Grants.gov API: search federal grant opportunities from code, no key needed

Grants.gov has a public REST API for finding funding opportunities, and the two calls most people need don't require any authentication: search2 to find opportunities and fetchOpportunity to get the details of one.

The endpoints

Both are POST requests with a JSON body:

Grants.gov's docs state that authentication isn't required for either call.

Gotchas

• Check errorcode, not just the HTTP status. Responses wrap the data as {"errorcode": 0, "msg": "Webservice Succeeds", "data": {...}}. Treat anything other than errorcode: 0 as a failure.
• Multiple values are pipe-separated strings. For example "oppStatuses": "forecasted|posted". The statuses are forecasted, posted, closed and archived.
• Paging is rows + startRecordNum. data.hitCount is the total. Loop until you've read hitCount results or a page comes back empty.
• Dates come in several formats. Search hits use MM/DD/YYYY for openDate and closeDate, and closeDate can be empty. Detail records use strings like "Oct 11, 2023 05:17:55 PM EDT" and "2023-10-11-00-00-00". Normalise before comparing.
• Forecasts and synopses are different objects. In fetchOpportunity, a posted opportunity has a synopsis object and a forecast has a forecast object. Award ceiling, floor, eligible applicants and contacts live inside whichever one is present.
• Search results are thin. A search hit gives you ID, number, title, agency, dates, status and assistance listing numbers. For money and eligibility, call fetchOpportunity per ID, and keep the request rate modest.

Working example

import requests

API = "https://api.grants.gov/v1/api"

def post(endpoint, body):
    r = requests.post(f"{API}/{endpoint}", json=body, timeout=30)
    r.raise_for_status()
    data = r.json()
    if data.get("errorcode") != 0:          # failures can still come back as HTTP 200
        raise RuntimeError(data.get("msg"))
    return data["data"]

hits, start = [], 0
while True:
    page = post("search2", {"keyword": "broadband", "oppStatuses": "forecasted|posted",
                            "rows": 100, "startRecordNum": start})
    hits += page["oppHits"]
    start += 100
    if start >= page["hitCount"] or not page["oppHits"]:
        break

for h in hits[:5]:
    detail = post("fetchOpportunity", {"opportunityId": int(h["id"])})
    s = detail.get("synopsis") or detail.get("forecast") or {}
    print(h["openDate"], h["closeDate"] or "-", h["number"], h["title"][:60],
          "| ceiling:", s.get("awardCeiling"))
print(len(hits), "matching opportunities")

That prints the first five matches with their award ceiling (if there is one) and the total count. To build a daily "new grants" feed, store the IDs you've seen and alert only on new ones.

Grants.gov is separate from contract opportunities, which live on SAM.gov. See SAM.gov API: how it works for that side.

We built this

Disclosure: Your Evenings Ltd built and sells this. It isn't an official government product and isn't affiliated with Grants.gov or any agency. SAM.gov & Grants.gov Scraper on the Apify Store wraps both calls for you:

• It reads Grants.gov live during each run with search2 and fetchOpportunity, with no key, for posted and forecasted grants.
• It returns award ceiling and floor, estimated funding, expected number of awards, assistance listings, funding categories and eligible applicant types in a flat row.
• It filters by keyword (using Grants.gov's own search), agency and posted or due date, with agency and dates checked in code.
• It can return SAM.gov contract notices in the same schema in the same run.
• monitorMode on a daily schedule returns only grants you haven't seen before. Every row has source_updated_at.

FAQ

Does the Grants.gov API need an API key? Not for search2 or fetchOpportunity. Grants.gov's documentation says authentication isn't required for them.

How do I page through Grants.gov search results? Send rows and startRecordNum in the body, and stop when you've read data.hitCount results.

How do I get the award ceiling for a grant? Call fetchOpportunity with the ID, and read awardCeiling from the synopsis or forecast object.

Product names and logos belong to their owners. Your Evenings Ltd is not affiliated with or endorsed by them. This product uses the Grants.gov API but is not endorsed or certified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.