Government contracts are a separate database from grants and a fundamentally different transaction. A grant funds you to accomplish a public purpose. A contract buys a deliverable from you.
For a business, contracting is frequently the larger opportunity — governments purchase far more than they grant.
Contract-specific filters
| Filter | Notes |
|---|---|
| NAICS | 2–6 digit industry code. The primary way contracts are categorized. |
| Set-aside | e.g. SBA, 8A, WOSB — restricts competition to certified businesses |
| States / geography | Same behavior as grant search |
| Minimum / maximum value | Contract value range |
| Deadline before / after | Omit for the default: currently open, biddable solicitations |
Set-asides are the advantage worth having
A set-aside restricts a solicitation to businesses holding a specific certification. That is a genuine structural advantage — you are competing against a much smaller field, not the whole market.
If you hold 8A, WOSB, EDWOSB, HUBZONE, SDVOSB, VOSB or SDB, add it to your organization profile so set-aside fit is factored into landscape scans automatically.
Facets are more useful here than in grants
Contract facets break down by state, value band, due-date window, NAICS, set-aside and top agencies. The NAICS and set-aside facets in particular will tell you very quickly whether a space is realistically open to you, before you read a single solicitation.
Researching past awards
Switch the opportunity type to awarded to search contracts that have already been awarded, sourced from USASpending. These are labeled and are not biddable — they are competitive intelligence.
Seeing who won similar work, at what value, from which agency, is the most honest research available for pricing and positioning a bid. It is free and almost nobody does it.
Where to go deeper
The mechanics of registration, set-aside certification and the capture lifecycle are covered in the eligibility and registration guide.