How do I know if my SAM.gov registration is active?

Check it at sam.gov, or look it up here by EIN. An active registration in the System for Award Management is required before any federal grant application can be submitted. Registrations lapse annually and renewal is not automatic.

The most common avoidable disqualification

A registration that reads “Active” today and expires in three weeks is the thing that quietly disqualifies an application submitted next month. Renewal takes ten to fifteen business days to take effect, so grantcheck warns at 60 days rather than at expiry.

Expired and never-registered are different problems with different timelines. Renewing is a couple of weeks; registering for the first time is weeks, starting with a Unique Entity ID request. A tool that collapses them misleads you about how much runway you have.

Why we sometimes cannot tell you

You cannot look up a SAM.gov entity by EIN. Taxpayer identification number is sensitive-tier data, so it is not a search key on the public tier — the public keys are Unique Entity ID, CAGE code, and legal business name.

That means the link between an EIN and a SAM.gov registration has to be inferred from name and state, and where the inference is not confident this tool says so instead of guessing. “We could not identify your registration” is a statement about our matching, not about your organization.

Check an organization

Free, no account. Every answer carries its source and date.

This is informational only, derived from public data on the dates shown. It is not an eligibility determination, and not legal, tax, or accounting advice. Verify against the official source before relying on it.