# USAspending.gov Scraper (US Federal Contracts & Awards) (`opendata-labs/usaspending-scraper`) Actor

Scrape USAspending.gov — the official record of US federal spending — for contracts, grants, loans and awards with recipient, amount, agency and place of performance, through the government's own public API. Built for GovCon sales intelligence, competitor research and B2B lead generation.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/opendata-labs/usaspending-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Joao Paulo](https://apify.com/opendata-labs) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Automation, Integrations
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 3 total users, 2 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## USAspending.gov Scraper — US Federal Contracts, Grants & Awards

Scrape **USAspending.gov**, the US government's official record of federal
spending, through its free public [API](https://api.usaspending.gov). No API key,
no anti-bot, no login. Find **contracts, grants, loans and awards** with the
**recipient (company), dollar amount, agency, dates and place of performance**.

Great for **government-contracting (GovCon) sales intelligence, competitor
research, market sizing and B2B lead generation** — the companies winning federal
money are qualified leads.

### Modes

- **Awards** — one row per contract/grant/award, sorted by dollar amount.
- **Recipients** — companies aggregated by total dollars awarded (top winners).

### Filters

Award category (contracts / grants / direct payments / loans / other), keywords,
recipient name, awarding agency, recipient state, and a date range.

### Example input

```json
{
  "mode": "awards",
  "awardCategory": "contracts",
  "keywords": ["cybersecurity"],
  "awardingAgency": "Department of Defense",
  "startDate": "2023-01-01",
  "maxItems": 500
}
```

### Output fields (awards)

`awardId`, `recipientName`, `awardAmount`, `totalOutlays`, `description`,
`awardType`, `awardingAgency`, `awardingSubAgency`, `startDate`, `endDate`,
`popState`, `popCountry`, `usaspendingUrl`.

### Notes

- Data is the official federal spending record (from 2007-10-01 onward via the
  search API).
- If no date range is given, the search covers 2008-10-01 to today.

### Keywords

USAspending scraper, federal contracts data, government contracts, GovCon leads,
federal grants scraper, government spending, contract awards, agency spending,
recipient data, SAM alternative, federal award search, B2B GovCon sales.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

What to scrape. 'awards' returns individual federal awards (one row per award). 'recipients' returns recipients aggregated by total dollars awarded (one row per recipient).

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

Type of federal spending to search.

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

Free-text keywords to match in the award (e.g. product, service or program). Leave empty to not filter by keyword.

## `recipientSearchText` (type: `string`):

Filter to awards whose recipient (company) name matches this text.

## `awardingAgency` (type: `string`):

Filter by the top-tier awarding agency name (e.g. 'Department of Defense', 'Department of Health and Human Services').

## `recipientState` (type: `string`):

Filter by the recipient's US state (e.g. 'CA', 'TX').

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

Only awards with activity on or after this date. Defaults to 2008-10-01 if empty.

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

Only awards with activity on or before this date. Defaults to today if empty.

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

Stop after pushing this many rows to the dataset.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "awards",
  "awardCategory": "contracts",
  "keywords": [],
  "recipientSearchText": "",
  "awardingAgency": "",
  "recipientState": "",
  "startDate": "",
  "endDate": "",
  "maxItems": 1000
}
```

# 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": [],
    "recipientSearchText": "",
    "awardingAgency": "",
    "recipientState": "",
    "startDate": "",
    "endDate": ""
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("opendata-labs/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 = {
    "keywords": [],
    "recipientSearchText": "",
    "awardingAgency": "",
    "recipientState": "",
    "startDate": "",
    "endDate": "",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("opendata-labs/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 '{
  "keywords": [],
  "recipientSearchText": "",
  "awardingAgency": "",
  "recipientState": "",
  "startDate": "",
  "endDate": ""
}' |
apify call opendata-labs/usaspending-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,opendata-labs/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/t6zI5eKQ7ktqh3CZM/builds/AVSKz7HB3rfqaF1qR/openapi.json