How to Search
Digital IQ gives you three ways to find what you're looking for. Use whichever fits the question.
1. Browse by Agency or State
The fastest way to see what's active for a specific agency: use the agency dropdown in the header for the most commonly searched departments, or click the "Browse by Agency" links and state map on the home page. Clicking a state also shows a link to contact your Congressional delegation.
Only the top agencies are in the dropdown/quick links — if you don't see the one you want, use keyword search or ask the AI assistant instead (both cover every agency, not just the shortlist).
2. Keyword & Filter Search
Use the search box (header, or the full form on the results page) when you know roughly what you're looking for. You can combine:
- Keyword — matches contract titles (and recipient names for awards)
- Agency — any agency name, not just the shortlist
- State — two-letter code, filters by place of performance
- NAICS code — see "What is a NAICS code?" below
- Recipient — company name (Awards search only)
- Min / Max dollar amount — (Awards search only)
- No-bid / sole-source only — a checkbox to filter to contracts that weren't openly competed
Switch between Open Opportunities (bids you can still respond to) and Awards (contracts already awarded, including who won and for how much) using the Type dropdown at the top of the results page.
What is a NAICS code?
NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) is the standard
code the federal government uses to classify what industry a contract
falls under — every opportunity and award is tagged with one.
For example, 541511 is Custom Computer Programming
Services, and 236220 is Commercial Building Construction.
If you don't already know the code for your industry, look it up for free at naics.com/search (search by keyword, e.g. "plumbing" or "IT consulting"), then enter that code in the NAICS field on the results page to filter to just your industry.
3. Ask the Research Assistant
For a more complex or open-ended question, click the chat button in the bottom corner. You can ask things like:
- "What DHS contracts were awarded in Texas this year?"
- "Who are the top recipients for the Department of Energy?"
- "Show me sole-source awards over $5 million."
The assistant searches the same database as the forms above, so results are consistent either way — it's just a plain-English way to combine filters you might not think to set manually. A quick one-time verification step (a short code) appears the first time you use it each visit.
Checking a Company's Lobbying Activity
Want to see whether a contractor has also registered as a lobbying client? That data comes from a separate government system, the Lobbying Disclosure Act database (LDA.gov), run by the Senate Office of Public Records. It's not part of our search here — visit LDA.gov directly and search by the company's name under "Client" to see their registered lobbying filings, spending, and the firms representing them.
A Note on the Data
Every result links to its official source (SAM.gov or USAspending.gov) — use that link to confirm current details, since our database refreshes on a periodic schedule and can lag the live record. See our Terms & Privacy page for more.
