CAGE Code

The Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) Code is a standardized identifier issued by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) to uniquely identify companies, organizations, or government agencies involved in federal procurement. Each CAGE Code is linked to a specific legal entity at a physical location. CAGE Codes are used across federal acquisition systems to track, validate, and manage contractor information. They are required for registration in the System for Award Management (SAM) and are referenced in federal contract records.

CAGE Codes are essential for accurately identifying and distinguishing between contractors, especially those with similar names or multiple locations. They enable precise tracking of contract awards, spending, and vendor performance across agencies. Analysts rely on CAGE Codes to aggregate data, avoid duplication, and ensure correct attribution of procurement actions. Without CAGE Codes, market research and compliance checks would be less reliable.

In FPDS data, the CAGE Code appears as a standard data field associated with the vendor or contractor on each contract action. It is searchable and filterable, allowing users to group or analyze contracts by specific entities. Reports often use CAGE Codes to summarize obligations or activity by contractor.

A common misunderstanding is that a CAGE Code represents a parent company or corporate family, when in fact it identifies a specific legal entity at a single address. Multiple CAGE Codes may exist for different locations or subsidiaries of the same company.

For example, if Acme Corporation has offices in both Virginia and Texas, each location may have its own CAGE Code. When searching FPDS, an analyst can use the CAGE Code to isolate contracts awarded to the Virginia office only.

• Defense Logistics Agency — CAGE Code