How do I find government contracts?

Start with currently posted federal notices (9,890 in PrimeRFP SCOUT’s 90-day snapshot as of October 16, 2026), then check expiring awards for incumbents already on a clock, then agency forecasts for named planning programs. SAM.gov is the posting system; SCOUT is the dated count plus the award and recompete layer.

Is SAM.gov the only place to find federal contracts?

SAM.gov is where federal solicitations are posted. Finding the work also means award history (who won), expiring contracts (who holds it now), and forecasts (what the agency says is coming). Those records are not all on a SAM.gov search results page.

What is the difference between an RFP and a Sources Sought?

An RFP is a formal solicitation. A Sources Sought is market research before the RFP. This snapshot has 812 federal RFPs and 149 Sources Sought notices.

How do I find expiring government contracts?

Use the expiring slices: VA plus the top 10 intel-hub NAICS codes by 14-month ≥$10M pipeline dollars (October 16, 2026 pull), or Recompete Radar for the all-agency book. Each row has incumbent, PIID, estimated value, and expiry_date.

How to find government contracts · October 16, 2026

How to find government contracts

As of October 16, 2026, there are 9,890 open federal solicitations in PrimeRFP SCOUT’s 90-day snapshot, plus 812 RFPs and 149 Sources Sought notices. Finding government contracts means working three layers: live SAM.gov-class notices, expiring awards before they re-solicit, and agency forecasts where the feed is named and usable.

Data as of October 16, 202690-day open notices · 14-month expiring slicesPrimeRFP SCOUT citation snapshot

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9,890

Open federal notices

812

RFPs

149

Sources Sought

$35.0B

VA expiring pipeline

Three layers — start with the page that matches the question

Layer	What it answers	This snapshot
Live notices	What is posted now?	9,890 federal · 812 RFP · 149 Sources Sought
Expiring awards	Who already holds the work?	VA $35.0B · top NAICS 541330 $41.0B · 236220 $38.7B
Forecasts	What is the agency planning?	GSA named AAS · DOJ FCO (DHS/DOT held)

Capture read

Keyword-only SAM.gov search is the default and it misses notice types and incumbents. Start with the open-notice count, add Sources Sought if you want to shape requirements, then open the expiring slice that matches your agency or NAICS. Forecasts are optional and only when the feed named a program.

SAM.gov contract opportunities

9,890 open federal notices in the 90-day snapshot.

Sources Sought tracker

Pre-solicitation notices before the RFP.

Expiring contracts

Agency and NAICS clocks from this pass.

Government contracts for small business

Same snapshot, small-business starting points.

SLED contract intelligence platforms

State, local, and education coverage, scoped during customer onboarding.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find government contracts?: Start with currently posted federal notices (9,890 in PrimeRFP SCOUT’s 90-day snapshot as of October 16, 2026), then check expiring awards for incumbents already on a clock, then agency forecasts for named planning programs. SAM.gov is the posting system; SCOUT is the dated count plus the award and recompete layer.
Is SAM.gov the only place to find federal contracts?: SAM.gov is where federal solicitations are posted. Finding the work also means award history (who won), expiring contracts (who holds it now), and forecasts (what the agency says is coming). Those records are not all on a SAM.gov search results page.
What is the difference between an RFP and a Sources Sought?: An RFP is a formal solicitation. A Sources Sought is market research before the RFP. This snapshot has 812 federal RFPs and 149 Sources Sought notices.
How do I find expiring government contracts?: Use the expiring slices: VA plus the top 10 intel-hub NAICS codes by 14-month ≥$10M pipeline dollars (October 16, 2026 pull), or Recompete Radar for the all-agency book. Each row has incumbent, PIID, estimated value, and expiry_date.

Methodology

Open-notice counts: get_opportunity_summary (federal, 90 days, Award notices excluded). Expiring: find_recompete_contracts (14 months, ≥$10M). Forecasts: find_pipeline_forecasts (publishable feeds only). Pulled October 16, 2026.

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Data & Methodology

Federal contract and award data sourced from government procurement systems — including FPDS-NG, SAM.gov, and related federal data repositories. PrimeRFP SCOUT ingests, normalizes, and continuously updates records as agencies publish them. Reporting timelines vary by agency; some components (particularly DoD) carry a 60–90 day lag relative to award execution.

Dataset coverage — ≥ $100K floor

All intelligence on this page and within SCOUT is filtered to federal contract awards whose current total award value is $100K or more. PrimeRFP applies this floor at the award level (on current_total_value_award), not per-transaction, so large awards split across many mid-size obligation lines are retained in full. PrimeRFP's own empirical sampling against the raw USASpending dataset shows this threshold captures 98%+ of total federal contract dollars while excluding a long tail of micro-purchases, small modifications, and administrative actions — the trade-off that makes market intelligence tractable without distorting the dollar picture. Coverage: 560,000+ active contract awards and 2.5M+ unique awardees, including small-business set-asides, task orders, and mid-market opportunities.

Award identification: Each record is keyed by federal Award ID (PIID). Task orders recorded as independent awards appear as separate rows. IDIQs and their task orders are tracked distinctly.

Why SCOUT dollar figures differ from published annual totals: Per-agency dollar figures on SCOUT intelligence pages aggregate all USASpending transaction records — including base contract awards, task orders, delivery orders, and modifications to existing contracts. Annual federal contract obligation figures cited in industry reports (e.g., FY2025: $833.8B per Bloomberg Government) count only new prime award actions in the fiscal year, excluding mods. An IDIQ vehicle (like OASIS+) carries no obligation at award — only task orders issued against it are counted. SCOUT's transaction-level aggregates are larger because they capture the full activity picture across a contract's lifecycle, making them useful for competitive analysis and pipeline sizing rather than year-over-year spending comparison.

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SCOUT Durability, a contract read · named incumbent · receipts you can trace

Three layers — start with the page that matches the question

Capture read

Related

Frequently asked questions

Methodology

This page will not tell you what the award is doing. But the FY27 Sprint will — start with a free Exposure Check.