National Science Foundation
Open-data reference.
NSF
$2.1B obligated · FY2025 · Rank #26 of 111 agencies · 21.0% budget utilization
According to USASpending.gov, the official federal award-transaction dataset, National Science Foundation (NSF) obligated $2.1B in Fiscal Year 2025 against a congressional budget authority of $10.1B, reflecting a 21.0% utilization rate. This places the agency at rank #26 out of 111 federal agencies tracked, providing a concrete picture of how much of its authorized money the agency actually committed through contracts, grants, loans, and direct assistance during the fiscal year.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has recorded 1,578 terminations at NSF with $650.5M in claimed savings, a meaningful but unverified slice of this agency's FY2025 footprint. Readers should weigh the gap between $10.1B in authority and $2.1B in obligations alongside post-FY2025 terminations to gauge the agency's real trajectory.
Two numbers anchor every agency profile on this site, and they are worth separating clearly. Budget authority is the ceiling Congress sets, the most an agency is legally allowed to commit. Obligated amount is what the agency has actually committed through signed contracts, awarded grants, loans, and direct payments. The gap between the two is the agency's spending pace, and it is normal for an agency to obligate less than its full authority within a single fiscal year because some money carries forward. All of the figures here come from USASpending.gov, the federal spending-transparency system the U.S. Treasury has operated since the DATA Act of 2014, which standardized agency reporting across the federal government. Federal outlays exceeded $7.0 trillion in fiscal year 2025 (CBO Monthly Budget Review), so even a mid-sized agency can command obligations larger than many state budgets. Because these are official government submissions rather than third-party estimates, they are a reliable baseline, though late-posted awards and corrections can shift totals after the fiscal year closes. Our methodology explains how each agency total is assembled and when the data was retrieved.
Key Statistics
Budget Authority
$10.1B
Obligated Amount
$2.1B
Rank #26
Budget Utilization
NSF had $10.1B in budget authority and obligated $2.1B, a utilization rate of 21.0%. Less than half of the authorized budget was obligated.
DOGE Impact
DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) has terminated contracts and grants at this agency.
Savings figures are reported by DOGE.gov and have not been independently verified.
Explore Federal Spending
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Spending by State
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Per-Capita Rankings
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County Spending
Federal spending for 3,200+ US counties by place of performance.
DOGE Cut Tracker
Reported contract and grant terminations by agency and state.
Interactive Tools
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Federal Spending Guides
Learn more about how federal agencies spend and how contracts are awarded.
Understanding Federal Spending
Contracts, grants, loans, and how federal money flows from agencies.
How Federal Contracts Are Awarded
Procurement process, contract types, and small business set-asides.
Where Does Federal Money Go?
Mandatory vs. discretionary, top agencies, and biggest programs.
Why Spending Varies by State
Military bases, federal labs, population, and per capita analysis.
Agencies With Similar Spending Levels
Federal agencies with obligated amounts closest to NSF's $2.1B.
What this means
NSF ranks #26 of 111 federal agencies by FY2025 obligated amount.
- A 21.0% budget-authority utilization rate points to substantial unobligated authority that warrants scrutiny of execution capacity. Percentile tool
- 97% of this agency's award COUNT (not dollars) is grants -- a signal of HOW it spends, separate from how much. Agency rankings
- Rank #26 of 111 puts this agency in perspective against every other federal agency tracked in USASpending.gov. Compare agencies
Figures are award-transaction data from USASpending.gov, refreshed on the ETL cadence shown below -- not a real-time ledger. Utilization and award-count shares are structural signals, not judgments of an agency's effectiveness.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much did NSF spend in FY2025?
What is NSF's budget utilization rate?
What type of awards does NSF primarily issue?
How does NSF rank among federal agencies?
What is the difference between budget authority and obligated amount?
How many contracts vs. grants does NSF issue?
Where can I find detailed NSF spending data?
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Disclaimer: This information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Data is sourced from USASpending.gov. Consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on this data.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and presented.
Every figure on PlainSpending is computed directly from USASpending.gov award-transaction data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates this agency's obligated spending by award type, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.