# Australian Government Open Tenders (AusTender) (`ausgovdata/au-open-tenders`) Actor

Open Australian Government tenders and RFTs (approaches to market) from the official AusTender feed, with a direct link to each notice. Filter by keyword.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ausgovdata/au-open-tenders.md
- **Developed by:** [AusGovData](https://apify.com/ausgovdata) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $10.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Australian Government Open Tenders (AusTender)

Open Australian Government tenders (approaches to market, or RFTs) from the official
AusTender feed, with a direct link to every notice so you can go straight to the documents.

### What you get

- One row per open tender, from the official AusTender Current ATM List feed.
- The tender title and its short description.
- The tender reference code, e.g. `AIR/NOT/102637/1`.
- The publish date, so you can see what is new since your last run.
- A direct link to the full notice on tenders.gov.au, where the closing date, the agency
  and the documents live.

### Who uses it

- **Suppliers and bid writers** — a daily watch list of government work you can bid for.
- **Bid teams** — a keyword watch on procurement opportunities, instead of clicking through
  the AusTender site each morning.
- **Business development staff** — see which agencies are approaching the market and for what.
- **Researchers and analysts** — track what government is asking the market for, and when.

### How to use it

1. Set the inputs: how many days back to look, and the keywords you bid on.
2. Run it once, or save it as a task and schedule a daily or weekly run, so new tenders land
   in the dataset on their own.
3. Take the results from the dataset tab as CSV, Excel or JSON, or read them through the
   Apify API into Google Sheets, Airtable, Zapier, Make or your own tools.

### Input fields

| Field | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| `daysBack` | 14 | Tenders published between this many days ago and today (1–365). 14 covers the last two weeks. |
| `keywords` | none | Title or description contains one of these words, case-insensitive. Leave empty for every tender. |
| `maxResults` | 500 | Stop after this many tenders (1–10000). Each one is charged as one result. |
| `failIfEmpty` | off | For monitoring: mark the run as failed when nothing is found. Leave off for normal use. |

### Output example

One row from a local run on 2026-09-26:

```json
{
  "id": "b901e388-8094-41a8-ad24-ebac88135684",
  "title": "LAND 6504 Medium Range Ground Based Air and Missile Defence (MRGBAD)",
  "description": "LAND6504 MRGBAD",
  "published": "2026-09-25T00:00:00Z",
  "categories": "AIR/NOT/102637/1",
  "url": "https://www.tenders.gov.au/Atm/Show/b901e388-8094-41a8-ad24-ebac88135684",
  "source": "austender-atm",
  "licence": "Contains AusTender data, Department of Finance, licensed under CC BY 3.0 AU"
}
```

`categories` holds the tender reference taken from the feed's title, because the feed
publishes no category codes. Results download as CSV, Excel or JSON.

### Pricing

You pay per result: one open tender is one result, charged when its row is written. Rows
you never receive are not charged for, and the run stops by itself if it reaches the
maximum cost per run set on the run.

### FAQ

**How fresh is the data?**
The official feed is downloaded when the run starts, so each run shows the tenders the feed
holds at that moment. `daysBack` decides how far back to look by publish date; 14 days
covers the usual fortnight, and the feed itself lists roughly the current open tenders.

**How much does a run cost?**
You pay only for the rows you receive: one open tender, one charge. Set a maximum cost per
run and the run stops by itself when it is reached; rows that are never returned are never
charged for.

**Does it tell me the closing date?**
No. The feed carries no closing date, so it is not in the data and neither are the agency,
the category or a value. Follow the `url` on the row to the full notice on tenders.gov.au
for the closing date and the documents.

**Can I filter by agency or category?**
Not from this feed — it publishes only a title, a description, a reference, a link and a
publish date. Use keywords to narrow the list, then open the notice link for the rest.

**Is this official data?**
Yes. It is the "AusTender Current ATM List" RSS feed published by the Department of Finance,
used under CC BY 3.0 AU, and every row carries the attribution line.

**Can I get new tenders by email instead?**
Yes — [Tender Alerts](https://tenderalerts.au) emails the same official AusTender data,
daily or weekly, so you do not need to run anything.

### Data source and licence

The "AusTender Current ATM List" RSS feed, Department of Finance,
`https://www.tenders.gov.au/public_data/rss/rss.xml`. Licence text, copied from the source
and kept on every row:

> Contains AusTender data, Department of Finance, licensed under CC BY 3.0 AU

CC BY 3.0 AU requires you to credit the Department of Finance.

### Privacy

Rows are about tenders, not people: the feed publishes no supplier, contact or applicant
names, so a row carries no personal information.

### Limitations

The official feed carries a title, a description, a reference, a link and a publish date.
That is all this Actor can report: **there is no closing date in the feed**, and no agency,
category or value either, so those columns are absent from every row. A tender that closed
today can still appear in the feed, so check the link before you rely on it. `published`
is a date, not a time of day, and `id` is the identifier from the AusTender page URL. When
the list is longer than `maxResults`, the run stops at the limit and the rest are neither
returned nor charged for.

# Actor input Schema

## `daysBack` (type: `integer`):

How many days back to look for tenders by their publish date. 14 covers the last two weeks; the feed itself lists roughly the current open tenders.

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

Only tenders whose title or description contains at least one of these words (case-insensitive). Leave empty for every tender.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many tenders. Each one is charged as one result.

## `failIfEmpty` (type: `boolean`):

For monitoring: mark the run as failed when nothing is found. Leave off for normal use.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "daysBack": 14,
  "keywords": [],
  "maxResults": 500,
  "failIfEmpty": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ausgovdata/au-open-tenders").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ausgovdata/au-open-tenders").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call ausgovdata/au-open-tenders --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,ausgovdata/au-open-tenders"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/ORdshYRuvJ0zfAWz3/builds/sNJIalfc5QVemSfMd/openapi.json