How to Search SAM.gov by NAICS Code

What NAICS is and why it runs federal contracting

NAICS stands for the North American Industry Classification System, the standard the U.S. federal government uses to classify businesses by industry. It is maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau, and the current version is the 2022 revision. Codes are hierarchical and resolve to a 6-digit industry code, where the leading digits describe a broad sector and each additional digit narrows the classification to a more specific industry. When you register your business, browse opportunities, or read a solicitation, you are working in this shared vocabulary.

NAICS matters because it is the hinge between what a buyer is buying and how the small business rules apply. Under FAR Part 19, the contracting officer assigns exactly one NAICS code and its corresponding SBA size standard to each solicitation, contract, and order, choosing the code that best describes the principal purpose of what is being acquired. That single assignment drives set-aside decisions and small-business eligibility for the entire procurement. If you understand which codes describe your work, you can filter the firehose of federal notices down to the opportunities you can actually pursue.

• •Maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau; current version is the 2022 revision (see census.gov/naics).
• •Codes are 6 digits and hierarchical, moving from broad sector to specific industry.
• •The contracting officer assigns one NAICS code and one SBA size standard per solicitation (FAR 19.102).
• •That assigned code, not your own preference, governs eligibility for that procurement.

How to find your NAICS codes

Finding your codes is a matter of translating what you sell into the government's classification language. Start at the Census Bureau NAICS site, which lets you search by keyword and drill down through the hierarchy to the 6-digit level. Read the code descriptions closely; two similar-sounding codes can carve up a market in ways that matter for eligibility. Choose the code that best matches the core of your delivery, then identify one or two adjacent codes that describe closely related work.

Most firms end up with a small core set of codes where they are genuinely competitive rather than a long list. A focused set keeps your opportunity searches clean and your positioning credible. If you want a faster starting point, GovConAgent offers a free NAICS code finder at /tools/naics-code-finder that maps plain-English capability descriptions to candidate codes you can then verify against the official Census listing.

How the solicitation's NAICS and size standard set your eligibility

This is the point most new contractors miss: the NAICS code that matters for a given bid is the one the contracting officer put on that solicitation, not the primary code on your registration. Per FAR 19.102, the contracting officer assigns one NAICS code and its corresponding size standard, and that size standard is the one in effect on the date the solicitation is issued. Your firm's size status for the procurement is judged against that specific standard.

SBA size standards vary by industry and are generally based on either average annual receipts (revenue) or number of employees, depending on the NAICS code. Some services and construction codes use a revenue threshold; many manufacturing codes use an employee-count threshold. The exact figures are set and periodically updated by SBA, so rather than trusting a number you saw somewhere, check the current threshold for the specific code on the official SBA size standards page. Also remember that SBA generally counts the receipts and employees of your affiliates when determining your size. Because thresholds differ by code, you can be small under one solicitation and other than small under another for the very same work.

One practical note from FAR 19.103: the contracting officer's NAICS designation on a solicitation is final unless it is appealed to SBA within a short window (ten calendar days after the solicitation is issued). If you believe a solicitation is classified under the wrong code in a way that harms fair competition, that appeal path exists but the clock is short.

Example NAICS codes and how size standards are measured

The table below shows four real 2022 NAICS codes small federal contractors commonly work under, and the basis SBA uses to measure size for that type of industry. The dollar and employee thresholds themselves change over time, so the table intentionally does not quote figures. Look up the current number for your exact code on the SBA size standards page before you rely on it.

How to filter SAM.gov opportunities by NAICS code

SAM.gov is where active federal contract opportunities are posted. Open Contract Opportunities, run a search, and use the advanced search filters to enter one or more NAICS codes. You can do this without an account, though creating one lets you save searches and follow specific notices so you can return to fresh results. Combine your NAICS filter with other filters, such as set-aside type, place of performance, notice type, and posted date, to focus on the notices worth your time.

Two habits make NAICS filtering far more useful. First, save each core code as its own search so you can tune each one independently instead of drowning in a single mega-query. Second, watch your adjacent codes deliberately, because buyers regularly classify work you can perform under a neighboring code you would not have guessed. Casting a slightly wider net at the code level, then filtering hard on the notices themselves, catches opportunities that a single-code search would silently miss.

Worked example: mapping a firm's capabilities to NAICS and finding noticesWorked example

Consider a small IT services firm that builds custom software and also stands up and manages the systems it delivers. Its owner tends to describe the business as software development, but federal buyers may classify the work in more than one way. Mapping capabilities to codes, the firm lands on 541511 Custom Computer Programming Services and 541512 Computer Systems Design Services as its two core codes, because different buyers frame the same kind of engagement under either one. It adds a third watch code because a chunk of its revenue comes from operating client environments, which some agencies buy under 561210 Facilities Support Services when it is bundled with broader base or site support.

The owner opens Contract Opportunities on SAM.gov and saves three searches, one per code, each also filtered to relevant set-asides the firm qualifies for and to recently posted notices. When a matching notice appears, the owner checks the assigned NAICS and size standard first. A notice under 541512 with a revenue-based standard is compared against the firm's average annual receipts under SBA's rules, including affiliates, before any bid effort begins. If the firm is other than small under that code's current threshold, it either looks for a teaming role or moves on rather than sinking hours into an ineligible pursuit.

This is where scoring helps you triage. GovConAgent can score active SAM.gov opportunities against your company profile with a deterministic, explainable 0-100 fit score and show the factor breakdown, so the firm can quickly separate the 541511 and 541512 notices worth reading in full from the marginal ones. For a promising notice, it can generate a bid/no-bid brief that keeps the facts extracted from the notice separate from the AI analysis, giving the owner a clean starting point for a go decision without hand-copying details out of the solicitation.

Turning your NAICS search into a repeatable pipeline

Searching by NAICS is not a one-time task; it is the front end of a pipeline. Keep your registration's NAICS list current so it reflects your real capabilities, and keep your saved searches tuned as your business shifts. Revisit your adjacent-code watch list every quarter, because the codes buyers use for your kind of work can drift as agencies restructure how they buy.

To avoid manually re-checking SAM.gov, subscribers can use GovConAgent's daily email alerts on new best-fit opportunities. The SAM.gov data is refreshed daily and each alert lists only genuinely new matches above a fit threshold, so it stays a short digest rather than a flood. You can also try the no-login first-match flow: build a profile, see scored matches against your NAICS-aligned capabilities, and generate a brief without creating an account. GovConAgent is not affiliated with SAM.gov or the U.S. government, does not register you in SAM.gov, and never guarantees an award or your eligibility for any set-aside.

Official sources

• U.S. Census Bureau — North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)
• SBA — Size standards
• FAR Part 19 — Small Business Programs (acquisition.gov)
• SAM.gov — Contract Opportunities
• SBA — Contracting guide

Frequently asked questions

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