SAM.gov API rate limits: 10/day vs 1,000/day, and what actually requires entity registration
Every few weeks a developer discovers the SAM.gov opportunities API, builds a poller, and hits a wall the same afternoon: a personal API key gets 10 requests per day (as of 2026-08-17, per GovConAPI's rate-limit writeup and GSA FSD answers). Not 10 per minute. Per day.
The three tiers
| Key type | Daily requests | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Personal key (non-federal) | 10 | Free account, instant |
| Entity-registered system account | 1,000 | UEI entity registration: a 2–3 week government process |
| Federal system account | 10,000 | Being a federal system |
Two more gotchas: the API returns description as a link, so reading each notice's text costs an extra call from the same daily budget; and pagination costs calls too.
What GSA actually recommends
GSA's own FSD guidance points higher-volume users at the free daily bulk extracts of Contract Opportunities data — a full snapshot, no key, no quota. The catch: it's a large CSV you must download, parse, dedupe, and diff yourself, every day.
Your options, honestly
- 10/day is enough if you check one saved search a day. Do that and pay no one.
- Register your entity if you can wait 2–3 weeks and enjoy maintaining a poller against a government API.
- Parse the bulk extract — we documented the format.
- Or don't build any of it: SamHooks does extract → diff → filter → signed webhook for $19/mo flat. Quickstart, or see the DIY math.