How to Get Government Contracts: A Step-by-Step Guide With Real FY2025 Data
A government contract is a deal between your business and a federal agency: the agency buys goods or services, and you deliver them under the terms of the contract. Anyone can compete — there is no license that reserves federal contracting for big companies — but the process has its own language, registrations, and rules, and newcomers who skip the groundwork usually lose their first bids.
Most guides to this topic stop at the process: register, search, bid. This one does that too, but it adds something none of the top-ranking guides have — real FY2025 spending data from USAspending.gov, showing which agencies actually award the money, which companies win it, and where the work is performed. If you are deciding where to compete, those numbers matter more than generic encouragement.
Key facts
- The 1,000 largest federal contractors recorded $554.25 billion in FY2025 prime contract obligations.
- The Department of Defense accounts for 61.5% of that total — $340.86 billion.
- The largest contractor, Lockheed Martin, won $64.73 billion in FY2025.
- The most contract work is performed in Virginia ($97.36 billion), followed by Texas and California.
- SAM.gov registration is free — the government charges nothing to register or bid.
Step 1: Register your business on SAM.gov
Everything starts at SAM.gov, the government's system for award management. Registration is free and it is mandatory: an agency cannot award you a contract until your entity registration is active.
During registration you will receive a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and a CAGE code, which identify your business in the federal system. You will also select NAICS codes — the industry codes that describe what you sell. Choose them carefully: agencies and prime contractors search by NAICS code when they look for suppliers, so the codes you pick decide whether buyers can find you at all.
If you are a small business, say so accurately in your registration. Many contracts are set aside for small businesses, and there are further set-asides for specific categories, including 8(a) firms, HUBZone businesses, women-owned small businesses, and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. A set-aside means only businesses in that category may compete for that contract, which removes the largest incumbents from your competition pool.
One warning that belongs in every guide on this topic: SAM.gov registration itself costs nothing. If a company offers to register you for a fee, it is selling a convenience service, not a government requirement — you can complete the same registration yourself for free.
Step 2: Find opportunities worth bidding on
Once registered, search SAM.gov Contract Opportunities — the public listing of federal solicitations. Filter by your NAICS codes, by agency, and by set-aside category, and read the full solicitation before you decide to bid. The solicitation states exactly what the agency wants, the deadline, and how proposals will be evaluated; a bid that ignores any of those three things is usually a wasted bid.
Before you bid, study who already wins the kind of work you want to do. That is where this site helps: every contractor profile on FedTalentUSA shows that company's real obligations by year, agency, state, industry, and individual awards. If you sell engineering services, look at who the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy already buy them from. If you are weighing subcontracting, the same profiles show you which primes dominate your market — those are the companies whose supply chains you want to join. Use the Contractor Finder to search the ranking by agency, state, or industry.
A practical note on timing: federal buying runs on the fiscal year, which ends September 30, and agencies often award heavily as that deadline approaches. Building your pipeline early in the year, rather than discovering opportunities in September, is one of the simplest advantages a new bidder can give itself.
Step 3: Submit a competitive bid
A winning proposal answers the solicitation, requirement by requirement, in the order and format the agency asked for. Evaluators score compliance first: a brilliant technical approach that misses a required form or deadline still loses. Price matters, but the lowest price does not automatically win — agencies weigh technical merit, past performance, and price together, and an unrealistically low price can read as a delivery risk.
Past performance is the hardest part for a new business, and the honest way around it is to start smaller: set-aside contracts, smaller-dollar awards, and subcontracting under an established prime all build the record that later supports larger prime bids. If you lose a bid, ask the agency for a debrief — agencies routinely explain where a proposal fell short, and that feedback is the cheapest education in this market.
Where the money actually goes: FY2025 data
The tables below are the part other guides do not have. Every figure is a prime contract obligation from USAspending.gov, summed across the parent family of each of the 1,000 largest contractors, for FY2025 (October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025). Shares are shares of that set's $554.25 billion total — not shares of all federal spending, which is much larger because it includes grants, benefits, and contractors outside the top 1,000.
Top agencies by FY2025 contract obligations
Ten agencies account for about 96% of the top 1,000's dollars. If your business sells to the government, it almost certainly sells to one of these.
| Rank | Agency | FY2025 obligations | Share of top-1,000 total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Department of Defense | $340,858,883,451 | 61.5% |
| 2 | Department of Veterans Affairs | $65,636,548,574 | 11.8% |
| 3 | Department of Energy | $46,354,495,604 | 8.4% |
| 4 | Department of Homeland Security | $19,754,181,046 | 3.6% |
| 5 | General Services Administration | $17,851,899,085 | 3.2% |
| 6 | Department of Health and Human Services | $13,041,578,486 | 2.4% |
| 7 | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | $12,244,411,554 | 2.2% |
| 8 | Department of the Treasury | $6,205,172,337 | 1.1% |
| 9 | Department of State | $5,267,632,964 | 1.0% |
| 10 | Department of Justice | $5,192,253,845 | 0.9% |
Top contractors by FY2025 contract obligations
The top 10 contractors alone won about $198 billion, roughly 36% of the top-1,000 total. Click any name for that company's full profile: yearly trend, agency and state splits, and individual awards.
| Rank | Contractor | FY2025 obligations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lockheed Martin Corp | $64,725,692,748 |
| 2 | UnitedHealth Group Incorporated | $25,405,430,794 |
| 3 | The Boeing Company | $22,546,403,604 |
| 4 | Electric Boat Corporation | $21,366,142,819 |
| 5 | TriWest Healthcare Alliance Corp | $13,374,744,670 |
| 6 | McKesson Corporation | $11,938,599,294 |
| 7 | Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc | $10,934,408,068 |
| 8 | Northrop Grumman Corporation | $9,763,138,991 |
| 9 | Leidos Holdings, Inc. | $9,137,387,797 |
| 10 | General Dynamics Corp | $8,958,643,563 |
Where the work is performed: top states, FY2025
These figures are by place of performance — where the work happened — not by contractor headquarters. That distinction matters: a company headquartered in one state may perform most of its work in another, and if you are deciding where to hire or open an office, performance geography is the number you want.
| Rank | State (place of performance) | FY2025 obligations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Virginia | $97,355,627,578 |
| 2 | Texas | $76,136,314,617 |
| 3 | California | $42,060,907,816 |
| 4 | Connecticut | $26,701,076,398 |
| 5 | Maryland | $26,407,130,446 |
| 6 | Florida | $23,073,935,777 |
| 7 | Pennsylvania | $22,109,294,414 |
| 8 | District Of Columbia | $19,245,000,320 |
| 9 | Alabama | $14,055,180,715 |
| 10 | Colorado | $12,378,243,629 |
Top industries by FY2025 contract obligations
Aircraft manufacturing leads by a wide margin, followed by health insurance carriers (driven by veterans' health programs), engineering services, and research and development. If your industry is not in this top 10, that is not a reason to stay out — it means your competition pool is smaller and your buyers are more concentrated, which the Contractor Finder can show you directly.
| Rank | Industry (NAICS) | FY2025 obligations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aircraft Manufacturing | $60,086,623,890 |
| 2 | Direct Health and Medical Insurance Carriers | $45,357,232,073 |
| 3 | Engineering Services | $35,220,483,373 |
| 4 | Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology) | $34,899,490,513 |
| 5 | Ship Building and Repairing | $33,614,895,642 |
| 6 | Facilities Support Services | $32,144,932,997 |
| 7 | Computer Systems Design Services | $23,836,865,158 |
| 8 | Guided Missile and Space Vehicle Manufacturing | $21,240,838,322 |
| 9 | Other Computer Related Services | $17,088,887,875 |
| 10 | Other Aircraft Parts and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing | $13,770,238,763 |
How to use these tables
Pick your row before you pick your bid. If you sell engineering services or IT, your buyers are concentrated in the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. If you perform work in Virginia, Texas, or California, you are standing where the performance dollars already flow. And if your industry sits outside the top 10, look up its buyers on FedTalentUSA directly — a smaller, concentrated buyer list is often easier to break into than the most crowded markets.
Frequently asked questions
What are the easiest government contracts to get?
There is no contract that is easy in the sense of guaranteed. The realistic entry points are smaller contracts, contracts set aside for small businesses, and subcontracting work under a large prime contractor. Businesses that start by subcontracting build the past performance that later helps them win prime contracts of their own.
Is it hard to get government contracts?
It is competitive, and first attempts often lose. The process itself is open to any registered business: register on SAM.gov, find an opportunity that fits what you sell, and submit a compliant proposal. The difficulty is not access, it is competition — incumbents with past performance usually have an advantage, which is why new entrants often start with smaller or set-aside contracts.
How can I acquire government contracts?
In three steps: first, register your business on SAM.gov and get your UEI and CAGE code; second, search SAM.gov Contract Opportunities and study who already wins work in your industry; third, submit a proposal that answers every requirement in the solicitation. The sections below walk through each step, with real FY2025 spending data showing where the money actually goes.
How much do government contracts cost?
Registering on SAM.gov is free, and the government does not charge a fee to bid. The real cost is your own time and effort: preparing a proposal, meeting compliance requirements, and, if you win, delivering the work. Anyone charging you a fee just to register on SAM.gov is selling you a service you can do yourself for free.
Which agency awards the most contracts?
The Department of Defense, by a wide margin: $340.86 billion in FY2025 agency splits across the top 1,000 contractors, or 61.5% of that set's $554.25 billion total. The Department of Veterans Affairs is second at $65.64 billion (11.8%), followed by the Department of Energy at $46.35 billion (8.4%).
How much did the top 1,000 federal contractors win in FY2025?
Combined, the 1,000 companies in the FedTalentUSA ranking recorded $554,248,039,929 in FY2025 prime contract obligations. The top 10 alone account for about $198 billion, or roughly 36% of that total — and the top 10 agencies account for about 96% of it.
Where is most federal contract work performed?
Virginia, with $97.36 billion in FY2025 work by place of performance — where the work was performed, not where the contractor is headquartered. Texas is second at $76.14 billion, followed by California at $42.06 billion. Note the distinction: a contractor headquartered in one state often performs most of its work in another.
Methodology
All dollar figures in this guide come from USAspending.gov records held in the FedTalentUSA ranking database and freshly pulled at writing time. A contractor's total is the sum of prime contract obligations across every USAspending recipient record belonging to that company — parent and child records combined — for the fiscal year. It is not company revenue, and it does not include subcontracts or grants.
The ranking covers the 1,000 largest contractors only. That is why these totals differ from government-wide figures: independent year-end analyses put total FY2025 federal contract obligations above $800 billion, because they include every contractor, not just the top 1,000. Totals are only comparable when the scope, the fiscal year, and the family definition match — which is also why other sites show different numbers for the same company.
FY2025 runs October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025, and is the latest complete fiscal year in this dataset. FY2026 reporting is still incomplete because agency reporting, especially from the Department of Defense, lags by roughly 90 days.
Sources
- USAspending.gov — prime contract obligation records, via the FedTalentUSA ranking database (top 1,000 contractors, FY2025).
- SAM.gov — entity registration and Contract Opportunities.
- U.S. Small Business Administration: Federal Contracting — how to win contracts and small business programs.
- FedTalentUSA contractor rankings and Contractor Finder — the underlying data for every table in this guide.
Written by
Muhammad TalhaFounder, HireSkys
Founder of HireSkys. Muhammad Talha built FedTalentUSA on official USAspending.gov federal contract data — so businesses can see who actually wins federal contracts, which agencies buy, and where the work goes.
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