Every FAR dollar threshold, with the figure before it and the cite
The 41 dollar figures a contracting officer is most often asked about, grouped by where they bite. Each shows the current amount, the one it replaced, when it moved and the pinpoint citation to the FAR or, where the FAR has not caught up, the statute.
41 thresholds
26 moved on 1 Oct 2025
latest change 1 Oct 2026
checked 2 Nov 2026
Before you rely on one: these are the codified amounts in effect on 2 November 2026. Agencies on a Revolutionary FAR Overhaul class deviation use the same values under different paragraph numbers, and your agency supplement can set a lower one. Check it against the current text before it goes in the file.
Two ways to use these
Have a number? Dollar check takes the value of your buy and tells you which of these apply, with the approvals it needs.
Simplified acquisition thresholdMoved from $250,000 on 1 October 2025. A $310,000 buy that had to leave Part 13 before then no longer has to. Commercial buys can go higher under subpart 13.5, which has its own ceiling.
Synopsis in the Governmentwide point of entryDid not move in the October 2025 adjustment, even though the public-posting floor beneath it went from $15,000 to $20,000. The band where you post but do not synopsize is now narrower.
J&A approval — contracting officer ceilingMoved from $750,000 on 1 October 2025. Above it the advocate for competition approves up to $20 million, then the head of the procuring activity up to $90 million ($150 million for DoD, NASA and the Coast Guard), then the senior procurement executive.
Certified cost or pricing data (TINA)Codified FAR: $2.5 million, FAR 15.403-4(a)(1). Civilian statute: 41 U.S.C. 3502, unchanged. DoD statute: 10 U.S.C. 3702, raised to $10 million by section 1804 of the FY2026 NDAA (Pub. L. 119-60) for prime contracts entered into after 30 June 2026; FAR 15.403-4 has not been conformed and DoD is implementing by class deviation, so read the deviation before relying on either figure. Applies to negotiated awards and to contract modifications, tested when the parties agree on price. Which figure reaches a modification of an older contract turns on the date split the governing statute uses — 1 July 2018 in FAR 15.403-4(a)(1), see T-009, and 30 June 2026 in the amended 10 U.S.C. 3702 — so read the split rather than assuming the award-date figure carries forward.
Certified cost or pricing data — pre-July 2018 contractsTwo live FAR thresholds, split by whether the contract was awarded before or after 1 July 2018, and both get inflation-adjusted. DoD is different now: the FY2026 NDAA rewrote 10 U.S.C. 3702, moving its date split to 30 June 2026 and raising its modification threshold to $10 million, while the FAR text has not caught up.
Fair opportunity exception — contracting officer approval ceilingMoved from $750,000 on 1 October 2025. Above this, the advocate for competition approves to $20 million, then the head of the procuring activity to $90 million ($150 million for DoD, NASA and the Coast Guard), then the SPE.
Task order protest at GAO — DoD, NASA, Coast GuardRaised from $25 million by section 885 of the FY2025 NDAA (Pub. L. 118-159), enacted 23 December 2024. FAR 16.505(a)(10)(i)(B)(2) still reads $25 million as of FAC 2026-01, so the FAR text lags the statute. Not inflation-adjusted. A scope, period or maximum-value protest is available at any dollar value.
8(a) competitive threshold — manufacturingMoved from $7 million on 1 October 2025. Check the NAICS code assigned to the requirement first: the manufacturing and non-manufacturing figures differ by $3 million.
SDVOSB sole-source ceiling — non-manufacturingMoved from $4 million on 1 October 2025. SDVOSB is the odd one out: the HUBZone and WOSB non-manufacturing sole-source ceilings are $500,000 higher, so a desk guide that lumps the programs together is wrong here.
HUBZone sole-source ceiling — manufacturingMoved from $7 million on 1 October 2025. The non-manufacturing ceiling is lower, so confirm the NAICS code before you rely on this one.
Davis-Bacon (construction wage rate) coverageSet by statute and excluded from inflation adjustment by 41 U.S.C. 1908(b), so it did not move in October 2025 while nearly everything around it did. It is also why the micro-purchase threshold for construction subject to these wage rates is $2,000, not $15,000.
Service Contract Labor Standards coverageStatutory and excluded from inflation adjustment by 41 U.S.C. 1908(b). If the contract is for an indefinite amount and you do not know in advance it will stay at or under this figure, the clause goes in. It also caps the micro-purchase threshold for covered services at $2,500.
Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards clauseMoved from $150,000 on 1 October 2025. The exemption is written as 'valued at or below', so a contract at exactly the threshold does not get the clause.
WTO GPA threshold — supplies and servicesWent down from $183,000 in February 2024 and was left unchanged in the March 2026 update. Trade agreement thresholds are re-set on a two-year cycle, separately from the FAR inflation adjustment, and follow exchange rates.
Bonds, reporting, responsibility, CAS and other transactions
7 figures
Threshold
Now
Before
Effective
Cite
First-tier subcontract reportingQuiet change, real compliance consequence. The clause points to the 4.1403(a) figure in effect on the date of the subcontract award, so primes still using $30,000 are reporting subawards they no longer have to.
Miller Act performance and payment bondsThe statute, 40 U.S.C. 3131(b), still says $100,000. The FAR raised the figure by regulation in 2010, and 41 U.S.C. 1908(b) now keeps that regulatory figure but blocks further inflation adjustment, so October 2025 did not touch it. From $35,000 up to this figure you pick two or more alternative payment protections under 28.102-1(b).
CAS full coverage thresholdRaised from $50 million on 1 October 2026 by the CAS Board final rule published 1 September 2026 (91 FR 56056), which carries out section 1806 of the FY2026 NDAA. The $50 million figure had stood since June 2000. Watch the FAR side: FAR 30.201-4(b)(1) still prescribes the clause at 52.230-3 for a contract “over $2.5 million but less than $50 million” and has not been conformed, so take coverage from 9903.201-2 rather than from the FAR’s prescription band. A business unit on full coverage only because of the old figure may move to modified coverage at the start of its next cost accounting period beginning on or after 1 October 2026 if it has no unresolved CAS noncompliances — 9903.201-2(b)(4).
CAS applicability — negotiated contract exemptionThe exemption now covers negotiated contracts and subcontracts “not in excess of $35 million”. Before 1 October 2026 the paragraph tracked the certified-data threshold, and a separate exemption at 9903.201-1(b)(7) covered contracts under $7.5 million unless the business unit was already performing a CAS-covered contract of $7.5 million or more; that trigger test is deleted. An order from one segment to another counts as a subcontract. For indefinite delivery contracts, 9903.201-1(c) tests the exemptions at each order against the order ceiling on a multiple-award IDC, and once at award against the contract ceiling on a single-award IDC. This is exemption, not coverage — for full against modified coverage see T-038.
Subcontracts with excluded parties — compelling reason thresholdMoved from $35,000 on 1 October 2025. Above the figure, a corporate officer or designee must notify the contracting officer in writing before award, giving the compelling reason and the safeguards in place.
Every figure is re-verified against the FAR on Acquisition.gov and eCFR, and the statute where it leads the FAR, on the first Monday of each month, in the same sweep that builds This Week. The build refuses content anywhere on the site that teaches a superseded figure as the current one. The Threshold game plays from these same figures, so a correction here is a correction there.
Each figure has been checked by its author; a second review by an experienced practitioner is still under way. Spotted one that has moved? Tell us.
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