US Gov Contract Watch Scraper

US Gov Contract Watch Scraper

Scrape US federal contracts, tenders, tariff schedules, and customs rulings from five official sources in one run. Every record comes as a flat row with source, title, description, dates, amounts, and agency. No API keys or logins. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Government contract data is scattered across USAspending, CanadaBuys, UK Contracts Finder, USITC, and CBP CROSS, each with its own search and export limits. This Actor queries all five in parallel from one search term and returns matching contracts, tenders, HTS tariff lines, and customs rulings in a single fixed schema. You get the raw public data without building five integrations.

Who uses it	What they scrape US Gov Contract Watch for
Market researchers	Which agencies are buying a specific product or service this quarter
Sales teams	New contract awards that match their solution category
Compliance officers	Tariff classifications and customs rulings for specific goods
Journalists	Federal spending patterns on a keyword across agencies
Procurement analysts	Tender opportunities in Canada and the UK for a given term

What it does

This Actor collects government contract and trade records from five official sources and returns each record as a flat row with source, title, description, dates, amounts, and agency.

• 🔎 Keyword search: one free-text query runs against contract descriptions, tender titles, HTS keywords, and CROSS ruling subjects.
• 📡 Five sources in parallel: USAspending (FPDS), CanadaBuys, UK Contracts Finder, USITC HTS, and US Customs CROSS rulings.
• 📊 Flat row output: every record has the same fields, so you can merge sources without cleaning.
• 📦 Export ready: CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, straight from the dataset.
• ⚙️ Per-source limits: set maxItems to cap how many records each source returns per run.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with US Gov Contract Watch data

📈 Track federal contract awards.

A sales team runs a weekly search for their product category and gets new USAspending awards with agency and amount to prioritize outreach.

🌍 Monitor international tenders.

A procurement analyst searches CanadaBuys and UK Contracts Finder for a niche term and exports all matching tenders to a shared sheet.

🧾 Check tariff classifications.

A compliance officer queries USITC HTS for a product keyword and reviews the matching tariff lines and duty rates before filing.

📰 Investigate customs rulings.

A journalist searches CBP CROSS for a material name and pulls every ruling that mentions it to spot enforcement patterns.

📊 Build a market landscape.

A market researcher runs the same keyword across all five sources and merges the flat rows to see demand signals from contracts, tenders, and trade data.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
One query, five sources	Search USAspending, CanadaBuys, Contracts Finder, USITC, and CBP CROSS at once
No API keys	Reads public government endpoints directly, no registration or OAuth
Fixed schema	Every record has the same fields regardless of source, ready for analysis
Parallel execution	All sources are queried at the same time, so runs finish fast

How it compares

No other Store actor targets US Gov Contract Watch the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	US Gov Contract Watch Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When US Gov Contract Watch changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with one search term and choose which of the five sources to query. The maxItems limit applies per source, so a run with three sources and maxItems 10 returns up to 30 records. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "query": "semiconductor",
 "maxItems": 10,
 "sources": [
 "fpds",
 "canadabuys",
 "contractsfinder",
 "usitc",
 "cbpcross"
 ]
}

A larger pull:

{
 "query": "semiconductor",
 "maxItems": 200,
 "sources": [
 "fpds",
 "canadabuys",
 "contractsfinder",
 "usitc",
 "cbpcross"
 ]
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.021 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$2.10
1,000 results	$21.00
10,000 results	$210.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the US Gov Contract Watch Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to US Gov Contract Watch through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/us-gov-contract-watch-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Try a broader or shorter search term. Some sources use exact phrase matching, so a very specific query may return nothing. Also check that the source you expect is selected in the sources input.

Why are results from one source missing?

Each source has its own availability and rate limits. If a source is temporarily down or slow, the Actor may return fewer records for that source. Re-run after a few minutes.

Why does the run take a long time?

The Actor queries all selected sources in parallel, but some government endpoints are slower than others. Reduce maxItems or select fewer sources to speed up the run.

Why do some records have empty fields?

Not every source provides the same level of detail. For example, a CBP CROSS ruling may not have an amount, and a CanadaBuys tender may not have an award date. Empty fields are expected.

Can I search multiple terms at once?

The Actor accepts one query per run. To search multiple terms, run the Actor multiple times with different query values, or use Apify's task scheduling to run a list of queries.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Which sources does this Actor scrape?	It queries USAspending (FPDS) for US federal contracts, CanadaBuys for Canadian tenders, UK Contracts Finder for UK public contracts, USITC for HTS tariff schedule data, and US Customs CROSS for customs rulings.
Do I need API keys or accounts?	No. The Actor reads public government endpoints directly. You only need an Apify account to run it.
How does the search term work?	The query is applied as a free-text keyword across each source's search fields: contract description, tender title, HTS keyword, and CROSS ruling subject. Each source uses its own native search syntax.
What does maxItems control?	maxItems sets the maximum number of records collected per source per run. If you select three sources and set maxItems to 10, the run returns up to 30 records total.
Can I run only one source?	Yes. The sources input is an array, so you can select any combination, including a single source like fpds or canadabuys.
What fields are in the output?	Every record includes source, title, description, dates, amounts, and agency where available. The exact field list is shown in the sample output from a real run.
How often should I run this?	Government data updates daily or weekly depending on the source. A scheduled run once a day or once a week is common for monitoring new awards and tenders.
Can I export the results?	Yes. The dataset can be exported to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify platform.
Is this legal to scrape?	Yes. All five sources are official public government websites, and the Actor only reads data that is publicly available without authentication.
What if a source returns no results?	The Actor continues with the other selected sources. The run will still complete, and the dataset will contain records from the sources that had matches.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by U.S. Government. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.