CAGE Code Expiration: How to Keep Your Registration Active

A common misconception among federal contractors is that CAGE codes expire. The code itself — the five-character identifier assigned by the Defense Logistics Agency — does not have an expiration date. What does expire is your SAM.gov entity registration, which must be renewed every 365 days. When the registration lapses, the associated CAGE code becomes inactive, and your company effectively disappears from the federal procurement system until you renew.

What Happens When Your SAM.gov Registration Expires?

The consequences of a lapsed registration are immediate and serious:

• Contracting officers cannot award new contracts to your company.
• Existing contract performance may continue, but modifications and options are typically blocked.
• Invoice processing through WAWF (Wide Area Workflow) or iRAPT can be delayed or rejected.
• Your company will not appear in SAM.gov search results, reducing visibility with agency buyers.
• Subcontracting relationships become complicated when primes verify your active registration.

How to Renew Your SAM.gov Registration

Log into SAM.gov with your Login.gov credentials and navigate to your entity registration. SAM.gov will display your registration expiration date prominently. Click "Renew Registration" at least 30–60 days before expiration. Review and update your representations and certifications, confirm your NAICS codes, and verify your banking information. Submit the renewal — it typically processes within one to three business days for entities with no changes, longer if significant updates are required.

Setting Up Renewal Reminders

SAM.gov sends automatic email reminders at 60 days and 30 days before expiration, but these can be missed or filtered by spam. Best practice is to add your expiration date to a shared calendar and assign an internal owner for the renewal. Government contractors with multiple CAGE codes (parent and subsidiary entities) should track each expiration date separately.

What to Do If Your Registration Has Already Lapsed

If your registration has expired, you can still log into SAM.gov and renew. The process is the same as a normal renewal, but be prepared for a longer processing time — DLA may need to re-verify your entity details. Once renewed, your CAGE code will return to active status and you can resume receiving awards and processing invoices.

CAGE Codes and Long-Term Contracts

Even on multi-year IDIQ or GWAC contracts, your SAM.gov registration must stay active throughout the period of performance. The Department of Defense and GSA both require active registration for task order awards under existing vehicles, not just for base contract award. Program managers on long-running programs sometimes discover their sub-tier suppliers have lapsed registrations during audits — a painful and avoidable disruption.

International Entities

Foreign entities with NCAGE codes face the same annual renewal requirement through SAM.gov if they are registered there. However, the NCAGE database maintained by the NATO Support and Procurement Agency does not have the same annual renewal cycle — your NCAGE record persists as long as your company exists and your national codification bureau keeps the record current.

Quick Checklist

• Know your SAM.gov expiration date and assign an owner to renew it.
• Renew at least 30 days early to account for processing time.
• Update your points of contact, addresses, and banking information during renewal.
• Verify your active status on our CAGE Code Decoder after renewal processes.
• Track multiple entities separately if your organization has more than one CAGE code.

Need to verify whether a specific CAGE code is currently active? Our CAGE Code Decoder shows live SAM.gov registration status for any code.