usaspending.gov APIusaspending.gov ↗
Access US federal spending data: search contracts and grants, get award details, list agencies by budget authority, and group spending by recipient or agency.
curl -X POST 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/5b0e32c7-a0f5-44e5-b985-35a41a088f63/search_awards' \
-H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
"filters": {},
"keywords": "Salesforce"
}'Search for government awards with advanced filtering. Returns paginated results of contracts and other award types. Supports keyword search and complex filter objects.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| filters | object | JSON object of filters including keywords, time_period, award_type_codes, agencies, etc. If award_type_codes is not specified, defaults to contracts (A, B, C, D). |
| keywords | string | Comma-separated search keywords to filter awards by (e.g. 'Salesforce' or 'Microsoft,Amazon'). Applied as keyword filter if no keywords are present in the filters object. |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"results": "array of award objects containing Award ID, Recipient Name, Award Amount, generated_internal_id",
"page_metadata": "object with page, hasNext, last_record_unique_id, last_record_sort_value",
"spending_level": "string indicating the spending level (e.g. 'awards')"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"results": [
{
"Award ID": "W91ZLK23F0033",
"internal_id": 350571756,
"Award Amount": 214096.6,
"Recipient Name": "CARAHSOFT TECHNOLOGY CORP",
"generated_internal_id": "CONT_AWD_W91ZLK23F0033_9700_W52P1J20D0042_9700"
}
],
"page_metadata": {
"page": 1,
"hasNext": true,
"last_record_unique_id": 349975873,
"last_record_sort_value": "W912JM25FA023"
},
"spending_level": "awards"
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the usaspending.gov API
This API exposes 5 endpoints covering US federal government spending data from USASpending.gov, including award search, detailed contract records, and agency budget figures. The search_awards endpoint accepts complex filter objects — keywords, time periods, award type codes, and agency filters — returning paginated award results with recipient names and obligated amounts. Two additional search endpoints let you group spending by category or look up recipient organizations by name.
Award Search and Details
The search_awards endpoint accepts a filters object that can include keywords, time_period, award_type_codes, and agency parameters, returning an array of award objects with fields like Award ID, Recipient Name, Award Amount, and generated_internal_id. Pagination is handled through page_metadata, which exposes hasNext, last_record_unique_id, and last_record_sort_value for cursor-style traversal. Once you have a generated_internal_id, pass it to get_award_details to retrieve the full record: recipient (including business categories and location), funding_agency, awarding_agency, total_obligation, period_of_performance dates, and a plain-text description of the award.
Agency and Spending Category Data
The list_agencies endpoint returns all federal toptier agencies with their budget_authority_amount and percentage_of_total_budget_authority, sortable by field and order. The search_spending_by_category endpoint groups spending totals by a chosen category — accepted values include awarding_agency, awarding_subagency, funding_agency, recipient, and state_territory — with each result carrying a name, id, code, and amount. A default time_period filter is applied automatically when none is provided in the filters object.
Recipient Lookup
The search_recipients endpoint performs a name-based autocomplete search, returning matching organizations with recipient_name, recipient_level, uei (Unique Entity Identifier), and duns. This is useful for resolving exact recipient identifiers before running a filtered search_awards query tied to a specific vendor or contractor.
- Track all federal contracts awarded to a specific company by filtering
search_awardswith a keyword or recipient name. - Compare agency budget authority amounts using
list_agenciessorted bybudget_authority_amountdescending. - Map federal spending by state using
search_spending_by_categorywithcategoryset tostate_territory. - Audit a specific contract's period of performance, awarding agency, and total obligation via
get_award_details. - Resolve a vendor's UEI or DUNS number before querying awards using
search_recipients. - Identify which agencies are spending most on a specific keyword by combining
search_awardsfilters withsearch_spending_by_category. - Build a spending dashboard showing top recipients by obligated amount using the
recipientcategory insearch_spending_by_category.
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 250 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does USASpending.gov have an official developer API?+
How does pagination work in `search_awards`?+
page_metadata object in each response includes hasNext (boolean), last_record_unique_id, and last_record_sort_value. Use these values to request the next page of results in subsequent calls.What filters can I pass to `search_awards`?+
filters object supports keywords, time_period, award_type_codes, and agency parameters. You can also pass a keywords string directly as a top-level input for simpler keyword-only queries.Does the API return sub-award or transaction-level data?+
Are all award types returned by `search_awards` by default?+
award_type_codes is omitted from the filters object, the endpoint returns results across award types. Pass specific codes in that field to restrict results to contracts, grants, loans, or other award categories.