SAM.gov and the UEI: the once-only paperwork behind federal work

Free to register, slow to verify, and impossible to bid without. What a small contractor actually has to do, and what nobody should charge you for.

October 24, 2026 · 2 min read · by Chasedirt

Federal work has one door and it is not optional: your business has to be registered and active in SAM.gov, the government's System for Award Management, and it needs a Unique Entity ID (UEI). If you are only chasing city, county, school district and state work, you can skip this entirely — those buyers have their own processes. If federal work is in range, this is the gate.

What the UEI is

The UEI replaced the DUNS number for federal awards in April 2022. It is a twelve-character identifier issued to your legal entity, and it is what agencies use to find you, pay you and check you against the exclusions list. You get one as part of registering in SAM; you do not buy it separately, and there is no queue you can pay to skip.

It is free — and that matters

Registration in SAM.gov costs nothing, and renewing costs nothing. There are businesses that charge several hundred dollars to "register you" or to "expedite your UEI". They are filling in a free form for you. If you would rather not do it yourself, that is a service you can buy, but understand what you are buying: time, not access.

What you will need in front of you

• Your legal name and structure exactly as filed, plus your EIN.
• Your physical address and mailing address — a PO box is not the physical address.
• Bank details for electronic payment, because this is also how you get paid.
• Points of contact, at least two, with working email addresses.
• Your NAICS codes — the classification that decides which solicitations you can be found under.
• Representations and certifications, which are a series of yes/no answers about your business.

Two dates that matter more than the rest

Active at offer, active at award. Your registration must be active when you submit and still active when the contract is signed. A registration that lapses between those two moments can cost you an award you had already won, and there is no appeal that fixes it in time. Set a reminder a month before the expiry date; SAM sends warnings, and they are easy to file under "later".

Renewal is annual. Mark it in the same place you keep your insurance renewals and your licence, because it behaves the same way: harmless until the week it is not.

What it does not do

Registering does not get you on a list of bidders for anything in particular, and it does not notify you about work. It is the eligibility gate, not the feed. Finding the solicitations is a separate job, which is the whole reason we wrote the comparison piece — federal notices are on SAM itself, but the local and state work around the valley is spread across dozens of buyers who have never heard of it.