Federal contracting, by the numbers
What the open federal market looks like as of October 8, 2026, counted from every live notice on SAM.gov and DIBBS. Free to quote with a link.
Open solicitations
10,574
From SAM.gov and DIBBS, award notices and closed notices excluded
Reserved for small business
29%
3,109 notices carry a set-aside
Closing within 7 days
3,160
Deadlines inside the next week
Posted in the last 7 days
4,367
New notices in the last week
No place of performance
69%
7,308 notices never say where the work is
Not open for bids yet
2,659
Sources sought, presolicitations and special notices
What the data says
10,574 federal solicitations were open on October 8, 2026, counted from SAM.gov and DIBBS.
ContractsIntel, October 8, 2026 29% of open federal solicitations are reserved for small business or for a certification such as 8(a), HUBZone, WOSB or SDVOSB.
ContractsIntel, October 8, 2026 The most common reservation is small business, on 2,392 open notices.
ContractsIntel, October 8, 2026 3,160 open solicitations close within seven days, which is 30% of everything open.
ContractsIntel, October 8, 2026 69% of open federal solicitations never say where the work is performed, so a contractor filtering by state silently loses most of the market.
ContractsIntel, October 8, 2026 2,659 open notices are sources sought, presolicitations or special notices, which take no bid yet but are where an agency decides whether to set the work aside for small business.
ContractsIntel, October 8, 2026 4,367 federal solicitations were posted in the last seven days.
ContractsIntel, October 8, 2026
Reserved work, by certification
| Set-aside | Open notices | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Small business | 2,392 | 23% |
| Service-disabled veteran | 405 | 4% |
| WOSB and EDWOSB | 123 | 1% |
| HUBZone | 100 | 1% |
| 8(a) | 83 | 1% |
| Veteran-owned | 6 | 0% |
Questions about this data
Where do these numbers come from?
They are counted from the notices ContractsIntel collects from SAM.gov and DIBBS, the same records the product searches. Only notices whose response deadline has not passed are counted, and award notices, justifications and surplus sales are left out because nobody can bid on them.
How often do they change?
Every few hours. Federal buyers post on business days, so the biggest moves happen on weekday mornings.
Can I quote these figures?
Yes, they are free to use in an article, a class or a report, with a link back to this page. The machine readable version is at contractsintel.com/api/public/stats.