Grants.gov API vs alternatives

At a glance

Prices and limits as each provider published them on November 8, 2026; they change, so check the linked page before you decide.

Grants.gov: two APIs and a daily file

search2. The Grants.gov search2 endpoint (POST https://api.grants.gov/v1/api/search2) searches opportunities by keyword, status, agency, eligibility, funding category and assistance listing; its documentation says "Authentication and authorization is not required for search2" (Grants.gov: search2). It returns summary fields; details take a second call per opportunity.

Simpler.Grants.gov API. The newer API needs a free key and, per its developer page, supports keyword and fielded search, pagination, sorting and full details for one opportunity, with default rate limits of "60 requests per minute and 10,000 requests per day per key"; inactive keys are disabled after 30 days without use (Simpler.Grants.gov: Developers).

XML extract. "Once a day, the Grants.gov database of grants is exported to an XML file"; the files listed on November 8, 2026 were 78.4 MB each (Grants.gov: XML Extract). The best choice if you want the whole database locally.

SAM.gov and USAspending

Federal contract opportunities are on SAM.gov, not Grants.gov. Its Get Opportunities API requires an API key, and "Request per day are limited based on the federal or non-federal or general roles" (GSA: Get Opportunities Public API). Past awards (who won what) are in the free USAspending API (api.usaspending.gov).

Commercial grant tools

Instrumentl's pricing page lists Discover at $299 a month paid annually ($349 paid monthly, up to 3 users), Pre-Award at $499 ($579 monthly) and Full Lifecycle at $999 ($1,159 monthly), each with a 14-day trial, and says it lists more than 37,000 active grants (Instrumentl: Pricing). Tools like this cover private foundation and corporate grants, which no government API does, and add application tracking.

Our Actor: Grants.gov API & SAM.gov Scraper

Grants.gov API & SAM.gov Scraper searches Grants.gov (no key), SAM.gov (your own free key), and optionally USAspending awards, NIH RePORTER, NSF awards, Federal Register funding notices and 19 state and local open-data bid datasets, and returns one schema. Monitor mode flags what is new or changed since the last run, and a webhook can deliver it. On November 8, 2026 the Store API listed $0.001 per record and $0.004 per source and keyword searched ($0.002 per optional detail fetch). This week's sample: New federal grant and bid opportunities this week. To rank opportunities against your organization, Grant Matching & RFP Bid/No-Bid Scorer does the scoring.

Where the alternatives are better

• Private foundations: Instrumentl and similar tools cover foundation and corporate funders; government APIs and our Actor do not.
• The whole database: the free daily XML extract beats any per-record price.
• Your own code, federal grants only: search2 and the Simpler.Grants.gov API are free.
• Our Actor fits when you want grants, contracts and state and local bids in one feed on a schedule, without writing the integrations.

Other Grants.gov Actors on Apify Store

From the Apify Store API (GET https://api.apify.com/v2/store?search=grants.gov) on November 8, 2026, the most-used results. Store pages show current figures; most Actors also charge a small per-run start fee.

Sources

All checked on November 8, 2026 unless noted.

• Grants.gov: search2 API
• Simpler.Grants.gov: Developers
• Grants.gov: XML Extract
• GSA: SAM.gov Get Opportunities Public API
• USAspending API
• Instrumentl: Pricing
• Grants.gov API & SAM.gov Scraper on Apify Store
• Apify Store API: search "grants.gov"