The grant no-cost extension
A one-time 12-month extension you can take without asking — but only if you file the notice 10 days before the end. The four things that disqualify it.
LAST REVIEWED 28 AUGUST 2026
A no-cost extension buys you more time to finish the work without more money. The Uniform Guidance gives recipients a self-service version of it — one you can take without asking the Federal agency’s permission — but it comes with a short list of conditions and one deadline that is very easy to miss, after which the self-service door closes.
The one-time, 12-month extension
Under 2 CFR 200.308, a recipient may initiate a one-time extension of the period of performance by up to 12 months without prior approval from the Federal agency — provided the award’s terms and conditions authorise it. “One-time” is literal: this is a single self-service extension per award. A second one, or a longer one, is no longer automatic and requires the agency’s prior approval.
The four things that disqualify it
The automatic extension is not available whenever any of these is true. Each pushes you out of self-service and into the slower prior-approval process:
- It is only to spend the remaining money. The extension cannot be “for the sole purpose of using unobligated balances”. More time to draw down what is left is not, by itself, a reason.
- The award terms prohibit it. Some terms and conditions rule the automatic extension out entirely — which is why this is a document you read, not a right you assume.
- You need more Federal money. A no-cost extension is time only. If completing the work needs additional funds, this is the wrong instrument.
- The scope changes. Any change in the approved scope of the project takes it out of the automatic path — an extension is to finish the agreed work, not to redirect it.
The 10-day deadline nobody diaries
This is where the extension is usually lost. To take it, the recipient must notify the Federal agency in writing, with supporting justification and a revised period of performance, at least 10 calendar days before the period of performance ends. Not by the end date — 10 days before it.
Miss that window and the self-service option is simply gone. You are then left asking the agency for a prior-approval extension against a clock that has effectively run out, or watching the award lapse into closeout with work unfinished. The right to the extension was never the hard part; the notice was.
This is one of the dates Grantwell lifts straight off the award: the period-of-performance end drives a countdown, and the 10-day no-cost-extension notice window is flagged as its own deadline ahead of it — so the decision to extend is made while there is still time to file, rather than discovered after the option has expired.
This guide is general information about how grant compliance work is commonly organised, not legal, audit or accounting advice. Grant rules change, and terms vary by funder and award — always check your own award documents and the current regulation, and talk to your auditor about your specific circumstances.
Primary sources
- 2 CFR 200.308 — Revision of budget and program plans — The one-time 12-month extension without prior approval, its four disqualifying conditions, and the 10-calendar-day written-notice requirement.
- 2 CFR 200.1 — Definitions (period of performance) — What the period of performance is — the window an extension moves.
- 2 CFR 200.344 — Closeout — What happens instead if the award is not extended: the 120-day closeout clock the end of performance starts.
This guide is general information about how grant compliance work is commonly organised, not legal, audit or accounting advice. Grant rules change, and terms vary by funder and award — always check your own award documents and the current regulation, and talk to your auditor about your specific circumstances.