By Alaa Negeda 
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What Is a UEI Number?
A UEI number is the Unique Entity ID, the 12-character alphanumeric identifier that the federal government uses to identify your business. FAR 4.1101 defines it as “a number or other identifier assigned to an entity by the General Services Administration,” and you get it from SAM.gov at no cost.
A CAGE code is a different identifier, from a different agency, issued at a different point in the process. Confusing the two is why registrations stall, and why contractors go to the wrong website to fix the wrong record.
This guide covers what each identifier is, who issues it, the exact order to complete SAM.gov registration, how long the government side actually takes, and where registrations fail.
A UEI number, or Unique Entity ID, is the identifier the federal government assigns to your entity so it can be recognized across every federal award system. GSA’s own guidance states that “the Unique Entity ID (SAM) is a 12-character alphanumeric value managed, granted, and owned by the government.”
Two consequences follow from that sentence and both matter. Because the government owns the identifier, no third party can sell you one. And because GSA grants it, the identifier is issued inside SAM.gov rather than by a commercial data provider, which is the substantive change from the system it replaced.
You can obtain a UEI without completing a full registration. SAM.gov says plainly: “You can get a Unique Entity ID for your organization without having to complete a registration.” That shortcut exists for a narrow purpose, and taking it by mistake is the single most expensive error in this article. The next section but one explains why.
What Is a CAGE Code?
A CAGE code is a Commercial and Government Entity code, tied to one specific business name and one specific location address. FAR 52.204-18 defines it as “an identifier assigned to entities located in the United States or its outlying areas by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA).”
Entities outside the United States get the NATO equivalent instead. The same clause defines an NCAGE code as “an identifier assigned by a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) or by the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) to entities located outside the United States.”
Note the phrase one name and one location. FAR 52.204-16 requires an offeror to provide its CAGE code “with its offer with its name and location address,” and adds that “the CAGE code must be for that name and location address.” A second office is a second CAGE code, and using the wrong one on a proposal is a real defect rather than a clerical one.
The same clause states the deadline in six words: “The CAGE code is required prior to award.”
UEI vs CAGE Code: What Is the Difference?
The UEI identifies your entity to the federal government as a whole. The CAGE code identifies one name at one address, and it comes from the Defense Logistics Agency rather than GSA. You need both before an award, and you maintain them on two different clocks.
| UEI (Unique Entity ID) | CAGE code | |
|---|---|---|
| What it identifies | Your entity across all federal award systems | One business name at one location address |
| Who issues it | GSA, per FAR 4.1101 | DLA inside the United States and its outlying areas; a NATO member or NSPA outside it, per FAR 52.204-18 |
| Where you get it | SAM.gov, with or without full registration | Issued during the Core Data step of SAM registration. Unregistered entities request one from DLA |
| Where you change it | SAM.gov | SAM.gov. DLA applies changes only from a SAM update you initiate |
| Required before award | Yes. Registration is required at offer and again at award, per FAR 52.204-7 | Yes. “The CAGE code is required prior to award,” per FAR 52.204-16 |
| Maintenance obligation | Review and update annually, per FAR 52.204-13 | Notify the contracting officer within 30 days of any change, per FAR 52.204-18 |
| Cost | None | None |
The row that catches people is the fourth one. Both identifiers are changed in SAM.gov, including the one DLA issues.
What Replaced the DUNS Number?
The Unique Entity ID replaced the DUNS number on 4 April 2022. GSA’s transition fact sheet states that “on April 4, 2022, the D-U-N-S Number will be removed and the Unique Entity ID (SAM) will be the authoritative identifier.”
GSA’s announcement of the switch is equally direct: SAM.gov and other GSA systems “will no longer use the DUNS number for identifying entities.” The federal government brought entity identification in-house rather than continuing to rely on a commercial identifier.
Practical implications for a contractor reading old material:
- Any guide that tells you to obtain a DUNS number before registering is out of date by more than four years. There is no DUNS step.
- Your old DUNS number is not your UEI. They are different identifiers in different formats, and the UEI was assigned to existing registrants during the transition.
- Capability statements and past performance sheets still carrying a DUNS number look stale to a contracting officer. Replace the field with the UEI.
How Do You Get a UEI Number?
You request it in SAM.gov by submitting your legal business name and physical address for validation. If you intend to bid on contracts, do it as the first step of a full entity registration rather than as a standalone request.
SAM.gov’s own registration checklist sets out the order. Gather the following before you start, because stopping midway to find a document is how registrations sit unfinished for weeks:
- Legal business name exactly as it appears in your official records
- A physical address. A post office box is not permitted.
- Date and state of incorporation
- Taxpayer Identification Number for United States entities, plus a signed IRS consent form
- Banking details, if you want electronic funds transfer
- Your NAICS codes and product service codes
- Annual receipts and employee count for the size representations
- Names, emails, phone numbers and addresses for three mandatory points of contact: accounts receivable, electronic business, and government business
Then the sequence itself:
- Choose your registration type. “All Awards” covers contracts and financial assistance. “Financial Assistance Only” does not let you bid.
- Get the Unique Entity ID. Submit the legal name and physical address for validation. If validation fails, you raise a ticket with the Federal Service Desk, and the clock effectively restarts.
- Complete Core Data. Business details, your MPIN, mailing address, TIN and IRS consent, ownership and predecessor information, financial and banking details. Your CAGE or NCAGE code belongs to this step.
- Complete Assertions. NAICS and product service codes, size metrics, disaster response registry if relevant.
- Complete Representations and Certifications. The FAR compliance answers, including debarment status, tax compliance and legal proceedings.
- Complete the architect-engineer section if your NAICS codes call for it.
- Enter Points of Contact. Three are mandatory.
- Complete the SBA supplemental page if you are claiming small business status.
- Submit, and then wait. What happens next is not in your hands.
Who Needs a UEI and a CAGE Code?
Any entity that intends to receive a federal contract. FAR 52.204-7 states that “an offeror is required to be registered in SAM when submitting an offer or quotation and at time of award,” and the clause’s definition of being registered includes having entered a UEI and a CAGE code among the mandatory information, with the record marked active by the government.
FAR 4.1102 carries the exceptions, which are narrower than most contractors assume. They cover foreign entities performing work outside United States territory, certain acquisitions at or below the simplified acquisition threshold, particular micro-purchase and simplified procedures, and entities with an explicit statutory or regulatory exemption. If you are reading this because you want to bid, assume you are not exempt.
Subcontractors are a separate case. A subcontractor that is only being reported by a prime may need a UEI for reporting purposes without needing a full registration, which is exactly the situation the identifier-only path was built for.
How Do You Get a CAGE Code?
If you are registering in SAM.gov, you do not apply for a CAGE code separately. DLA assigns it during the Core Data step and it appears on your record. That is the normal path and it requires nothing extra from you.
There are two exceptions, both spelled out in FAR 52.204-18:
- An entity in the United States or its outlying areas that is not registered in SAM submits a written request to DLA at cage.dla.mil.
- An entity outside the United States and its outlying areas goes through its National Codification Bureau, or through NSPA where no bureau exists, for an NCAGE code.
The rule that catches registered contractors is the one about changes. The clause provides that for a contractor registered in SAM, DLA modifies CAGE data only through a SAM update that the contractor initiates. You do not go to the DLA site to correct your address. You correct it in SAM.gov and DLA applies the change from there.
Separately, the clause requires you to notify the contracting officer within 30 days of any change to your CAGE code, and where FAR 52.204-2 applies, to ensure your subcontractors maintain theirs too.
How Long Does SAM.gov Registration Take?
Plan on at least ten business days after you submit, and start well before that. SAM.gov’s entity registration checklist instructs you to “allow at least ten business days after you submit your registration for it to become active,” and the entity registration page states that “registration can take up to 10 business days to become active.”
That window is government-side validation: your TIN is checked against IRS records, and your CAGE code is assigned by DLA. Nothing you do shortens it. What can lengthen it is a validation failure on your legal name or address, which sends you to the Federal Service Desk and puts you back at the start of the queue.
Two dates worth putting in a calendar rather than a memory:
- Three weeks before your first intended proposal, not ten days. Ten business days is the floor for a clean submission, not the expected case.
- 365 days from your last update. Registration must be renewed annually to stay active, and an expired registration on the day of award is the same as no registration.
Is a UEI Number Free?
Yes. There is no fee for a UEI, for a CAGE code, or for SAM.gov registration. GSA states it directly on its guidance for registering a business: “You do not need to pay a third party to complete your registration.”
This matters more than a cost note usually would, because paid filing services rank well for these searches and are easy to mistake for official sites. A service can legitimately do the work on your behalf, but it cannot give you anything you could not obtain yourself at no cost, and the identifier itself is, in GSA’s words, “managed, granted, and owned by the government.” If a site charges you for the identifier rather than for its time, you are paying for nothing.
Why SAM.gov Registrations Get Rejected
Almost every failure happens at one of three checkpoints, and knowing which one you are stuck at tells you who can unstick it. The government does not publish rejection rates, so treat what follows as the documented failure points rather than a ranked list.
- Entity validation, at the very first step. Your legal business name and physical address must match your official records. A trading name, an abbreviated entity type, a suite number recorded differently, or a post office box will fail. SAM.gov’s remedy is a Federal Service Desk ticket, and this is the failure that costs the most time because everything downstream waits on it.
- The TIN check, after submission. Your Taxpayer Identification Number is validated against IRS records with your consent, so the name on the IRS record and the name in SAM must agree. A recent name change that has not reached the IRS will hold the registration.
- Incomplete sections, before submission. A registration is not “registered” until Core Data, Assertions, Representations and Certifications, and Points of Contact are all complete and the government has marked the record active. Three mandatory points of contact are a common omission.
A fourth problem is not a rejection at all, and it is worse because nothing looks wrong: you took the identifier-only path, you hold a valid UEI, and you cannot bid. SAM.gov states the consequence without hedging: “if you choose to only get a Unique Entity ID, you cannot apply directly for federal awards.”
How Do You Look Up a UEI Number for Free?
Search SAM.gov’s entity information directly. There is no charge, and no third-party lookup service has access to anything SAM.gov does not publish. Bear in mind that an entity can choose whether its record is publicly visible during registration, so an absent result does not always mean an absent registration.
How to Keep a SAM.gov Registration Current
FAR 52.204-13 puts the obligation in one sentence: “the Contractor is required to review and update on an annual basis, from the date of initial registration or subsequent updates, its information in SAM to ensure it is current, accurate and complete.”
Two consequences are worth knowing before they arrive.
- A name change is a contracting action, not an administrative one. The clause requires you to notify the contracting officer at least one business day before changing your name in SAM, and to comply with the novation requirements of FAR subpart 42.12.
- Letting the record drift can stop your payments. Where the contractor fails to follow that notification requirement, the clause provides that SAM information showing the contractor to be other than the contractor named in the contract “will be considered to be incorrect information” for the purposes of the Suspension of Payment paragraph.
The administrative load is small per event and easy to lose track of across a portfolio: one annual renewal per entity, a 30-day notification on any CAGE change, a novation process on any name change, and a physical address that has to stay consistent across SAM, the IRS and every proposal you have out. Missing any of them is invisible until an award is at stake.
GovOps360 keeps the registration record, the identifiers, the renewal dates and the capability evidence in one place, so the entity data on a proposal is the same data the contracting officer will find in SAM. GovFind finds the opportunity. GovOps360 wins it.
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Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is a UEI number in one sentence?
A UEI number is the 12-character alphanumeric Unique Entity ID that GSA assigns to your business in SAM.gov, and FAR 4.1101 makes it the federal government’s official identifier for your entity. It replaced the DUNS number on 4 April 2022, it costs nothing, and you need it before you can be awarded a federal contract.
2. Does a UEI number expire?
The identifier itself does not expire, but your registration does. SAM.gov registration must be renewed every 365 days to stay active, and FAR 52.204-13 requires an annual review and update. An inactive registration on the day of award has the same effect as no registration at all.
3. Do subcontractors need a UEI number?
Often yes, for reporting purposes, and usually without a full registration. GSA identifies subcontractors and sub-recipients who are reported by a prime as a group that needs a Unique Entity ID. If the subcontractor never intends to hold a prime contract, the identifier-only path is the correct one.
4. Is a CAGE code the same as an NCAGE code?
No. FAR 52.204-18 assigns CAGE codes to entities in the United States and its outlying areas through the Defense Logistics Agency, and NCAGE codes to entities outside them through a NATO member or the NATO Support and Procurement Agency. Which one you hold depends on where the entity is located, not on who you sell to.
5. Can I get a CAGE code without registering in SAM.gov?
Yes, but only if you are not registered. FAR 52.204-18 directs an unregistered entity inside the United States to submit a written request to DLA at cage.dla.mil, and an unregistered entity outside it to a National Codification Bureau or NSPA. If you are registered in SAM, the CAGE code is issued through registration instead.
6. Why can I not change my CAGE code at the DLA website?
Because for a registered contractor, DLA does not accept the change there. FAR 52.204-18 provides that DLA modifies CAGE data only through a SAM update that the contractor initiates. You change your details in SAM.gov and DLA applies them, which is the opposite of what most contractors expect.
7. How much does SAM.gov registration cost?
Nothing. There is no fee for the UEI, the CAGE code or the registration. GSA states that you do not need to pay a third party to complete your registration. Paid filing services are selling their time, not access, and cannot obtain anything you could not obtain yourself.
8. Can I submit a proposal while my registration is still pending?
Only if the solicitation says so. FAR 52.204-7 requires an offeror to be registered when submitting and again at award. An alternate version of the clause allows an offeror to register “as soon as possible” where registration at submission is not possible, with the awardee required to register under FAR 52.204-13. Read the clause in your specific solicitation rather than assuming.
References and Sources
All FAR citations and SAM.gov statements verified against acquisition.gov, sam.gov and gsa.gov on 31 August 2026.
- FAR Subpart 4.11, System for Award Management, including the definition at FAR 4.1101 and the exceptions at FAR 4.1102
- FAR 52.204-7, System for Award Management
- FAR 52.204-13, System for Award Management Maintenance
- FAR 52.204-16, Commercial and Government Entity Code Reporting
- FAR 52.204-18, Commercial and Government Entity Code Maintenance
- SAM.gov, Entity Registration
- SAM.gov, Entity Registration Checklist, November 2024
- GSA, Register your business
- GSA, Transitioning to the New Unique Entity ID (SAM)
- GSA, GSA Systems Switch to Unique Entity ID (SAM) on April 4, 2022
- GSA, Unique Entity ID (SAM) Frequently Asked Questions
- Defense Logistics Agency, CAGE Program
Related reading: the GovCon glossary covers the UEI, CAGE and SAM entries, and RFI meaning in government contracting explains where these identifiers belong in a response.
Alaa Negeda
Senior Solution Architect with 23 years of experience in different Technology sectors. Diligent, forward-thinking, and adaptable to dynamic company, customer, and project needs.
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