Free procurement guide · historical aggregates

Comparing SAM.gov statistics across dates

A larger SAM extract does not tell you how many new suppliers entered your market. First match the dates, file coverage and counting unit. Then describe the difference as a net count change.

Worked example: July 5 and October 5, 2026. These are archived cuts, not today’s SAM totals. Aggregate statistics cannot establish any vendor’s current status or eligibility.

Same question, three different counts

Both archived summaries count the PUBLIC MONTHLY V2 entity file. “Distinct UEIs” counts identifiers, retaining the first source row for each UEI; it does not collapse different registrations into a corporate group. “Extra rows” means source rows minus distinct UEIs.

Worldwide public-extract counts · all source UEIs, before application quarantine
Unit	July 5, 2026	October 5, 2026
Source rows	893,254	905,712
Distinct UEIs	885,266	898,204
Extra rows	7,988	7,508

Net distinct-UEI difference

+12,938

+1.46% of the July distinct-UEI count

Net source-row difference

+12,458

Includes the effect of repeated UEIs

Net extra-row difference

-480

Fewer rows beyond the first per UEI

Reconciliation: +12,938 distinct UEIs − 480 extra rows = +12,458 source rows. The denominators must not be swapped when calculating a percentage.

Five checks before comparing another report

Match the file product. GSA distinguishes monthly entity files from incremental daily entity files and exclusions files. A daily change file is not another monthly population total. PUBLIC coverage also differs from files that include entities opting out of public display.
Use the source date. July 5 and October 5 are the dates of the files here. A page’s publication date, download date or review date does not make the underlying population newer. Two endpoints do not establish a month-by-month trend or an annual growth rate.
Keep the unit and filter fixed. Compare distinct UEIs with distinct UEIs, using the same deduplication rule and geographic/status filters. A company name, a CAGE code and a source row are not interchangeable counting units. A percentage needs its denominator written beside it.
Keep the rolling coverage in view. GSA says monthly entity files contain active entities and entities expired in the preceding six months. A record falling outside that coverage is not evidence that a business closed. Public-display coverage also limits the comparison.
Separate source totals from lookup totals. October’s 898,204 all-source UEIs include 15 incomplete source identities; 898,189 are outside the reviewed quarantine. Comparing that application count against July’s all-source count would mix populations. This example consistently uses all-source counts.

Need to reconstruct one extract rather than compare two? Use the single-snapshot counting methodology. For the existing May-to-July status and expiration aggregates, see the historical SAM Registration Pulse.

Save the comparison with its limits

Copy this note into your supplier-review file. The final line records the next check; it is not a supplier approval.

Purpose: compare the size of two archived public SAM extract populations.
Files: PUBLIC MONTHLY V2, 2026-07-05 and 2026-10-05.
Unit: distinct UEI, first source row per UEI; worldwide, all source statuses, before application quarantine.
Counts: 885,266 → 898,204.
Calculation: (898,204 − 885,266) / 885,266 × 100 = +1.46%.
Finding: net aggregate difference only; no matched-cohort, new-supplier, market-growth or eligibility conclusion.
Next step for a buying decision: identify the actual vendor and check its current official SAM record and applicable exclusions separately.
Reviewed by / date / official evidence reference: [complete during your review]

For an actual supplier, return to the dated registration lookup and confirm the current record in official SAM.gov entity information. An aggregate increase does not clear that supplier for exclusions or confirm capability.

Sources and reproducibility

Agency: GSA / SAM.gov. Official entity and exclusions extract documentation and its linked PUBLIC V2 field layout define the products and coverage. Documentation checked November 2, 2026.

The counts reuse CageCheck’s existing archived aggregate summaries; no new entity or contact records were collected for this guide. The arithmetic above is derived from those summaries. The July Pulse and the October methodology explain their respective counts; this guide does not claim a fresh source load or certify record-level changes.

July 5, 2026: SAM_PUBLIC_MONTHLY_V2_20260705.dat; Source-file SHA-256: a94ea4ec290042e53c7f05e9b19bcdd523732a8d8a8bb11fc0f2ceb19217d13c
October 5, 2026: SAM_PUBLIC_MONTHLY_V2_20261005.dat; Source-file SHA-256: a7beeb182e514f6d17a13ac4e66d1b6223e75c8be42f8cc2c38f155754c19753