# USAspending Federal Awards Scraper (`thirdwatch/usaspending-federal-awards-scraper`) Actor

Search US federal contracts, grants, loans, and direct payments from the official USAspending API. Export award IDs, recipients, agencies, dates, descriptions, and award amounts.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/thirdwatch/usaspending-federal-awards-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Thirdwatch](https://apify.com/thirdwatch) (community)
- **Categories:** Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.50 / 1,000 federal awards

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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 Awards Scraper

Search contracts, grants, loans, and direct payments from the official USAspending API. The Actor returns clean JSON records for federal procurement research, government-contractor discovery, market analysis, and recurring spending monitors.

### What you get

- Award ID and USAspending award URL
- Recipient name
- Award amount and type
- Awarding and funding agencies
- Start and end dates
- Award description
- Stable internal identifiers for deduplication

### Input

Choose one award category, provide one or more search terms, set an activity date range, and select the maximum number of results. Results can be sorted by amount, date, recipient, or agency.

```json
{
  "keywords": ["cybersecurity"],
  "awardCategory": "contracts",
  "startDate": "2025-01-01",
  "endDate": "2026-12-31",
  "sortBy": "Award Amount",
  "sortOrder": "desc",
  "maxResults": 100
}
```

### Example result

```json
{
  "award_id": "FA862118F6251",
  "recipient_name": "LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION",
  "award_amount": 653187539.71,
  "awarding_agency": "Department of Defense",
  "start_date": "2018-02-08",
  "end_date": "2027-12-31",
  "source": "USAspending.gov"
}
```

### Responsible use

This Actor reads public US government records through the official USAspending API. Respect the API service, avoid wasteful polling, and independently verify records before making financial, legal, or procurement decisions.

# Actor input Schema

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

Terms to find in federal award records, such as cybersecurity, cloud migration, or solar energy.

## `awardCategory` (type: `string`):

Limit results to contracts, grants, loans, direct payments, or search all award categories.

## `startDate` (type: `string`):

Beginning of the award activity period in YYYY-MM-DD format.

## `endDate` (type: `string`):

End of the award activity period in YYYY-MM-DD format.

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

Choose how the official API orders matching awards.

## `sortOrder` (type: `string`):

Return the largest or newest values first with descending order, or reverse the order with ascending.

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

Stop after this many unique federal awards.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "keywords": [
    "cybersecurity"
  ],
  "awardCategory": "contracts",
  "startDate": "2025-01-01",
  "endDate": "2026-12-31",
  "sortBy": "Award Amount",
  "sortOrder": "desc",
  "maxResults": 100
}
```

# 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 = {
    "keywords": [
        "cybersecurity"
    ],
    "awardCategory": "contracts",
    "startDate": "2025-01-01",
    "endDate": "2026-12-31",
    "sortBy": "Award Amount",
    "sortOrder": "desc",
    "maxResults": 100
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("thirdwatch/usaspending-federal-awards-scraper").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": ["cybersecurity"],
    "awardCategory": "contracts",
    "startDate": "2025-01-01",
    "endDate": "2026-12-31",
    "sortBy": "Award Amount",
    "sortOrder": "desc",
    "maxResults": 100,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("thirdwatch/usaspending-federal-awards-scraper").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": [
    "cybersecurity"
  ],
  "awardCategory": "contracts",
  "startDate": "2025-01-01",
  "endDate": "2026-12-31",
  "sortBy": "Award Amount",
  "sortOrder": "desc",
  "maxResults": 100
}' |
apify call thirdwatch/usaspending-federal-awards-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/qEds17UX5NNvJsFyd/builds/Q8XNsCUdgMfeXUnTi/openapi.json