How to Monitor SAM.gov for New Government Contracts

TL;DR: Every US federal contract over $25,000 is posted on SAM.gov — thousands per week. Manual monitoring is painful. Automated tools like GovBid scan SAM.gov daily and send you only the contracts that match your business.

Every US federal contract over $25,000 is posted on SAM.gov (System for Award Management). That's thousands of new opportunities every week across every industry — construction, IT, healthcare, professional services, cleaning, security, and more.

The challenge isn't access. SAM.gov is free and public. The challenge is that monitoring it manually takes hours, and the interface makes it easy to miss relevant contracts.

What SAM.gov actually is

SAM.gov is the official US government system for procurement. It replaced FBO (FedBizOpps) in 2019. It handles:

• Contract opportunities — Active solicitations you can bid on
• Entity registration — Your business must be registered here to bid
• Contract awards — Records of who won past contracts and for how much
• Exclusions — Lists of businesses barred from government work

For finding new contracts, you'll spend most of your time in the "Contract Opportunities" section.

How to search SAM.gov

The search on SAM.gov lets you filter by:

• Keywords — Search the title and description
• NAICS codes — Industry classification codes
• Set-asides — Small business, 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, WOSB
• Place of performance — State or city
• Response date — When bids are due
• Notice type — Solicitation, pre-solicitation, sources sought, award notice

The problem is that government descriptions rarely use the same words businesses use. A landscaping company searching for "landscaping" will miss tenders titled "Grounds Maintenance Services" or "Exterior Facility Upkeep." NAICS codes help, but many businesses don't know theirs.

Setting up SAM.gov saved searches

SAM.gov lets you save searches and opt into email notifications:

1. Run a search with your preferred filters
2. Click "Save Search" (you need a registered SAM.gov account)
3. Enable email notifications

The notifications will email you when new opportunities match your saved search. But they're keyword-based, so you'll get both relevant contracts and a lot of noise.

SAM.gov search filters most people miss

Most users search SAM.gov by keyword alone. These additional filters dramatically improve results:

• NAICS code filtering. Instead of searching "IT services," filter by NAICS code 541512 (Computer Systems Design Services). This catches contracts regardless of what the contracting officer titled them. See our NAICS codes guide for help finding yours.
• Set-aside type. Filter by "Total Small Business Set-Aside" to only see contracts where large companies can't compete. There are currently 1,849 set-aside tenders on SAM.gov. Learn more in our set-aside contracts guide.
• Place of performance. A contractor in Texas doesn't need to see contracts in Alaska. Filter by state to see local opportunities — SAM.gov tracks 23,000+ active opportunities across all 50 states.
• Notice type. Filter to "Combined Synopsis/Solicitation" to see only opportunities accepting bids right now. Skip "Sources Sought" and "Award Notices" unless you're doing market research.

How often to check SAM.gov

Daily. New opportunities post every business day, and the average response window is 14-30 days. Checking weekly means you'll find contracts with only a few days left — not enough time to prepare a competitive proposal. Checking monthly means you'll miss most deadlines entirely.

If daily manual checking isn't realistic (it takes 30-60 minutes per session to review results properly), automated alerts are the practical alternative.

Manual monitoring vs automated alerts

Common problems with SAM.gov monitoring

Too much jargon. A simple painting contract might be described as "Facility Sustainment — Interior Coatings Application, Multiple Locations." You have to read through pages of solicitation documents to understand what they actually want.

Buried deadlines. The response deadline isn't always obvious on the listing page. Sometimes it's in an attached PDF. Miss it and your bid is rejected automatically.

No relevance scoring. SAM.gov returns everything that matches your keyword, with no way to rank by relevance to your specific business.

Volume. Thousands of new opportunities post every week. Even with filters, reviewing them all manually takes significant time.

A better approach: automated monitoring

Instead of checking SAM.gov daily, you can use a monitoring service that scans every new posting, classifies it by industry, and sends you only the relevant contracts.

GovBid monitors SAM.gov every day and sends subscribers a daily email digest with matched contracts. Each match includes:

• A plain-English summary of what the work actually involves
• The buying agency and location
• The deadline (prominently displayed)
• The estimated value when available
• A direct link to the full solicitation on SAM.gov

The matching uses AI to classify contracts by industry — so you catch opportunities that keyword searches miss. If a contract is relevant to your trade but uses different terminology, GovBid will still match it.

You can also reply to your daily email to adjust your preferences. Say "only show me Florida" or "stop sending construction" and the system updates your matches.

Getting registered on SAM.gov

Before you can bid on any US federal contract, your business needs:

1. A UEI number — Unique Entity Identifier, assigned through SAM.gov registration
2. An active SAM.gov registration — Free, but takes 7-10 business days to process
3. A CAGE code — Commercial and Government Entity code, assigned automatically during registration

Start the registration process now, even if you haven't found a contract yet. You don't want to find the perfect opportunity and then wait two weeks for your registration to go through. For a complete walkthrough of the registration process, see our SAM.gov beginner's guide.

Further reading

• Browse US government tenders — Live SAM.gov listings updated daily
• SAM.gov Beginner's Guide — Registration, search tips, and common mistakes