System for Award Management SAM

SAM.gov (System for Award Management) is the U.S. government's free, official website for doing business with the federal government. Operated by the General Services Administration (GSA), it is the single point of entry for entity registration, federal contract opportunities, award data, and assistance (grant) listings — a role GSA has steadily expanded by retiring older standalone systems into SAM.gov.

What it is

SAM.gov began by consolidating Central Contractor Registration (CCR/FedReg), the Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA), and the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS). GSA has since folded in additional legacy systems as part of its Integrated Award Environment (IAE) modernization: Contract Opportunities (formerly FedBizOpps/FBO.gov, transitioned November 2019), Wage Determinations (formerly Wage Determinations OnLine/WDOL, transitioned 2019), Assistance Listings (formerly the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance/CFDA.gov, transitioned 2018), and contract award data formerly on FPDS.gov (fpds.gov now redirects into sam.gov). Entities register in SAM.gov to become eligible for federal contracts and grants; registration issues a 12-character alphanumeric Unique Entity ID (UEI), which replaced the legacy DUNS number as the government's entity identifier in April 2022.

Who operates it

SAM.gov is operated by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), specifically the Federal Acquisition Service's Integrated Award Environment (IAE) program. GSA describes IAE as a government-wide initiative that has reduced the number of separate federal award-related systems and continues consolidating remaining functions into SAM.gov as a single environment with one login.

Access

Searching SAM.gov is free and public: contract opportunities, entity records, assistance listings, wage determinations, and award data can all be browsed without an account. A free account is required to register an entity, obtain a Unique Entity ID, or manage/renew a registration. Accounts are created and authenticated through Login.gov (a separate federal identity-verification service) — SAM.gov itself does not manage the username/password. There is no fee to register or to use any SAM.gov function; GSA and SAM.gov both warn that third parties charging a fee for SAM registration assistance are not required to complete the process. Registrations must be renewed every 365 days to remain active.

How logisticians use it

Acquisition, contracting, and supply personnel use SAM.gov to verify a vendor's entity registration status and Unique Entity ID before award, check the exclusions (debarment/suspension) list, search open contract opportunities and pre-solicitation notices, pull historical contract award data, and look up applicable wage determinations for service and construction contracts. Grants and assistance personnel use the Assistance Listings module (former CFDA) to research federal financial assistance programs.

Related systems

SAM.gov has absorbed or now hosts data formerly served by FedBizOpps/FBO.gov (contract opportunities), FPDS.gov (contract award data), Wage Determinations OnLine (wage determinations), and the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (assistance listings). It also interacts with CAGE/NCAGE codes (entity identifiers used across DoD and federal acquisition systems) and, as of early 2026, has begun absorbing subcontract-reporting functions formerly on the standalone eSRS system. Support for SAM.gov and related IAE systems is handled by the Federal Service Desk (FSD), a GSA-run help desk reachable through FSD.gov.