Rankings · Programs
Federal Agencies with the Most Grant Programs
All federal agencies ranked by how many grant programs they administer, the biggest funders in the federal system.
- 77
- #1 · U.S. Department o…
- 24
- entries ranked
The verdict
U.S. Department of Education leads with 77, ahead of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (65).
- 77
- #1 · U.S. Department of Education
- 24
- entries ranked by programs
- 1.2×
- the #1 vs #2 gap
What this ranking tells you
The federal government distributes grants through dozens of agencies, but the volume is heavily concentrated. The Department of Education, HHS, and USDA collectively administer nearly half of all federal grant programs. Agencies with more programs are not necessarily spending more money, some agencies run many small programs while others run fewer but much larger ones. This ranking shows operational breadth: which agencies have the most diverse grant portfolios.
Top 10 by programs
The shape of the ranking at a glance.
Source: SAM.gov (System for Award Management). See our methodology.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which federal agency gives out the most grants?
By program count, the Department of Education, HHS, and USDA lead. However, by dollar volume, HHS (through Medicaid and <a href="https://grants.nih.gov/grants/oer.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="text-[var(--color-accent-text,var(--color-accent))] hover:underline">NIH</a>) and the Department of Transportation (through infrastructure programs) are the largest. The ranking depends on whether you measure by number of programs or total funding.
Do agencies with more programs have more funding?
Not necessarily. Some agencies like the <a href="https://grants.nih.gov/grants/oer.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="text-[var(--color-accent-text,var(--color-accent))] hover:underline">National Institutes of Health</a> have fewer programs but enormous budgets concentrated in research. Others like the Department of Education have many programs spread across different educational goals. Always check individual program funding levels rather than assuming agency size equals money available.
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Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
According to the U.S. General Services Administration, the SAM.gov Assistance Listings catalog tracked 80,922 federal grant opportunities across 504 assistance programs and 25 federal agencies as of July 2026. See our methodology for how this data is sourced and verified.
Every figure on PlainGrants is rendered directly from SAM.gov Assistance Listings data, no number is typed in by an editor. This ranking draws directly on SAM.gov Assistance Listings data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
| Publisher | PlainGrants |
| Sources | the SAM.gov Assistance Listings and Grants.gov |