# Rate limits, credits and quotas

Each plan has a monthly credit allowance and a per-minute request limit.

- Free: $0. 100 credits a month, 20 requests a minute, 1 alert.
- Developer: $49/month or $490/year. 10,000 credits a month, 60 requests a minute, 5 alerts.
- Pro: $149/month or $1,490/year. 50,000 credits a month, 120 requests a minute, 25 alerts, bid, recompete and expiring-contract alerts, contracting-officer contacts from public notices, teaming partner search.
- Scale: $499/month or $4,990/year. 250,000 credits a month, 180 requests a minute, 250 alerts, bid, recompete and expiring-contract alerts, contracting-officer contacts from public notices, teaming partner search, bulk exports, signed webhooks, change stream.

## Credit weights

- Lookup by id: 1 credit.
- Search or list: 1 credit per 100 rows returned, minimum 1.
- History and award-history endpoints: 3x the search cost.
- Bulk export: 10 credits per 1,000 rows.
- Errors and 304 responses cost 0. Every answer states credits_charged in meta and the X-Credits-Cost header.

## When a limit stops a call

The API answers 429 with code RATE_LIMITED (per-minute) or QUOTA_EXCEEDED (monthly), the plan, the limit, reset_at and upgrade_url. Credit top-ups: $9 for 1,000 credits that never expire.

## Upstream limits this API removes

- What are the SAM.gov API rate limits? A non-federal SAM.gov user with no role gets 10 API requests a day; a user with a role in a registered entity, or a non-federal system account, gets 1,000 a day; federal system accounts get 10,000. Personal API keys expire every 90 days. Source: https://open.gsa.gov/api/entity-api/ (checked 2026-11-12).
- How many records does the SAM.gov Entity API return per page? The SAM.gov Entity Management API returns 10 records per page, and only the first 10,000 records of a query can be paged through; larger pulls use the asynchronous extract. Source: https://open.gsa.gov/api/entity-api/ (checked 2026-11-12).
- What are the limits of the SAM.gov Get Opportunities API? The SAM.gov Get Opportunities API returns at most 1,000 notices per page, and each query's posted-date range can span at most one year. Source: https://open.gsa.gov/api/get-opportunities-public-api/ (checked 2026-11-12).
- Does it cost money to register in SAM.gov? No. Registering an entity in SAM.gov is free at sam.gov, and registrations must be renewed every 365 days to stay active. Source: https://sam.gov/content/entity-registration (checked 2026-11-12).
- Which SAM.gov registration status can receive a federal contract award? Only an entity whose SAM.gov registration status is Active is eligible for award; an expired registration has to be renewed first. Source: https://www.acquisition.gov/far/52.204-7 (checked 2026-11-12).
- What does a UEI look like? A Unique Entity ID (UEI) is a 12-character alphanumeric identifier assigned in SAM.gov; it replaced the DUNS number for federal awards on 4 April 2022. A CAGE code is a separate 5-character identifier. Source: https://sam.gov/content/duns-uei (checked 2026-11-12).
- What is the SBA size standard for NAICS 541512? NAICS 541512 (Computer Systems Design Services) has a size standard of $34 million in average annual receipts under 13 CFR 121.201. Any proposed change is not in effect until a final rule is published. Source: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-13/chapter-I/part-121/subpart-A/section-121.201 (checked 2026-11-12).


Get a free API key: https://samgovapi.io/sign-up?ref=ai-claudebot