The five characters that identify every entity in government procurement — where CAGE codes come from, where they show up, and how to verify one for free.
A CAGE code — Commercial and Government Entity code — is a five-character identifier assigned to a specific entity at a specific physical location. It is the identity string that follows a company through the entire U.S. government procurement and logistics ecosystem: on its SAM registration, on the awards it wins, on the technical documents that cite it as a source, and in the federal catalog records behind every National Stock Number. The format is five characters, typically mixing digits and letters. Two properties do the real work. First, a CAGE code identifies an entity at a location — a company with several facilities can hold several codes, which is exactly what a logistics system needs when it matters which plant made the part. Second, the code is government-assigned and centrally maintained, so it cannot drift the way company names do through renames, acquisitions, and DBA variations. When a 1975 drawing and a 2026 solicitation both cite CAGE 12345, they mean the same source, whatever the company is called this decade. (The NATO-partner equivalent, assigned outside the U.S., is the NCAGE code — same shape, same role, different issuing bureaus.)
CAGE codes for U.S. entities are assigned and maintained by the Defense Logistics Agency's CAGE program office. For most businesses there is no separate application: register your entity in SAM — the government's System for Award Management — and the CAGE assignment happens as part of validating the registration. No fee, no third party required. That last point deserves emphasis, because an entire cottage industry exists to sell "CAGE code registration services" and "expedited SAM processing" to businesses that do not know the underlying process is free. There are legitimate consultants who help with the paperwork; there are also outfits whose entire value proposition is that you have not read a page like this one. The registration itself, the UEI, and the CAGE code cost nothing.
If you are working through registration on the way to your first government business, our companion spoke, how to sell to DLA, walks the sequence from SAM registration to first quote — and the pillar guide on DLA sourcing and NSN origin rules covers the clause-reading skills you will need immediately after.
Every offer a company submits and every award it receives carries its CAGE code. Contracting systems, payment systems, and past-performance records all key on it. When a contracting officer wants to know who they are dealing with, the CAGE code answers unambiguously.
This is the use that surprises people coming from the commercial world. Engineering drawings, source-control drawings, and parts lists cite manufacturers by CAGE code: a callout like "P/N 123-456, CAGE 98765" says this part, from this maker. The design-activity block on a military drawing carries the CAGE of the organization that owns the design. Federal catalog records tie each reference part number on an NSN to the CAGE of the entity whose numbering system it belongs to — which is why part-number research so often turns into CAGE research.
For some items, the government's technical data restricts acceptable product to specific manufacturers, identified by CAGE code and part number. A solicitation for such a source-controlled item lists the approved sources; an offeror must supply the listed CAGE/part-number combination or go through the source-approval process to get added. For buyers, the practical reading skill is telling these apart from specification-controlled items: standard cataloged hardware built to a public specification — the screws, bolts, and nuts and washers that fill the supply system — is generally acceptable from any source whose product conforms to the spec, while a source-controlled assembly is not. The solicitation's item description and its AMC/AMSC-style coding tell you which world you are in; read them before you price anything.
A registered business today holds two live government identifiers, and older documents reference a third.
UEI (Unique Entity ID) — a 12-character alphanumeric identifier generated by SAM.gov itself. Since April 2022 it is the official government-wide entity identifier for registrations and awards. CAGE code — the five-character DLA-maintained code described above, dominant in defense logistics, cataloging, and technical documents. DUNS number — the nine-digit identifier from Dun & Bradstreet that the government used as its entity key for decades until the UEI replaced it; you will still meet DUNS numbers on legacy paperwork, but they no longer drive federal registration. The division of labor is roughly: the UEI is the registration-and-award key, the CAGE is the logistics-and-technical key, and both point at the same entity. Neither replaces the other, and any system or document may ask for either.
A worked example, using the entity behind this website. Quick Brown Fox LLC, doing business through its QBF Solutions line, is a SAM-registered small business with UEI MA3DSJEPMFQ8 and CAGE 201W8. Those two strings, published on our SAM registration page and in the footer of every page on this site, are what a contracting specialist or prime buyer plugs into the government's systems to verify that we are who we say we are — entity name, registration status, size, location. That is the entire point of the identifier system: verification takes a public lookup and thirty seconds, not a phone call. More about the company itself is on the about page.
The primary public resource is the government's SAM.gov entity search. Any registered entity that has not opted out of public display can be found there by entity name, UEI, or CAGE code, and the record shows the registration status, address, and identifiers side by side. DLA also operates public CAGE search tooling of its own. Between the two, every lookup direction you need is covered: code-to-company when a drawing cites a CAGE you do not recognize, and company-to-code when you need to verify a vendor. Both resources are free; treat any paid "CAGE lookup" service as a convenience layer at best.
Three practical lookup habits from the sourcing desk. Check status, not just existence — a CAGE code never disappears, but the registration behind it can lapse; an inactive registration matters if you intend to buy from or team with the entity on government work. Expect obsolete sources — drawings outlive companies, and a cited CAGE may resolve to an entity that no longer exists; that discovery is often the first step toward either a supersession search in our part number lookup or a custom manufacturing quote for an item nobody stocks anymore. Verify the location — because codes attach to locations, confirm you are looking at the right facility for multi-site companies. And if what started your search was a part number on a document, our lookup resolves MS, NAS, AN, and OEM references to stocked NSNs with published pricing — found your number already? Get a price on it below. For buyers outside government wondering whether any of this applies to them: it mostly does not restrict you at all, as the companion guide on buying NSN parts without a government contract explains.
Commercial and Government Entity. It is a five-character identifier assigned to a specific entity at a specific physical location, used throughout U.S. government procurement and logistics. The NATO-partner equivalent is the NCAGE code.
The Defense Logistics Agency's CAGE program office. For most U.S. businesses the code is assigned automatically during SAM registration — no separate application, no fee.
The UEI is the 12-character government-wide entity identifier generated by SAM.gov (it replaced the DUNS number in 2022); the CAGE code is the five-character DLA-maintained code used heavily in logistics and on technical documents. A registered company holds both — QBF's are UEI MA3DSJEPMFQ8 and CAGE 201W8.
Use the government's SAM.gov entity search — by name, UEI, or CAGE code — or DLA's public CAGE search tooling. Both are free.
For source-controlled items, the technical data lists specific manufacturers by CAGE code and part number, and offers must supply a listed combination or pursue source approval. Standard cataloged hardware built to public specifications is generally acceptable from any conforming source.
From SAM registration to your first DIBBS quote.
BAA vs TAA, designated countries, worked example.
Why NSNs are identifiers, not restrictions.
QBF's UEI, CAGE, and verification details.
8,000+ stock numbers with published pricing.
MS, NAS, AN, and OEM cross-reference to NSN.
