FPDS and USAspending hold the same federal contract records at different points in one chain. Contracting officers report each contract action to the Federal Procurement Data System, as FAR subpart 4.6 requires [3]. USAspending.gov, run by the Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service, republishes those records next to agency financial data [24, 33]. The choice between USAspending and FPDS data turns on when each copy updates, which records it leaves out and who may read it.
FPDS.gov has had no search page since 24 February 2026. GSA retired its ezSearch tool that day and named SAM.gov as the place to search contract awards [10, 11]. Reporting continues through SAM's Contract Awards Management portal, which GSA labels the "Former FPDS database" [11].
The copies differ in ways that change totals. DoD contract records stay out of public view until 90 days after signing [6]. The SAM.gov API returns contracts deleted in the last six months [14]. GAO found $77.5 billion of DoD other transaction agreements reported in SAM.gov for fiscal years 2021 to 2025 that were not reported to USAspending.gov [31].
USAspending vs FPDS: who holds what
| System | Run by | What it holds | Access | Updates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contract Awards Management portal ("Former FPDS database") | GSA | Contract action reports from agency contract writing systems | Federal users, legacy FPDS credentials [11, 13] | CAR within three business days of award [3] |
| SAM.gov contract award search | GSA | All contract award data once in FPDS.gov | SAM.gov account, no role [10, 11] | DoD records 90 days after signing [6] |
| SAM.gov Contract Awards API | GSA | Awards, IDVs, other transactions, recent deletions | Account, API key, daily limits [14] | Civilian-funded or civilian-awarded at once, DoD 90 days after signing [14] |
| FPDS ATOM feed | GSA | Legacy public and deleted-record feeds | No account. Still answered on 24 October 2026, retirement announced [10, 34] | Records modified that week [34] |
| USAspending.gov | Treasury | Contract transactions joined to agency account data | No account or authorization [10, 19, 24] | D1 two days after submission, File C monthly or quarterly [23, 26] |
What the reporting rule covers
FAR 4.6 defines a contract action as a purchase, rental or lease that uses appropriated dollars over the micro-purchase threshold, plus any modification regardless of value [3]. That threshold is $15,000 under FAC 2026-01 [4]. Grants, cooperative agreements, other transactions, real property leases and other non-FAR transactions fall outside the definition, and actions whose data would be classified are not reported [3].
Each contract action report (CAR) is due within three business days of award, or within 30 days for urgency and emergency awards [3, 5]. FPDS does not report subcontracting, funding or accounting data [3]. The FAR Overhaul text moves this duty to section 4.301, and both versions still name FPDS and link fpds.gov [3, 5].
Is fpds.gov decommissioned?
GSA's bulletin of 9 February 2026 carried the headline "FPDS.gov Decommissions on February 24, 2026". Its body retired one function: "GSA will decommission the ezSearch function within FPDS.gov on February 24, 2026" [10].
On 24 October 2026, the fpds.gov home page and its old help, wiki and data dictionary addresses answered with a permanent redirect to sam.gov/contracting [34]. The "Manage Contract Awards" link on SAM.gov still went through an FPDS login page [13, 34].
The FPDS ATOM feed and its replacement
In February 2026 GSA said the ATOM feed had been replaced by the SAM.gov Contract Awards API and would be retired "this coming summer" [10]. A SAM.gov announcement last updated on 18 August 2026 said "later in FY 2026" [12], a fiscal year that ended on 30 September 2026 [28]. On 24 October 2026 the public feed still returned about 100,600 records last modified from 20 to 23 October [34].
How the SAM.gov Contract Awards API works
The API's base version is dated 5 December 2025. An update on 25 August 2026 added publicDeltaDate, which selects records by last-modified date or reveal date [14].
| Feature | Documented value |
|---|---|
| Records per page | 10 by default, up to 100 |
| Synchronous search | The first 400,000 records only |
| Extract (a JSON or CSV file) | The first 1,000,000 records only |
| Deleted contracts | Those deleted in the last six months |
| Daily requests, non-federal user without a role | 10 |
| Daily requests, other personal keys and non-federal system keys | 1,000 |
| Daily requests, federal system account | 10,000 |
Source: [14].
By arithmetic, 10 search requests of 100 records give a member of the public without a role 1,000 records a day. An extract returns up to 1,000,000 records as one file, and the documentation lists an error for keys not authorized to extract [14]. The "unrevealed" set adds DoD records signed in the last 90 days and the awardee's immediate and domestic parent, and only users assigned to DoD may read it [14].
Where does USAspending get contract data?
USAspending's documentation says File D1 "contains procurement data derived from the Federal Procurement Data System" and that new data arrive two days after submission [23]. GAO wrote in September 2025 that USAspending.gov extracts procurement data from FPDS daily [32]. CRS wrote in May 2026 that SAM.gov "is the source for contract award data in USAspending.gov" [33]. The two older documents predate the February 2026 move, and CRS uses the system's new name.
Treasury's code and release notes show the switch. In October 2026 its Data Broker repository held a loader for the FPDS ATOM feeds and a newer loader for the SAM.gov API [30], which release notes of 22 September 2026 called "upcoming" [29]. The Broker's release notes of 3 November 2026 say it "Migrated from using the FPDS Atom Feed loader to the new SAM Contract API loader as the new source of contract data" [37].
File C comes from audited agency financial systems monthly or quarterly, and File D1 is published up to daily [26]. An award found only in File D1 lacks treasury account and outlay fields, and one found only in File C lacks recipient and competition fields [24]. For September 2025, USAspending counted 436,140 DoD procurement awards with no File C match, against 25,732 linked awards [26, 35].
Is USAspending the same as FPDS?
| Difference | What the sources show |
|---|---|
| DoD release delay | DFARS PGI 204.604, in its version effective 7 May 2026, keeps DoD CARs from public view until 90 days after Date Signed [6]. USAspending documents the delay for DoD and the Army Corps of Engineers [21]. |
| Deleted records | The API returns contracts deleted in the last six months [14]. USAspending's monthly delta files mark deletions with a D [25]. |
| Other transactions | Outside FAR 4.6 [3], but carried in SAM.gov [13, 14]. GAO found $77.5 billion of DoD agreements in SAM.gov and missing from USAspending.gov [31]. |
| Bulk files | New archive files arrive by the 15th of each month [25]. On 24 October 2026 the latest were dated 6 October [35]. |
The DoD delay shows in USAspending's own counts. On 24 October 2026 it held 18,343 DoD contract transactions dated 23 July 2026, 96 for 24 July and none for 26 July [35]. It held 256,876 DoD transactions for July and 71 for August, while Veterans Affairs counts were 8,639 and 7,969 [35]. A total for a recent period depends on which agencies it includes and the day it was pulled.
Opportunities and entity data are separate feeds
Opportunity notices come from a different SAM.gov API, which returns only the latest active version of each notice [15]. FAR 5.301 requires award synopses for awards over $25,000 that fall under trade agreements or are likely to produce subcontracts, plus some orders above the simplified acquisition threshold, with exceptions [7]. Award notices therefore cover fewer awards than the contract actions reported under FAR 4.6 [3]. Entities that opt out of public display appear in the Entity Management API only for federal system accounts with read permission for controlled data [17]. Matching one awardee across contract, entity and subaward records is covered in how entity resolution matches records. Subaward reports moved to SAM.gov when FSRS.gov retired on 8 March 2025 [16].
Choosing a source by question
| Question | Source that answers it |
|---|---|
| Every reported contract action and modification | SAM.gov award search or the API extract [10, 14] |
| Spending tied to agency accounts and outlays | USAspending.gov linked awards [18, 24] |
| DoD-funded DoD awards signed in the last 90 days | No public copy until the 90 days pass [6, 14] |
| Records deleted after reporting | The API's deletedStatus filter, or USAspending delta files [14, 25] |
| Other transaction agreements | SAM.gov [13, 14, 31] |
| Notices before award | The Opportunities API [15] |
Whichever copy a team uses, its pull date and scope belong with the records, as in datasets that state their limits.
Rillor's public procurement records link notices, awards, suppliers, line items and attached documents across U.S. federal sources, with per-page text extraction including OCR.
Read the full report
The full report traces the chain from FFATA and the DATA Act to each system, with GAO's data quality findings, the live tests behind the dated figures and the complete source list.