USAspending Federal Awards Scraper

Extract structured federal contract, grant, and award data directly from the U.S. government's official USAspending.gov API. This Actor provides powerful filtering, clean JSON output, and real-time access to billions of dollars in federal spending data across all agencies and award types.

The USAspending database is the authoritative source for federal procurement transparency. Every contract awarded by the Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, General Services Administration, and thousands of other agencies is recorded here. This Actor lets you filter by award type (contracts, grants, IDVs), fiscal year, recipient name, awarding agency, and more — extracting exactly the awards you need for business development, compliance, or research.

Key Features

• Complete federal awards database access — Contracts, grants, IDVs (Indefinite Delivery Vehicles), and direct payments
• Award type filtering — Isolate contracts (A), IDVs (B), grants (C), or direct payments (D)
• Fiscal year filtering — Defaults to current fiscal year; customize start and end dates
• Recipient filtering — Find all awards to a specific company, nonprofit, or institution (partial match)
• Awarding agency filtering — Extract awards from specific federal departments (DoD, NIH, NSF, etc.)
• Rich award data — Award amounts, outlays, performance locations, NAICS codes, PSC codes, and descriptions
• Pagination handled automatically — Fetches 100+ results efficiently in batches
• No authentication required — Public API, no credentials needed
• Batch-optimized output — Clean JSON ready for analysis, CRM ingestion, or business intelligence

Output Data Fields

Field	Type	Description
award_id	string	Unique award identifier (Award ID)
recipient_name	string	Name of the company, nonprofit, or institution receiving the award
award_amount	number	Total obligated amount (in dollars)
total_outlays	number	Total amount paid out to date
description	string	Award description or contract statement of work
contract_award_type	string	Award type code or classification
awarding_agency	string	Federal agency awarding the contract or grant
awarding_sub_agency	string	Specific sub-agency within the awarding department
start_date	string	Award start date (YYYY-MM-DD)
end_date	string	Award end date or current end date (YYYY-MM-DD)
recipient_location	string	Recipient's address or location
place_of_performance_country_code	string	Country code where work is performed (e.g., US)
place_of_performance_state_code	string	State code where work is performed
place_of_performance_zip5	string	ZIP code where work is performed
naics	string	NAICS (industry classification) code
psc	string	PSC (Product/Service Code) for procurement classification
covid_19_obligations	number	Amount obligated for COVID-19 relief (if applicable)
def_codes	string	Defense/procurement defense codes
recipient_id	string	DUNS number or unique recipient identifier

How to Scrape USAspending Federal Awards

1. Navigate to the USAspending Federal Awards Scraper Actor page on Apify Store.
2. Click Start to open the input configuration form.
3. (Optional) Select Award Type Codes to narrow results:
   • A = Contracts
   • B = IDVs (Indefinite Delivery Vehicles)
   • C = Grants
   • D = Direct Payments
   • Default includes all types
4. (Optional) Set Start Date and End Date to filter by fiscal year (e.g., 2024-10-01 to 2025-09-30 for FY2025).
5. (Optional) Enter a Recipient Name Filter to find all awards to a specific company (e.g., "Microsoft", "Red Cross").
6. (Optional) Enter an Awarding Agency Filter to fetch awards from a specific federal department (e.g., "Department of Defense", "National Science Foundation").
7. Set Max Results to control output size (default: 200, maximum: 50,000).
8. Click Start to run the Actor.
9. Download results as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the Dataset tab once complete.

Input Example

{
    "awardTypeCodes": ["A", "C"],
    "startDate": "2024-10-01",
    "endDate": "2025-09-30",
    "recipientNameFilter": "Microsoft",
    "awardingAgencyFilter": "",
    "maxResults": 100
}

Output Example

{
    "award_id": "CONT_AWD_FA8725_024_F0006",
    "recipient_name": "Microsoft Corporation",
    "award_amount": 15000000,
    "total_outlays": 8500000,
    "description": "Cloud computing infrastructure and AI services for Department of Defense",
    "contract_award_type": "Indefinite Delivery Contract",
    "awarding_agency": "Department of the Air Force",
    "awarding_sub_agency": "Air Force Research Laboratory",
    "start_date": "2024-10-15",
    "end_date": "2027-10-14",
    "recipient_location": "Puget Sound, WA 98001",
    "place_of_performance_country_code": "US",
    "place_of_performance_state_code": "WA",
    "place_of_performance_zip5": "98001",
    "naics": "541511",
    "psc": "D3",
    "covid_19_obligations": 0,
    "def_codes": "",
    "recipient_id": "0010000000"
}

Pricing

This Actor fetches data directly from the public USAspending API with automatic pagination. Compute costs scale with result count.

• Cost per run: ~$0.001 + per-result fees (single-digit milliseconds per result after API fetch)
• Actor start event: Default platform rate
• Per-result pricing: $0.002/result

A typical run fetching 100 awards costs ~$0.20 in Actor fees plus minimal Apify compute.

Use Cases

• Government contracting bid capture — Identify contract awards in your industry to find buyers and competitors
• Grant research — Find all federal grants to nonprofits or universities in your sector
• Business development — Track awards to competitors and identify similar government opportunities
• Compliance and audit — Verify federal spending records for compliance reporting
• Supply chain intelligence — Find subcontractors and prime contractors in your industry
• Policy research — Analyze federal spending trends by agency, industry, or geography
• RAG pipeline ingestion — Clean structured award data ready for LLM-based analysis of government spending patterns

FAQ

Is it legal to scrape USAspending.gov data?

Yes. USAspending.gov publishes federal spending data as open government data under 31 U.S.C. § 1122. The data is freely available in the public API. No authentication or terms-of-service bypass is required. This Actor simply automates access to publicly available information.

How much does it cost to extract federal awards?

See the pricing section above. At $0.002 per result, extracting 1,000 awards costs approximately $2 in Actor fees, plus Apify compute. Most runs complete in under 30 seconds.

What are Award Type Codes?

• A = Contracts (purchases of goods/services)
• B = IDVs (Indefinite Delivery Vehicles — open-ended contracts)
• C = Grants (federal funding to nonprofits, universities, state/local governments)
• D = Direct Payments (benefits, unemployment, social security payments)

For business development, focus on A (contracts) and B (IDVs). For nonprofit funding, focus on C (grants).

Can I export to CSV or Excel?

Yes. After the run completes, Apify's Dataset tab supports export to JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, and other formats.

What is a NAICS code?

NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) categorizes businesses by industry. For example:

• 541511 = Custom computer programming services
• 238910 = Site preparation contractors
• 621111 = Offices of physicians (medical)

Use the NAICS code to filter results by industry type.

What is a PSC code?

PSC (Product/Service Code) is a federal procurement classification. For example:

• D = Automatic data processing and related supplies
• F = Clothing, textiles, and footwear
• J = Maintenance, repair, and alterations

How often is USAspending.gov updated?

USAspending.gov updates in near real-time as agencies report new awards. Most new contracts appear within 24-48 hours.

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Legal Disclaimer

This Actor extracts publicly available federal spending data from USAspending.gov, which is published as open government data under 31 U.S.C. § 1122. No authentication, credentials, or terms-of-service bypass is involved. Users are responsible for ensuring their use of extracted data complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations, including any restrictions on resale or commercial use of government data. For support, contact the Actor developer through the Apify Store.