# Federal Contract Awards Search via USAspending.gov

> Federal Contract Awards Search via USAspending.gov is a paid API for AI agents from agent402.tools, paid per call via x402, $0.005/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-15).

Search US federal contract award records from USAspending.gov by keyword, returning recipient, amount, awarding agency, and description sorted by largest awards first.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://agent402.tools/api/federal-awards
- Price: $0.005/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-15
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/federal-contract-awards-search-via-usaspending-gov-c121f7ae
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_bwqXvEim9X9cuIaRAezHT

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability federal-contract-awards-search-via-usaspending-gov-c121f7ae
```

Example prompt: Search federal contract awards for 'Raytheon' and show me the top 10 largest awards — I want to see who awarded them and how much each was worth.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need live, no-auth access to US federal contract and grant award data from USAspending.gov, especially when searching by recipient name, program keyword, or agency. Prefer this over manual USAspending browsing or other government data APIs when you need fast keyword search returning the largest awards first without needing an API key.

## Known failure modes

- Missing required 'q' query parameter returns an error
- USAspending.gov upstream outage causes failed or stale results
- Very broad or ambiguous keywords may return irrelevant or noisy results
- Limit values outside 1-20 range may be rejected or clamped
- Payment of 0.005 USDC not fulfilled results in 402 response

## How this service works

Search US federal contract awards via USAspending.gov by keyword: recipient, award amount, awarding agency, and description - largest awards first. Live gov data, no key. ?q=Lockheed&limit=5

## Output

A list of federal contract award records from USAspending.gov, sorted by descending award amount, each including the recipient name, dollar amount, awarding agency name, and award description. Returns up to 20 results (default 5).

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "q"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "q": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Keyword to search awards (recipient, program, or description text)"
      },
      "limit": {
       "type": "number",
       "description": "Max results 1-20 (default 5)"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "query",
      "count",
      "awards",
      "source"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "count": {
       "type": "integer"
      },
      "query": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "awards": {
       "type": "array",
       "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
         "agency": {
          "type": "string"
         },
         "awardId": {
          "type": "string"
         },
         "amountUsd": {
          "type": "number"
         },
         "recipient": {
          "type": "string"
         },
         "description": {
          "type": "string"
         }
        }
       }
      },
      "source": {
       "type": "string"
      }
     }
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "count": 2,
  "query": "Lockheed",
  "awards": [
   {
    "agency": "Department of Energy",
    "awardId": "…",
    "amountUsd": 48063737196.35,
    "recipient": "LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP",
    "description": "…"
   }
  ],
  "source": "api.usaspending.gov (public domain)"
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/federal-contract-awards-search-via-usaspending-gov-c121f7ae/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from agent402.tools](https://www.zero.xyz/host/agent402.tools/llms.txt)