FED-SPEND INTELLIGENCELive sources: USASpending.gov · SAM.gov · FPDS · GAO|Coverage: all federal agencies across every NAICS code|Tools: Recompete Radar · pWin Verdict · RFP Shredder · Price-to-Win|Pulled live from authoritative federal data
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Government Contract Lookup: Find Any Federal Contract by Number, Company, or Agency (2026 Guide)

Every federal contract is public record - if you know how to look it up. How to decode a contract number (PIID), where to search by award number, company, or agency across USASpending, FPDS, and SAM.gov, and the one-search shortcut that pulls it all together.

Fed-Spend Research Team•July 23, 2026•7 min read
TL;DR · Key Facts
  • ▸Every federal contract since FY2017 uses a standard 13-character PIID (FAR 4.1603): a 6-character office code, 2-digit fiscal year, 1-letter instrument type (C = contract, D = IDIQ, F = task order, P = purchase order), and a 4-character serial.
  • ▸Three free government sources cover every lookup: USASpending.gov (spending amounts and history), FPDS-NG (the contract action record of truth), and SAM.gov (active solicitations and entity registrations).
  • ▸FY2026 has 3.28 million contract awards to date worth $489.8B - all individually searchable by number, recipient, agency, NAICS, or keyword.
Source: Fed-Spend analysis of public federal contract data (USASpending.gov, FPDS, SAM.gov, GAO). Methodology and full report below.

What a contract number actually tells you

Since FY2017, every federal contract identifier (the PIID - Procurement Instrument Identifier) follows one standard format under FAR 4.1603. Take a real-style example: W91CRB26C0042

SegmentExampleMeaning
Positions 1-6W91CRBThe contracting office (Activity Address Code). W = Army, N = Navy, F = Air Force, 47 = GSA, 75 = HHS, 36 = VA
Positions 7-826Fiscal year the number was assigned (FY2026)
Position 9CInstrument type: C = definitive contract, D = IDIQ, F = task/delivery order, P = purchase order, A = BPA
Positions 10-130042Serial number within that office and year

That one string tells you who buys, when, and what kind of vehicle - before you look anything up. A "D" means there is a family of task orders underneath. An "F" means there is a parent IDIQ above it worth finding.

Lookup by contract number

USASpending.gov - paste the PIID into the search bar and you get the award page: obligated amount, period of performance, modifications over time, sub-awards, and the full transaction history. Best for "how much has actually been spent on this."

FPDS-NG (fpds.gov) - the government's contract action register. Every modification is a row. Best for procedural detail: competition type, number of offers received, set-aside used, place of performance. This is where you learn a contract was awarded with one bid received - the single strongest recompete signal there is.

SAM.gov - the live end. If the contract is being recompeted or a new solicitation references it, it is here. Also where you verify any company's registration, UEI, and size status.

The catch: these are three different sites with three different search grammars, and none of them will tell you what the numbers mean.

Lookup by company

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Type any contractor's name into Fed-Spend search or open their company profile directly: total obligations, award count, top buying agencies, NAICS mix, contracts expiring inside 12 months, and GAO protest record on one page. We publish live profiles for the top 400 federal recipients - Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Atomics, and 397 more.

On USASpending, use the recipient filter (watch for subsidiaries - "Boeing" is a dozen legal entities). On FPDS, search by vendor name or UEI.

Lookup by agency, NAICS, or keyword

This is where the free government tools get painful - and where lookup turns into market research:

  • "Everything the VA awarded in my NAICS this year" - search by NAICS + agency, sorted by value or date.
  • "Every contract mentioning zero trust awarded this quarter" - keyword search over award descriptions; we ran exactly this for our 90-day AI and cyber awards tracker.
  • "Which contracts in my market expire soon" - the Recompete Radar inverts the lookup: instead of finding a contract you know about, it finds the ones you should know about, sorted by expiration date.

    • The five-minute workflow, end to end

    Say a competitor just won work and all you have is a rumor and a company name:

  • Company page - pull their profile, see the new award in their recent history with the awarding agency and PIID.
  • Decode the PIID - ninth character F? There is a parent IDIQ. Look it up next.
  • FPDS the award - one offer received on a full-and-open award means a vulnerable incumbent at recompete.
  • Check the clock - period of performance ends in 14 months? It is already inside the 180-day recompete planning window.
  • Set the alert - save the search on that agency + NAICS so the recompete solicitation emails you the day it moves.

    • Every federal contract is public record. The gap between contractors who use that and contractors who do not is not access - it is lookup speed.

    Look up any contract, company, or market now - fed-spend.com/search. Free forever, no credit card, plain-language queries welcome.

    Same data. 68x cheaper.GovWin $40K/yr · GovTribe $25K/yr · Bloomberg Gov $5.7K/yrSee pricing

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