How to Find Who Won a Federal Contract

There are three public places to look, and they answer slightly different questions: SAM.gov award notices, the federal contract award data that used to live on FPDS.gov, and USAspending.gov. The thread that ties them together is the contract number, called the PIID.

1. SAM.gov award notices

When an agency announces an award, it posts an award notice on SAM.gov, often linked to the original solicitation. Under FAR Part 5, agencies publicize many awards above a dollar threshold. A notice typically shows the awardee's name, the award date, the contract number and an award amount.

Award notices are the quickest source, but they are incomplete. Many awards, including most small purchases and many orders under existing contracts, never get one. And the amount may be a base value, a total including options, or the ceiling of an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract, which is a limit on future orders rather than money spent.

2. Federal contract award data (formerly FPDS)

Agencies report contract actions to the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS), generally including every action above the micro-purchase threshold, under FAR Part 4. This is the authoritative record of federal contract awards and modifications. The old FPDS.gov search site was retired in February 2026, and contract award data is now searched in SAM.gov; see sam.gov/fpds for how.

3. USAspending.gov

USAspending.gov is the official public site for federal spending. It publishes contract award data alongside agency financial data, and anyone can search it without an account by recipient, agency, NAICS code, product or service code, place of performance or award ID. For each award it shows the recipient, the amount obligated over time, every modification, and for orders, the parent contract they were placed under.

Two things to know. First, Department of Defense contract data is generally published with a 90-day delay. Second, USAspending reports obligations, the money the government has committed, which is different from a contract's potential value with all options or an IDIQ ceiling.

Reading a PIID

The Procurement Instrument Identifier (PIID) is the contract or order number. Agencies now assign PIIDs in a uniform format set out in FAR Part 4:

• Characters 1 to 6: the code of the contracting office that made the award.
• Characters 7 and 8: the last two digits of the fiscal year of award. The federal fiscal year starts on October 1.
• Character 9: a letter for the type of instrument, for example C for a contract, D for an indefinite-delivery contract and F for a task or delivery order.
• The rest: a serial number assigned by the office.

PIIDs are unique within an agency, not across the whole government, so when you search USAspending by PIID, check the awarding agency too. Older contracts may use earlier numbering schemes.

A quick method

1. Start with the award notice, if there is one: note the awardee, date, amount and contract number.
2. Search USAspending.gov for the contract number to see obligations to date, modifications and the period of performance.
3. If there is no award notice, search USAspending by agency, NAICS code and date range, or by a likely recipient.
4. For a full picture of one company, search USAspending by recipient name or UEI to see all of its federal awards.

How CapitolBids shows awards

• Award notices in search. Filter search to the Award Notice type or the Awarded status, and combine it with NAICS code, state or agency to see who is winning in your market.
• Award details on the notice page. With a free account, each notice shows the awarded supplier, award date and award amount from SAM.gov, plus a link to the official record.
• Supplier and agency profiles. The supplier directory collects the companies named in award notices, and agency profiles show what each buyer has published.
• USAspending amounts in statistics. Where an award notice's contract number matches a recent USAspending contract award, CapitolBids uses the obligated amount in its market statistics. IDIQ and agreement ceilings are left out of value totals, because they are limits rather than spending.