A typical small contractor needs 6-15 SAM.gov searches a day. The free cap is 10.

Here's the arithmetic that breaks every DIY SAM.gov integration (as of 2026-08-17, per GovConAPI's analysis): a typical small contractor tracks 3–5 NAICS codes across 2–3 states. That's 6–15 distinct searches a day. The free personal API key allows 10 requests a day, total.

It gets worse

• Each notice's description is a separate API call from the same budget.
• Checking morning and afternoon doubles the count.
• Pagination beyond the first page? Also a call.

So the real choice is: prune your searches to fit an artificial cap, spend 2–3 weeks on entity registration for the 1,000/day tier (the tiers explained), or move off the API entirely.

The off-API path

The free daily bulk extract has no quota — every opportunity, every day, if you run the download/parse/diff pipeline. SamHooks runs that pipeline and turns it into your filters × zero requests: changes come to you as signed webhooks and RSS. See the full DIY comparison or the quickstart.