# USAspending Federal Award Search — Contracts, Grants & Loans (`aitoolsempire/usaspending-award-search`) Actor

Search US federal contracts, grants, loans and other awards by keyword, category, date and amount. Structured JSON with recipient, amount, agency and award links.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/aitoolsempire/usaspending-award-search.md
- **Developed by:** [Kenneth Bonnet](https://apify.com/aitoolsempire) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Developer tools, News
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 3.6% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 results

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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## USAspending Federal Award Search — Contracts, Grants & Loans

Search **US federal awards** — contracts, grants, loans, direct payments — by
keyword, category, date range, and dollar amount. Get clean, structured JSON with
the recipient, amount, awarding agency, and a **direct link to the award page** —
no browser, no API key, no rate-limit headaches.

> Point it at `"artificial intelligence"`, `"cybersecurity"`, a competitor's name,
> or an agency's spending, filter by amount and date, and get a ready-to-use feed
> of who won what.

***

### What it does

This Actor queries the **official USAspending.gov API v2** (`api.usaspending.gov`)
— the U.S. government's system of record for federal spending — and flattens the
results into a tidy dataset. Coverage spans **FY2008 (Oct 2007) to today**.

Each result row includes:

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `award_id` | Federal award / contract number (PIID, FAIN, etc.) |
| `recipient_name` | The company or entity that received the award |
| `award_amount` | Total obligated/awarded amount in USD |
| `awarding_agency` | Federal agency that made the award |
| `awarding_sub_agency` | Sub-agency (when available) |
| `award_type` | Award type descriptor |
| `start_date` / `end_date` | Period of performance |
| `description` | Award description |
| `agency_slug` | Agency identifier |
| `award_url` | **Direct link to the USAspending award page** |
| `internal_id` | USAspending internal award id |
| `scraped_at` | UTC timestamp of extraction |

### Example use cases

- **GovCon sales & lead gen** — find every contract mentioning your product area,
  who won it, for how much, and which agency bought it.
- **Competitive intelligence** — track a competitor's federal award wins over time.
- **Market sizing** — total federal spend on a topic (AI, cyber, cloud) by agency.
- **Journalism & research** — surface awards by keyword with citable links.
- **Grant discovery** — filter to `grants` and a keyword to map funding.

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `keywords` | array | Words/phrases to match |
| `award_categories` | array | `contracts`, `grants`, `direct_payments`, `loans`, `other` |
| `start_date` / `end_date` | string | Date range (`YYYY-MM-DD`) |
| `min_amount` / `max_amount` | integer | Award amount bounds (USD) |
| `max_results` | integer | Cap on records returned |

Example input:

```json
{
  "keywords": ["artificial intelligence"],
  "award_categories": ["contracts"],
  "start_date": "2026-01-01",
  "min_amount": 1000000,
  "max_results": 200
}
```

### Output

A dataset of federal award records (see the table above), sorted by award amount
(largest first). Export to JSON, CSV, or Excel, or read it via the dataset API.

### Pricing

**Pay per result** — you are charged only for award records actually delivered. No
monthly rental, no charge for empty searches.

### Notes

- Data comes directly from USAspending.gov, whose contents are in the **public
  domain**. This Actor does not alter award data.
- The Actor sends a descriptive `User-Agent` and paces requests politely.

### Disclaimer

This tool retrieves publicly available U.S. federal spending data from
USAspending.gov. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Department of
the Treasury. Provided for informational purposes only.

# Actor input Schema

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

Words or phrases to match in award descriptions, recipients, and identifiers. Example: \["artificial intelligence"], \["cybersecurity"]. Leave empty to search all awards in the filters below.

## `award_categories` (type: `array`):

Which kinds of federal awards to include.

## `start_date` (type: `string`):

Only awards with an action/period starting on or after this date. USAspending data covers FY2008 (2007-10-01) onward.

## `end_date` (type: `string`):

Only awards on or before this date. Defaults to today.

## `min_amount` (type: `integer`):

Only awards at or above this dollar amount.

## `max_amount` (type: `integer`):

Only awards at or below this dollar amount.

## `max_results` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of award records to return.

## `user_agent` (type: `string`):

A descriptive User-Agent with contact info. A sensible default is provided.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "keywords": [
    "artificial intelligence"
  ],
  "award_categories": [
    "contracts"
  ],
  "start_date": "2026-01-01",
  "end_date": "2026-06-30",
  "min_amount": 1000000,
  "max_results": 100
}
```

# 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 = {
    "keywords": [
        "artificial intelligence"
    ],
    "max_results": 100
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("aitoolsempire/usaspending-award-search").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 = {
    "keywords": ["artificial intelligence"],
    "max_results": 100,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("aitoolsempire/usaspending-award-search").call(run_input=run_input)

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

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

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "keywords": [
    "artificial intelligence"
  ],
  "max_results": 100
}' |
apify call aitoolsempire/usaspending-award-search --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=aitoolsempire/usaspending-award-search",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/lJ65gXuSjn1aTZl64/builds/BvdGJ1DeZDE7zquyH/openapi.json