Federal Contract Intelligence: Track Government Awards with the USAspending API

USAspending.gov is the complete public record of how the US government spends money — trillions of dollars, every contract, grant and loan. For anyone selling to or competing in the federal market, it is the single richest source of competitive intelligence available. This guide shows how to turn it into a usable feed.

TL;DR: Use the USAspending Federal Awards Scraper to pull awards filtered by keyword, agency, NAICS, recipient, amount and date. Track which contracts your competitors win and when they expire (re-compete timing), size a market, or build a B2G lead list. No API key, zero charge on empty searches, first 25 awards free.

What USAspending actually tells you

Every awarded dollar is in there, with the recipient, the agency, the amount, the period of performance, the NAICS/PSC codes, and a description. That means you can answer questions that win business:

• Who won this kind of work, and for how much?
• When do my competitors’ contracts expire — i.e., when is the re-compete?
• Which agencies are actively spending in my category right now?
• How big is the federal market for what I sell?

The API is open, but it is a POST-only search with required award-type codes and different valid fields for contracts versus assistance awards. The actor handles all of that.

Track a competitor’s contract wins

Pull every contract a competitor has won, largest first:

{
  "awardType": "contracts",
  "recipientSearch": "Leidos",
  "minAmount": 1000000,
  "dateFrom": "2023-10-01",
  "maxResults": 500
}

Each record returns the awarding agency, award amount, start and end dates, NAICS/PSC, and a direct award_url. Sort by end_date and you have a re-compete calendar: every contract about to expire is a sales opportunity opening up.

Find agencies spending in your NAICS

Flip the lens to demand-side. Filter by your industry code and a recent window to see which agencies are buying:

{
  "awardType": "contracts",
  "naicsCodes": ["541512"],
  "dateFrom": "2025-01-01",
  "maxResults": 1000
}

Group the results by awarding_agency and you have a ranked target list of agencies actively spending on your kind of work — and the prime contractors already serving them.

Size a market in minutes

Set a keyword and a date window, pull the awards, and sum award_amount. You now have a defensible, sourced market-size figure for a category, a geography (placeOfPerformanceState), or a program — far faster than commissioning a study.

Pricing and reliability

The USAspending Federal Awards Scraper is pay-per-result: first 25 awards free on every account, then $0.003 per award. Searches that match nothing cost nothing. No API key, no rental — USAspending is open government data, and the actor makes it queryable at scale.

FAQ

Is this the same as SAM.gov? No, and that’s the point. SAM.gov focuses on active solicitations and entity registration. USAspending is the authoritative record of awarded spending — who won what, for how much. For award-level competitive intelligence, USAspending is the right source.

What award types are covered? Contracts, IDVs, grants, direct payments, loans and other assistance — every category USAspending tracks, selected with one dropdown.

How far back does the data go? The award search covers action dates back to 2007-10-01.

Can I monitor new awards automatically? Yes — save a filter as a task and schedule it. Each run returns the latest matching awards.

Do I need an API key? No. USAspending.gov’s API is fully open.