Federal Procurement Data System: How to Find Contract Awards

The public Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) award search is now in SAM.gov. Sign in, open Contracting → Contract Awards, search by an identifier or phrase, and narrow the results with filters such as agency or legal business name. Use DataBank for reports and downloads; use the Contract Awards API for repeatable programmatic queries.

SAM.gov says an account is required to view public Contract Awards search results, but no special role is required for that public search. The old ezSearch was decommissioned on February 24, 2026. SAM.gov’s FPDS transition page says that all public-facing FPDS functionality has moved to SAM.gov.

1. Search for an award in SAM.gov

Sign in to SAM.gov or create an account if you do not have one.
Open Contracting and choose Contract Awards.
Enter a known identifier or a specific phrase. The interface accepts searches such as a solicitation, notice, PIID, or other keyword.
Choose the search mode that fits your query. SAM.gov documents Any Words, All Words, and Exact Phrase, along with a Search Editor for more structured conditions.
Apply filters such as agency or legal business name to reduce irrelevant results. Depending on the task, awardee, set-aside, and other criteria may also be useful.
Open the matching record and inspect its fields and definitions before using it in an analysis.

Start narrow when you have an identifier; start with a distinctive phrase when you do not. Broad keyword searches can return many records, and a contractor’s legal business name may differ from its familiar trade name.

Find an award by contractor

Search using the legal business name when possible, then constrain by agency, time period, or another relevant field. If a company has subsidiaries, name variations, or multiple legal entities, search those separately. Confirm that the record’s awardee is the entity you intend to study rather than relying on a similar display name.

Find an award by identifier

If you know a PIID, solicitation number, or notice identifier, use it as the initial query. Check the returned record and related actions: modifications can update previously reported award information, so one identifier may be associated with more than one action.

2. Choose the right route: search, DataBank, or API

Task	Use	Why
Look up one award	SAM.gov Contract Awards search	Search interactively by identifier, phrase, agency, awardee, and other available filters.
Review a set of awards or download records	SAM.gov DataBank	Designed for reports and downloads.
Run repeatable queries in an application or analysis workflow	Contract Awards API instructions on Open.gsa.gov	Check current API access and key instructions, query options, and supported output formats.
Manage agency award records	Manage Contract Awards portal	This is a separate agency workflow; federal users access it with legacy FPDS credentials.

SAM.gov describes the API as supporting direct, on-demand queries, granular search, JSON and CSV formats, and richer data. Follow the current official API documentation for endpoint details, parameters, credentials, limits, and examples. Do not assume that an old FPDS endpoint, feed, or integration instruction remains current.

3. Understand what award records cover

SAM.gov’s official pages describe coverage in two related but differently worded ways:

The Contract Data page describes contract actions required to be reported by federal agencies, with an estimated value of $10,000 or more.
The FPDS transition page describes public search results as covering unclassified contract actions exceeding the micro-purchase threshold, plus modifications that change previously reported data regardless of dollar value.

Keep those descriptions distinct: they summarize reporting and public-search coverage in different terms. Do not treat a missing result as proof that no procurement occurred, or assume every procurement-related record or field appears in every search result. SAM.gov says award search is mostly used for policy and trend analysis; for a specific market comparison, verify the actual record and relevant field definitions.

Legacy FPDS data dictionaries and help resources are available through SAM.gov and the Federal Service Desk. Use the field definitions that apply to the records and reporting period you are analyzing.

4. Automate searches and downloads

For automation, start from the current Contract Awards API instructions. Confirm the required access method, API key process, query parameters, response format, pagination behavior, and any usage limits in the live documentation before building a client. SAM.gov identifies JSON and CSV as API formats.

A reliable integration should:

Keep credentials out of source code and logs; load them from a secret manager or environment configuration.
Use the API’s documented filters and pagination rather than downloading an unnecessarily broad result set.
Handle HTTP errors, timeouts, empty result sets, and response parsing failures separately.
Store the query parameters and retrieval time with downloaded data so results can be reproduced.
Validate field meanings against official data definitions before aggregating or comparing awards.
Recheck the API documentation before changing an existing integration, especially if it uses legacy FPDS services.

The research available for this guide does not establish a single stable endpoint and complete parameter list suitable for a copy-and-run API example. Use the current Open.gsa.gov documentation rather than guessing a URL or request schema.

Check the FPDS ATOM Feed status before migrating

SAM.gov announced that the FPDS ATOM Feed would be retired later in FY 2026. That is a time-sensitive notice, so verify its current status in the SAM.gov transition announcement before relying on the feed or scheduling a migration. Prefer the current Contract Awards API instructions for new programmatic work.

5. Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	What to do
Contract Award results are not visible	You are signed out or have not created a SAM.gov account.	Sign in. SAM.gov says an account is needed to view public search results; no specific role is required for that public view.
The old FPDS search link no longer works as expected	The public-facing search has transitioned to SAM.gov; ezSearch was decommissioned February 24, 2026.	Use Contracting → Contract Awards in SAM.gov.
A contractor search returns too many or no records	The query may use a trade name instead of the legal business name, or it may be too broad or too restrictive.	Try the legal business name and alternate entity names; use Exact Phrase or All Words when suitable, then narrow with agency and other filters.
An expected award is absent	The record may not fall within the search/reporting coverage, may be classified, may use a different identifier, or may be represented through a related modification.	Try the solicitation, notice, and PIID identifiers; inspect related actions; consult coverage descriptions and field definitions. Do not infer that no procurement occurred from one empty search.
A legacy feed or script stops returning current data	The integration may depend on a legacy service or a time-sensitive retirement notice.	Check the current SAM.gov notice and move to the currently documented Contract Awards API as appropriate.
Two records appear to describe the same award differently	They may represent separate actions or modifications, or use fields with different definitions.	Inspect the action and modification details and consult the official data dictionary before combining records.

6. Reliability, performance, and cost considerations

Reliability: For recurring work, use the documented API, handle transient failures and timeouts, and retain enough query and retrieval metadata to repeat a run. Recheck official migration notices for any legacy feed dependency. Search results represent reported procurement data and should be interpreted with their coverage limits.

Performance: Narrow searches with identifiers and filters. For large reporting tasks, use DataBank or the API route suited to the workload rather than repeatedly running broad interactive searches. Follow the API’s current pagination and request guidance; do not assume an undocumented rate limit or maximum result count.

Cost: The cited SAM.gov search, DataBank, and API materials are public federal data routes. The research dossier does not specify fees, rate limits, or service guarantees, so check the current official service documentation for operational terms. No paid research product is required to perform the basic lookup described here.

7. Capture a record or report for documentation

If you need a visual record of a SAM.gov page for notes, an audit trail, or a report, a browser screenshot can document what was visible at capture time. It does not replace downloading the underlying data or checking the record’s field definitions.

Open the relevant result or record in SAM.gov.
Wait for the page content you need to appear and confirm the record identifier is visible.
Capture the page or the specific section, then save the capture with the record identifier and date in your own notes.
Keep the source link and downloaded data alongside the image so readers can verify the record.

Or skip the browser setup

ScreenshotNeo is a website screenshot API and MCP server for developers. A single GET request can return an image or PDF, and its documented options include full-page capture, waiting for page content, and custom headers. See the ScreenshotNeo API documentation. Use it for a visual capture of a public record page; use SAM.gov’s official data routes for award data.

curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://sam.gov/ -o sam-page.webp

import requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot",
    params={"access_key": "YOUR_API_KEY", "url": "https://sam.gov/"},
    timeout=90,
)
open("sam-page.webp", "wb").write(r.content)

const q = new URLSearchParams({
  access_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY',
  url: 'https://sam.gov/',
});
const res = await fetch(`https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot?${q}`);
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Screenshot request failed: ${res.status}`);
await Bun.write('sam-page.webp', new Uint8Array(await res.arrayBuffer()));

Replace the example URL with the public SAM.gov record URL you want to document. Cookie banners, newsletter popups, and chat widgets are removed before capture; bot checks, blank pages, and failed loads are never billed. An MCP server lets AI agents take screenshots. The free plan includes 1,000 screenshots a month with no card, and paid plans start at $5 for 3,000.

Frequently asked questions

Is FPDS still available?

FPDS remains relevant as the name of the federal procurement data system and legacy data resources, but the public-facing award search has moved to SAM.gov.

Do I need a special SAM.gov role to search contract awards?

SAM.gov says an account is required to see public search results and no specific role is required for that public search.

Can I download federal contract award data?

Yes. Use SAM.gov DataBank for reports and downloads, or consult the Contract Awards API instructions for programmatic access.

Does a missing search result prove there was no federal contract?

No. Search and reporting coverage have defined scope, and records may be classified, reported under another identifier, or represented by a related action.

Can I use FPDS data to compare markets or vendors?

You can analyze reported award records, but verify the actual records, field definitions, and coverage before drawing comparisons.