# US Federal Contracts & Spending Scraper (USAspending) (`foo121/usaspending-scraper`) Actor

Export US federal awards, contracts and grants by keyword, recipient, agency and date from USAspending.gov. Govcon competitive intelligence, pay per result.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/foo121/usaspending-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [ziv shay](https://apify.com/foo121) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, Lead generation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$5.00 / 1,000 result items

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/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#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

## US Federal Contracts & Spending Scraper (USAspending)

**The federal contracts scraper that pulls live USAspending data — award amounts, recipients, agencies, and descriptions — straight from the official USAspending.gov API, sorted biggest awards first.**

Built for govcon competitive intelligence and BD/capture teams who need fast, structured government contract data without paying for an enterprise seat. Also used by journalists and researchers tracking where federal dollars go. Search by keyword, recipient (e.g. "Lockheed Martin"), award type, and date range.

Data comes from the **official USAspending.gov API** — **no API key required**. Coverage runs back to **2007-10-01**, and results are **sorted by award amount descending** so the biggest awards land at the top of your dataset.

### What you get

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| `awardId` | Unique award identifier (PIID / FAIN / URI) |
| `recipient` | Name of the company or entity that received the award |
| `amount` | Award amount in USD (number) |
| `agency` | Awarding federal agency |
| `awardType` | Human-readable award label (e.g. "Definitive Contract") |
| `startDate` | Period of performance start date |
| `endDate` | Period of performance end / current end date |
| `description` | Award description text |
| `url` | Link to the award detail page on USAspending.gov |

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|-------|------|---------|-------------|
| `keywords` | array | `[]` | Free-text keywords to match against award data |
| `recipientName` | string | *(optional)* | Filter by recipient, e.g. "Lockheed Martin" |
| `awardTypeCodes` | array | `["A","B","C","D"]` | Award types. Contracts `A`-`D`; IDVs `IDV_A`..`IDV_E`; grants `02`-`11` |
| `startDate` | string (YYYY-MM-DD) | `"2025-01-01"` | Earliest award action date |
| `endDate` | string (YYYY-MM-DD) | today | Latest award action date |
| `maxItems` | integer | `500` | Maximum number of awards to return |

#### Example input

```json
{
  "keywords": ["cybersecurity"],
  "recipientName": "Lockheed Martin",
  "awardTypeCodes": ["A", "B", "C", "D"],
  "startDate": "2024-01-01",
  "endDate": "2025-06-01",
  "maxItems": 500
}
```

### Example run output

```json
{
  "awardId": "FA875024C0123",
  "recipient": "LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION",
  "amount": 482350000,
  "agency": "Department of Defense",
  "awardType": "Definitive Contract",
  "startDate": "2024-03-15",
  "endDate": "2029-03-14",
  "description": "F-35 SUSTAINMENT AND CYBERSECURITY MODERNIZATION SERVICES",
  "url": "https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_FA875024C0123"
}
```

### Use cases

- **Govcon competitive intelligence** — track competitors' new awards, agency wins, and contract values to size markets and time recompetes.
- **BD / capture teams** — find who is winning the contracts you chase, by agency and keyword, before the bid cycle.
- **Journalists & watchdogs** — follow the money on federal spending and surface the biggest awards by recipient or program.
- **Researchers & analysts** — build government contract data sets for funding, procurement, or policy analysis.

### vs GovWin IQ and other govcon-intel platforms

Seat-licensed govcon-intelligence platforms like GovWin IQ run **$12,000–$42,000/yr per seat**. This scraper pulls the **same underlying official award data** from USAspending.gov on a pay-per-result basis with no seat license.

**Honest caveat:** this returns raw federal award data, not the analyst layer (forecasts, teaming, opportunity scoring) that platforms like GovWin add on top. If you want the structured government contract data feed, this is the cheap, direct path; if you need the human-curated intel layer, this complements rather than replaces it.

### Pricing

Pay per result — you are billed only for the federal contract records returned to your dataset.

### Keywords

federal contracts scraper, USAspending data, USAspending.gov API, government contract data, federal spending scraper, govcon competitive intelligence, federal award data, contract awards by recipient, defense contract scraper, federal procurement data

# Actor input Schema

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

Free-text keywords to search award descriptions/recipients (e.g. "cybersecurity", "cloud migration"). Optional. Leave empty to pull all awards in the window.

## `recipientName` (type: `string`):

Filter to a specific contractor / recipient (e.g. "Lockheed Martin", "Booz Allen"). Optional.

## `awardTypeCodes` (type: `array`):

USAspending award type codes. Contracts: A,B,C,D. IDVs: IDV\_A..IDV\_E. Grants/assistance: 02-11. Default = contracts (A,B,C,D).

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

Earliest award action date (YYYY-MM-DD). USAspending data goes back to 2007-10-01 for search.

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

Latest award action date (YYYY-MM-DD). Defaults to today.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of award records to output.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "keywords": [],
  "awardTypeCodes": [
    "A",
    "B",
    "C",
    "D"
  ],
  "startDate": "2025-01-01",
  "endDate": "2026-06-20",
  "maxItems": 500
}
```

# 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 = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("foo121/usaspending-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 = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("foo121/usaspending-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

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

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

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call foo121/usaspending-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,foo121/usaspending-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/bMyRnxdCSjt5bMbcQ/builds/Bf1r4BcQaabbnQOO9/openapi.json