AwardFind

Methodology

This page explains where our numbers come from and how we calculate them, so you can judge how much weight to put on them. When in doubt, check the linked record on USAspending.gov or SAM.gov.

Sources

  • Contract spending: the USAspending.gov API. We use its summary (aggregation) endpoints and store one small summary per page. We do not download or store transaction-level records.
  • Open bids: the SAM.gov Get Opportunities API.
  • NAICS codes: the 2022 NAICS list as published by USAspending.gov.

What counts as a contract

Spending figures include contract award types A to D: definitive contracts, purchase orders, delivery and task orders, and blanket purchase agreement (BPA) calls. Grants, loans and other financial assistance are not included. Indefinite delivery vehicles (IDVs) are excluded because money is obligated on the orders placed under them, which are counted.

Time period

Pages cover the last three completed federal fiscal years. A fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30 and is named for the year it ends in: FY2026 is October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026.

Obligations

“Obligated” is the amount the government legally committed to pay, summed over contract transactions dated in each fiscal year. Obligations can be negative when money is taken back (deobligated). Entities whose net total is zero or negative are left out of “top” lists.

Award counts

The award count for a fiscal year is the number of contract awards with activity in that year. The total across the period counts each award once, so it is usually smaller than the sum of the yearly counts.

Contractors, agencies, states and industries

  • Contractors are identified by their Unique Entity ID (UEI). Large companies often have several UEIs (divisions or subsidiaries), and each gets its own page.
  • Agencies are top-level awarding agencies, such as the Department of Defense.
  • States use the place of performance: where the work is done, not where the contractor is based.
  • Industries use the six-digit NAICS code recorded on each contract.

Top lists show the 10 largest entries by obligations. “Recent awards” are the 25 awards with the latest start (base obligation) date, and each links to its record on USAspending.gov.

Summaries

The short summary at the top of a data page is written only from that page's own figures. Some summaries are drafted with an AI language model that is given the page's numbers and told not to add any figures, names or predictions; the rest are generated from a fixed template. The tables and charts are always the primary source on the page.

Update schedule

  • Spending data: refreshed weekly.
  • Open bids: refreshed daily. Notices are removed once their response deadline passes.

Known limitations

  • Reporting delays. The Department of Defense publishes contract data with a 90-day delay, so totals for the most recent fiscal year usually rise for a few months after it ends.
  • Data quality. Figures are only as accurate as what agencies report to USAspending.gov. Names, codes and locations are sometimes recorded inconsistently.
  • Slight differences between totals. Rankings and yearly totals come from different USAspending.gov summaries and can differ by a few percent.
  • Open bids. We list solicitations, combined synopsis/solicitations, presolicitations and sources-sought notices posted in roughly the last 30 days and still open. Always read the full notice on SAM.gov before responding.

Page quality

Pages with less than $100,000 in obligations or fewer than 5 awards are kept on the site but hidden from search engines, because there isn't enough data to say anything useful.