Free, no signup
BABA domestic-content calculator
Enter your bill of materials, pick the funding agency, and get a cited line-by-line Build America, Buy America verdict. Everything runs in your browser, so your BOM is never transmitted.
Standards phase in by this date, not by today. It decides which rule governs your project.
Everything runs in your browser. Your bill of materials is never sent to a server.
Part of the cost above, not additional to it.
Need this in your estimating software or an agent workflow? The same engine is a JSON API and MCP server. See the cited threshold matrix for every agency standard.
How the determination works
Iron & steel
All manufacturing from initial melting through coating must occur in the US. A single foreign step fails the line.
Manufactured products
Made in the US and more than 55 percent US component cost. The calculator computes the exact percentage against the threshold.
Construction materials
All manufacturing processes must occur in the US, across the OMB-defined material list.
5 waiver categories are recognised when a line cannot meet the standard. See the waiver catalogue. Determinations apply the OMB M-24-02 methodology: iron and steel must have all manufacturing from initial melting through coating occur in the US; manufactured products must be made in the US with GREATER THAN 55 percent US component cost, so exactly 55.0 percent does not pass; construction materials must have all manufacturing occur in the US. Where an agency phases a standard in, the date the project's federal funds were obligated decides which phase applies. Thresholds and waiver categories are cited to their official source and flagged verified or Unverified.
Questions
What are the three BABA domestic-content standards?
Iron and steel must have all manufacturing from initial melting through coating occur in the United States. Manufactured products must be made in the US with more than 55 percent US component cost. Construction materials must have all manufacturing processes occur in the US.
Does my bill of materials leave my computer?
No. The calculator imports the determination engine and runs it in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to a server, which is why it needs no signup.
What does waiver-eligible mean?
It means a line fails the domestic-content standard AND the project-level de minimis test has been computed and passed: the total value of non-compliant material on the project is at or under the lesser of 5 percent of applicable costs and $1,000,000. A waiver is not automatic even then; it must be applied for and granted by the funding agency before award, and the calculator never treats a waiver-eligible line as compliant. Where a line fails and de minimis does not cover it, the verdict is non-compliant, and we name the other waiver categories only as routes worth investigating, because their tests turn on facts this tool does not hold.
Why does it ask when my federal funds were obligated?
Because BABA standards phase in by that date rather than by today. FHWA, for example, applies a US final assembly test to manufactured products on projects obligated from 1 October 2025, and adds the greater-than-55-percent component-cost test only from 1 October 2026. The same bill of materials is compliant on one side of that date and not on the other, so the verdict is meaningless without it.
Which funding agencies are covered?
The ruleset currently covers OMB Made in America Office, FHWA, EPA State Revolving Funds, USDA Rural Development. BABA covers more than 60 federal programs; where an agency is not loaded the tool returns insufficient data rather than guessing a standard.
Run BABA compliance in your estimating workflow
The determination engine is a JSON API and an MCP server. Free to try with no signup.