# US Federal Grants: Grants.gov Search & Monitor (MCP) (`amygraphics/us-federal-grants`) Actor

Official Grants.gov API for AI agents: find live US federal funding opportunities with amounts, deadlines and eligibility, and monitor keywords for newly posted grants. No key. MCP-ready.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/amygraphics/us-federal-grants.md
- **Developed by:** [Zakaria el bouami](https://apify.com/amygraphics) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Automation, MCP servers
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## US Federal Grants: Grants.gov Search & Monitor (MCP)

The **official US federal funding database** — every agency, one keyless API. Search live opportunities by keyword with **amounts, deadlines, eligibility and contacts**, or monitor your topics daily and get **`new-grant` alerts the day an agency posts**. No key, no login. MCP-compatible, agent-ready.

### Why this exists

30,000+ grant writers, nonprofits, researchers, cities and small businesses hunt federal funding every week. Grants.gov has the data but a search UI from 2003: no alerts per topic, no amounts in results, hours of copy-paste. This actor exposes the **same official API** with clean records and a monitoring mode that replaces paid grant-alert subscriptions.

### What you get per row

Opportunity number + title, funding agency, open/close dates, status, and for enriched rows: full program description, **award ceiling/floor, estimated total funding**, expected awards, cost sharing, eligibility, agency contact + email, and links (Grants.gov detail page + additional info).

### Two modes

#### `search` — find funding right now

```json
{ "mode": "search", "keyword": "solar energy", "enrichTop": 3, "maxResults": 10 }
```

Results come from the official search API. Set `enrichTop` (0–20) to deep-enrich the first N rows with descriptions + dollar amounts + contacts.

#### `monitor` — never miss a new funding announcement

```json
{ "mode": "monitor", "watchQueries": ["SBIR", "ev battery", "community health"] }
```

- **Run 1 = free baseline** — snapshots today's posted opportunities per query.
- **Run 2+** emits only **`new-grant`** rows for what was posted since.
- Schedule daily (or weekly); a quiet cycle costs **$0.001**.

### Recipes

1. **Grant-writer pipeline** — Zapier/Make: `new-grant` → row in Sheets → email to the team. Replace a $30–100/month alert tool.
2. **City talent** — monitor "transportation", "infrastructure", "climate resilience" and auto-brief the finance office.
3. **AI-agent research funding** — agents quote live federal programs with real agency contacts — not hallucinated URLs.

### Data honesty

All rows come from api.grants.gov at run time. Amounts are as published by the agency (federal programs often publish no ceiling — the field is empty, not invented). Status filters include forecasted/closed for research on past awards.

### Pricing

| event | price |
|---|---|
| Actor start | $0.001 |
| US federal grant | $0.001 / row |

Typical: 10-row search with 3 enriched ≈ **$0.011** · daily monitor ≈ **$0.001–0.005**.

### MCP / AI-agent usage

```
https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR_HANDLE~us-federal-grants/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN
```

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

search = find live opportunities by keyword (top rows enriched with amounts/description) · monitor = daily new-posting alerts per query.

## `keyword` (type: `string`):

(search) Funding topic, e.g. "solar energy", "SBIR", "affordable housing", "AI safety".

## `statuses` (type: `array`):

(search) posted (default), forecasted, closed, archived.

## `enrichTop` (type: `integer`):

(search) Pull full description + amounts + contacts for the first N rows (extra API call each). 0 = off.

## `watchQueries` (type: `array`):

(monitor) Keywords to monitor, e.g. \["solar energy", "ev battery"]. New postings -> `new-grant` alerts.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Cap rows per run (each billed row $0.001).

## `requestDelaySecs` (type: `number`):

Politeness delay between Grants.gov calls.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "search",
  "keyword": "",
  "statuses": [
    "posted",
    "forecasted"
  ],
  "enrichTop": 5,
  "watchQueries": [],
  "maxResults": 10,
  "requestDelaySecs": 0.3
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("amygraphics/us-federal-grants").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("amygraphics/us-federal-grants").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call amygraphics/us-federal-grants --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,amygraphics/us-federal-grants"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/zaQIQ40OV3K0PK6P7/builds/Jp2jINbR9gM1hxcHt/openapi.json