# /grantsgov/opportunities/search

`POST /api/grantsgov/opportunities/search`

Price: 10 credits

Search US federal funding opportunities by keyword, lifecycle stage, funding instrument, applicant eligibility, funding-activity category, agency, posting and closing windows, and cost-sharing requirement. Returns a card per opportunity with its UUID.

## How to use it

Leaving `statuses` empty gives the source's own default of forecasted plus open opportunities, so pass `closed` or `archived` explicitly to reach anything already past its deadline. `closing_within_days` only narrows opportunities that are still open. Take `opportunity_id` from a card and call grantsgov/opportunities for the description, eligibility detail and application documents. `agencies` takes the grants.gov agency code, not the readable agency name a result carries, and a code in the wrong case matches nothing rather than erroring, so prefer `query` when the code is unknown.

## Parameters

- `access-token` (string, required)

## Request body

- `timeout` (integer) — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
- `query` (string, nullable) — Words matched against the opportunity title, number, agency and description (examples: "wildlife habitat", "rural broadband"; minLength: 1)
- `statuses` (array) — Lifecycle stages to include; the source shows forecasted and open opportunities when nothing is given (default: []; one of: "forecasted", "posted", "closed", "archived"; examples: ["posted"], ["posted","forecasted"])
- `funding_instruments` (array) — Kinds of funding agreement offered (default: []; one of: "cooperative_agreement", "grant", "procurement_contract", "other")
- `eligibilities` (array) — Applicant types the opportunity is open to (default: []; one of: "state_governments", "county_governments", "city_or_township_governments", "special_district_governments", "independent_school_districts", "public_and_state_institutions_of_higher_education", "private_institutions_of_higher_education", "federally_recognized_native_american_tribal_governments", "other_native_american_tribal_organizations", "public_and_indian_housing_authorities", "nonprofits_non_higher_education_with_501c3", "nonprofits_non_higher_education_without_501c3", "individuals", "for_profit_organizations_other_than_small_businesses", "small_businesses", "other", "unrestricted")
- `categories` (array) — Categories of funding activity (default: []; one of: "recovery_act", "agriculture", "arts", "business_and_commerce", "community_development", "consumer_protection", "disaster_prevention_and_relief", "education", "employment_labor_and_training", "energy", "energy_infrastructure_and_critical_mineral_and_materials", "environment", "food_and_nutrition", "health", "housing", "humanities", "infrastructure_investment_and_jobs_act", "information_and_statistics", "income_security_and_social_services", "law_justice_and_legal_services", "natural_resources", "opportunity_zone_benefits", "recreation_and_tourism", "regional_development", "science_technology_and_other_research_and_development", "transportation", "affordable_care_act", "other")
- `agencies` (array) — Grants.gov agency codes, uppercase, such as DOI-FWS for the Fish and Wildlife Service (default: []; examples: ["DOI-FWS"], ["DOD-ONR","DOE-ARPAE"])
- `posted_within_days` (string, nullable) — Keep only opportunities posted within this many days (one of: "3", "7", "14", "30", "60")
- `closing_within_days` (string, nullable) — Keep only opportunities whose application deadline falls within this many days (one of: "7", "30", "90", "120")
- `has_cost_sharing` (boolean, nullable) — Whether the opportunity requires cost sharing or matching funds
- `sort` (string) — Order of the results (default: "relevancy"; one of: "relevancy", "closeDateDesc", "closeDateAsc", "postedDateDesc", "postedDateAsc", "opportunityTitleAsc", "opportunityTitleDesc", "awardFloorAsc", "awardFloorDesc", "awardCeilingAsc", "awardCeilingDesc")
- `count` (integer, required) — Max number of opportunities to return (min: 1; max: 5000)

## Response

### 200 — Successful Response

- `@type` (string) (default: "GrantsgovOpportunityCard")
- `opportunity_id` (string, required)
- `opportunity_title` (string, required)
- `url` (string, required)
- `funding_opportunity_number` (string, nullable)
- `agency` (string, nullable)
- `status` (string, nullable)
- `close_date` (string, nullable)
- `posted_date` (string, nullable)
- `expected_award_count` (integer, nullable)
- `award_minimum` (number, nullable)
- `award_maximum` (number, nullable)

## Errors

### 422 — Validation Error

The request body did not validate

What to do: Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.

- `detail` (array)
  - `loc` (array, required)
  - `msg` (string, required)
  - `type` (string, required)
  - `input` (any)
  - `ctx` (object)

### 408

The request ran past its time limit

What to do: Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.

### 412

The entity was not found, or a precondition failed

What to do: Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.

### 429

Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted

What to do: When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.

### 500

Something broke on our side

What to do: Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.

### 529

Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded

What to do: Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

## Response envelope

Success: Array of objects (may be empty if no results)

Error: Error may coexist with partial results if it occurs mid-execution. Check X-Error header and status code.

Every response carries these headers:

- `X-Error` — Error message text (present only on error)
- `X-Request-ID` — Unique request identifier
- `X-Execution-Time` — Execution time in seconds
- `X-Result-Count` — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
- `X-Total-Available-Results` — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
- `X-Warning` — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
- `X-Retry-After` — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.