How to Renew Your SAM.gov Registration (Free, Step by Step)

SAM registration renewal is free, and you must do it every 365 days to keep your SAM.gov registration active. To renew, sign in to SAM.gov through Login.gov, open your entity in your Workspace, choose "Update," then choose to update/renew your entire registration, review each section and submit. Allow at least 10 business days for processing. We suggest starting when SAM.gov's first reminder email arrives, 60 days before your expiration date.

How often do you need to renew your SAM registration?

Every year. SAM.gov says it plainly: "You must renew your registration every 365 days for it to remain active." Choosing to update/renew your whole registration makes it active for the next year.

Two things don't need renewing:

• Your UEI. Your Unique Entity ID never expires. If your registration lapses, you keep the same UEI. See what a UEI number is.
• Your CAGE code. You don't renew it separately. Keep your SAM.gov registration active and your CAGE record stays current with it. More in what a CAGE code is.

Your new year counts from the day you submit. SAM.gov's status guide says a processed registration "will remain active for 365 days from the date you submitted it for processing." So a full update you make in the middle of the year also restarts your year.

When does SAM.gov send renewal reminder emails?

As of September 2026, the Federal Service Desk (FSD) says SAM.gov emails the Entity Administrator when your registration will expire in 60 days, 30 days and 15 days, and again on the expiration date. The Entity Administrator is the person who manages your registration in SAM.gov, usually the one who first registered it.

That's the weak spot. If your administrator left, changed email addresses, or never checks that inbox, nobody sees the warnings. Look up your expiration date yourself in your SAM.gov Workspace, and put it on your calendar.

A free FedReady account can also watch the date for you. When you fill in your business profile with the UEI lookup, FedReady saves your SAM.gov expiration date and emails you 60 days and 14 days before it expires, and again if it lapses. It's a reminder only: the renewal itself still happens on SAM.gov.

Is there a SAM registration renewal fee?

No. Renewing is free, just like registering. SAM.gov's registration checklist says "There is no charge to get a Unique Entity ID, register your entity, and maintain your entity registration at SAM.gov." You also don't need to hire anyone to renew.

Scammers know registrations expire every year, so fake renewal notices are common. They arrive by email, phone and even mail, often with an urgent deadline and a payment link.

Real messages about your registration come from government addresses: .gov, or .mil for DLA's CAGE team. The one-time passcode you need to submit a renewal comes from donotreply@sam.gov, and the Federal Service Desk writes from fsdsupport@gsa.gov.

How to renew your SAM.gov registration, step by step

These steps follow FSD's renewal instructions as of September 2026. SAM.gov redesigned its registration screens in 2025 and 2026, so a label may differ slightly on your screen.

1. Sign in. Go to SAM.gov, select "Sign In," accept the government system terms, and sign in through Login.gov with the same email address you always use for SAM.gov.
2. Open your entity. In your Workspace, open the Entities section. Your registration is listed under its status (Active, or Inactive if it has expired).
3. Start the update. Find your entity, open the Actions menu (the three dots near the expiration date), and select "Update."
4. Answer the opening questions. Say if you're an employee or officer, and confirm you're authorized to act for the business. The first time, SAM.gov may also ask about your goal and who required you to register.
5. Choose the full renewal. When asked what you'd like to update, choose to update/renew your entire registration. Updating only your points of contact doesn't renew your registration.
6. Confirm your purpose of registration. Keep it the same, or switch between "All Awards" (contracts and grants) and financial assistance only. Moving up to All Awards asks for more information.
7. Confirm your CAGE code, legal name and physical address. If your name or address no longer matches SAM.gov's records, you'll need to go through entity validation and submit documents before you can continue.
8. Review every section. Go through Core Data, Assertions (your NAICS codes and size information), Representations and Certifications, and Points of Contact. Update anything that changed, then select "Save and Continue" on each page.
9. Submit. On the review page, select "Submit" and enter the one-time passcode SAM.gov emails you. You'll get a confirmation email when it's submitted and another when it's processed.

How long does SAM renewal take?

Plan on up to 10 business days after you submit. A full renewal goes through IRS and CAGE validation, and FSD's guide says to "Allow at least ten business days" for your registration to become active. It can take another 24 to 48 hours after that for your updated record to reach other government systems.

A few things can make it longer:

• Entity validation. If SAM.gov can't match your legal name and physical address, you upload documents for a manual review before you can finish.
• A failed IRS or CAGE check. SAM.gov emails instructions, and you may need to work with the IRS or the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), which assigns CAGE codes, before you resubmit.
• You can't edit while it's processing. Once you submit, you can't make more changes until SAM.gov finishes its reviews. Fix everything before you hit Submit.

If your renewal has shown "Submitted" for 15 business days or more, compare the status in your Workspace with the status on SAM.gov's "Check Entity Status" page. As of September 2026, FSD says to call DLA's CAGE line at 1-877-352-2255 if both show "Submitted," and to contact the Federal Service Desk if they don't match.

When should you start?

Our advice: start when the 60-day reminder arrives, or about two months before your expiration date. That leaves room for 10 business days of processing plus time to fix a validation problem, a lost administrator or a TIN mismatch. You can update your registration at any time, but a full renewal starts your new year from when you submit it, so renewing far earlier than that just moves your date earlier.

What happens if your SAM registration expires?

Your status changes to "Inactive Registration." In FSD's words, "No awards or payments can be processed while the registration is in 'inactive' status." Your UEI stays the same, and your old registration data is still there to renew.

What that means depends on where you are:

The bid and contract rules come from the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). Under the FAR overhaul text agencies have adopted, offerors must have an active registration "when they submit an offer or quotation, and at the time of award," and contractors must keep it active throughout the life of the contract "through final payment."

How to reactivate an expired SAM registration

You don't need a new registration. An inactive registration is renewed with the same steps as an active one: sign in, find your entity under Inactive in your Workspace, select "Update," and choose to update/renew your entire registration. Expect the same processing time, up to 10 business days, so renew as soon as you notice.

If you have a contract, tell your contracting officer that you're renewing and when you expect to be active again.

Common renewal hang-ups and how to fix them

A few of these deserve a closer look:

• The notarized letter. You only need one when there's no administrator left to assign the role. It must be signed in person in front of a notary (remote or online notarization isn't accepted) and sent within 30 days. It can't be expedited, which is one more reason to start early.
• A second administrator. FSD recommends giving the Entity Administrator role to at least one other person in your business. If the only one leaves, you'll need that letter, and FSD notes this "can delay renewing your registration."
• The TIN match. Your taxpayer name and TIN must match IRS records exactly. If you recently changed your business name or got a new EIN, the IRS records may not have caught up yet.

If you're stuck, free help is available. The Federal Service Desk at fsd.gov is SAM.gov's official help desk, and APEX Accelerators help U.S. businesses with registration at no cost.

SAM registration renewal checklist

Use this before, during and after each renewal:

Two warnings stay the same every year: renewal is free, and your UEI never expires. Anyone charging a fee, or offering to "renew your UEI," isn't the government.

Next steps

If your registration is new or you're starting over, follow how to register on SAM.gov. To protect yourself from fake renewal notices, read how to spot SAM.gov registration scams. With your renewal done, how to win your first federal contract lays out what to do next.

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.