If you have registered a business with the federal government before 2022, you probably remember a DUNS number. It does not exist anymore. The government replaced it with something called a Unique Entity Identifier, or UEI, and a lot of old guides, templates, and even some agency paperwork still reference the wrong one.
Here is what the UEI actually is, why the switch happened, and where you get one.
What a UEI is
A UEI is a 12-character alphanumeric code. It is the identifier SAM.gov assigns to your entity, and it is now the single identifier the federal government uses to track who you are across contracts, grants, and awards. No letters that spell anything, no meaning baked into the digits. Just a unique string tied to your registration.
You do not apply for a UEI on its own website. You get it directly inside SAM.gov's entity registration process, as part of registering your business or requesting a UEI without a full registration (SAM.gov, "Entity Registration"). If a site is charging you a fee to "get your UEI," that is not how this works. It is free, and it comes from the government directly.
Why DUNS got replaced
DUNS was never actually a government number. It belonged to Dun & Bradstreet, a private company, and the government leased access to it for decades to identify contractors. That arrangement had a real problem: your business identifier was tied to a private vendor's database, not a government system the government controlled.
On April 4, 2022, GSA began using the UEI as the authoritative identifier for every entity doing business with the federal government, and stopped using the DUNS number entirely (GSA, "Unique Entity Identifier update"). If your entity was active in SAM.gov before that date, your UEI was assigned automatically. You did not have to do anything. If you are registering now, for the first time, the UEI gets issued as part of that process, inside SAM.gov, not somewhere else.
The practical upside for you: one less outside company standing between your business and a federal contract.
Where the UEI shows up
Once you have one, your UEI follows you everywhere in the federal system. Solicitations reference it. Award data references it. Your own SAM.gov entity record is built around it. If you ever pull your own award history or price-to-win data, whether through USAspending or a tool like ours, the UEI is the anchor that ties those records together correctly.
This is part of why getting your entity registration right the first time matters. A wrong UEI, or a registration that never fully activates because of a mismatch elsewhere in your SAM.gov record, breaks everything downstream of it. Our SAM registration readiness check walks through the fields that actually cause registrations to stall, UEI included, before you submit.
We are not SAM.gov, are not affiliated with the U.S. government, and are not a registrar. SAM.gov registration is always free at sam.gov. We provide preparation assistance only.
What this does not mean
Having a UEI does not mean you are eligible for a given contract, and it does not move your registration past a data mismatch on its own. It is an identifier, not a qualification. Getting one right is table stakes, not an advantage. Nobody can guarantee an award just because your record is clean.
Related reading
- How to Register on SAM.gov: A Step-by-Step Guide
- How Long Does SAM.gov Registration Take in 2026?
- 8(a) vs. WOSB vs. HUBZone vs. SDVOSB: which certification fits you