecasts), the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Energy and NASA.

How to spot a recompete in a forecast: a November 2024 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo asked agencies to report new forecasts at least quarterly and make them available on GSA's tool, with a field for the existing contract number, described as the "previous PIID if recompete." When an entry lists an existing contract number, look it up on USAspending.gov to see the incumbent and the history.

Forecasts are plans, not promises. GSA's own page says they "can and do change" and are "subject to revision or cancellation."

Will the recompete be set aside for small businesses?

Not automatically, either way. Each new acquisition gets its own set-aside decision.

• The rule of two applies again. Above the simplified acquisition threshold, the contracting officer must set the work aside when there's a reasonable expectation of offers from at least two capable small businesses at a fair market price. A contract first awarded through full and open competition can come back as a set-aside if market research now finds those businesses. A set-aside can also go unrestricted if it doesn't. See the rule of two and set-aside contracts explained.
• 8(a) follow-ons stay in 8(a). Under SBA's rules, when work was awarded as an 8(a) contract, the follow-on "must remain in the 8(a) BD program unless SBA agrees to release it." See the 8(a) program in 2026.
• Size is checked again. A firm's size is judged on the date it certifies as small in its initial offer. An incumbent that has outgrown its size standard generally can't bid on a small business set-aside recompete as a small business. That can open the door for you.

This is why market research matters so much at recompete time. When the agency posts a sources sought notice for work that's ending, your response is one of the ways it learns that capable small businesses exist.

What can you learn about the incumbent?

A lot is public, and some things aren't.

Public on USAspending.gov, with no account: the incumbent's name and Unique Entity ID (UEI), the agency and office, NAICS and product service codes, place of performance, start and end dates, obligated and potential amounts, option exercises in the transaction history, the set-aside type, how the contract was competed, the number of offers received, the solicitation ID and any reported subawards.

The original solicitation. Search SAM.gov Contract Opportunities for the solicitation ID. If the old notice is still posted, it may include the statement of work, the wage determination and the questions and answers.

The contract itself, through FOIA. Anyone can file a Freedom of Information Act request, and there's no fee to submit one. The law gives agencies 20 working days to decide whether to comply, though many take longer. Trade secrets and confidential commercial information, such as detailed pricing, can be withheld.

Not public: past performance ratings. Evaluations in the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) are released only to government staff and the contractor rated. You won't know how the agency feels about the incumbent unless you ask around or the agency signals it, for example by holding an industry day or posting a sources sought notice that asks new questions.

When should you start preparing for a recompete?

No rule sets a number of months. The FAR says acquisition planning should begin "as soon as the agency need is identified," but it doesn't give a lead time. Advice from capture professionals online often says 12 to 18 months before the end date. Treat that as a rule of thumb, not a requirement.

Here's what the rules do say about the public notice:

• For non-commercial buys above the simplified acquisition threshold ($350,000), an agency must post a notice at least 15 days before it issues the solicitation, then give at least 30 days to respond.
• Commercial buys can skip the separate notice and post a combined synopsis/solicitation, with no fixed minimum response time unless a trade agreement applies. Smaller buys posted on SAM.gov don't need an advance notice either.
• In FY2026, the median solicitation outside the Defense Logistics Agency gave 15.1 days to respond, according to our response time report.

So if you first hear about a recompete when the solicitation posts, you'll have about two weeks to respond. By then the requirements are written and the set-aside decision is made.

A recompete watch list

• List the contracts in your NAICS codes that end in the next 6 to 18 months.
• For each, note the agency, office, incumbent, value, number of offers and both end dates.
• Check the agency's forecast for a matching entry or the existing contract number.
• Read the original solicitation on SAM.gov, if it's still posted.
• Save a SAM.gov search for that office and NAICS code, so a sources sought notice reaches you the day it posts.
• Introduce yourself to the agency's small business specialist with a capability statement.
• Decide whether you'll bid as a prime, team with someone, or approach the incumbent about subcontracting.

Next steps

• Learn the search tool behind all of this in how to use USAspending.gov.
• Get ready to answer the first notice in sources sought notices.
• If the work runs through task orders, read IDIQ contracts explained.

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.