UK Tenders: Contracts Finder + Find a Tender

What does UK Tenders: Contracts Finder + Find a Tender do?

This actor gives you UK public sector tenders and contract awards from the two official portals, Contracts Finder and Find a Tender (FTS), in one feed. It reads the portals' official OCDS APIs, classifies each release as planning, tender or award, marks cancellations, and removes duplicates when the same notice appears on both portals.

Filter by stage, keyword, CPV code, minimum value and deadline. Turn on monitor mode and schedule it to receive only new notices.

Export as JSON, CSV or Excel, or use the Apify API, schedules and integrations.

How to use it

1. Choose sources (both by default).
2. Choose stages: tender (open opportunities), award (who won), planning (early market engagement).
3. Set Published in the last N days and optional keywords, CPV prefixes and minimum value.
4. Run it. For bid alerts, turn on monitor mode and schedule it daily.

Data fields

Field	Description
source	contracts-finder or find-a-tender
stage	planning, tender or award (from the OCDS release tag)
ocid	OCDS contracting process ID
releaseId	OCDS release ID
tag	Raw OCDS release tags
publishedDate	Tender publication date
title, description	Notice title and description
buyerName	Contracting authority
status	Tender status; cancelled when the release is a cancellation
procurementCategory	e.g. services, goods, works
procurementMethod	Procedure, e.g. "Call-off from a framework agreement"
cpvMain	First CPV code
cpvCodes	All CPV codes with descriptions
valueAmount, valueCurrency	Tender value (or minimum value / first lot value)
deadline	Tender submission deadline
contractStart	Contract start date
suitableForSme	SME suitability flag, when given
postcode	Delivery postcode, when given
awards	List of awards: suppliers, value, currency, date
url	Notice page on the portal
scrapedAt	Time the row was created (UTC)

Use cases

• Bid alerts for suppliers and SMEs by CPV code or keyword.
• Award intelligence: which suppliers win which contracts and for how much.
• Public spend analysis and market sizing.

Input example

{
  "stages": ["tender"],
  "daysBack": 3,
  "keywords": ["software", "cyber"],
  "cpvPrefixes": ["72"],
  "onlyOpenDeadline": true,
  "monitorMode": true
}

All input options

Option	Default	Notes
sources	both	contracts-finder, find-a-tender
stages	["tender"]	planning, tender, award
daysBack	3	1–365
keywords	[]	Case-insensitive match in title or description (any keyword)
cpvPrefixes	[]	Matches main and additional CPV codes
minValueGbp	–	Notices without a value are kept
onlyOpenDeadline	false	Drops notices whose deadline has passed or is missing
dedupeAcrossSources	true	Keep one copy of a notice that is on both portals (matched on title, buyer and deadline across portals only). Within a portal, notices are identified by OCID, so different notices with the same title and buyer are never merged
maxItems	1000	1–50,000
monitorMode	false	Only notices not returned before
monitorStoreName	uk-tenders-monitor	One name per saved search

Output example

{
  "source": "contracts-finder",
  "stage": "award",
  "ocid": "ocds-b5fd17-06291f8e-82ec-405e-87c2-1451a9f0aa93",
  "releaseId": "06cd6297-36c5-4c01-9c48-fa382c25b725-918214",
  "tag": ["award"],
  "publishedDate": "2026-10-18T12:54:08+01:00",
  "title": "Observability-Tooling",
  "description": "Observability-Tooling",
  "buyerName": "DSIT",
  "status": "complete",
  "procurementCategory": "services",
  "procurementMethod": "Call-off from a framework agreement",
  "cpvMain": "48200000",
  "cpvCodes": [{ "code": "48200000", "description": "Networking, Internet and intranet software package" }],
  "valueAmount": 249480,
  "valueCurrency": "GBP",
  "deadline": "2026-09-18T12:00:00+01:00",
  "contractStart": "2026-09-26T00:00:00+01:00",
  "suitableForSme": true,
  "postcode": "E1 8QS",
  "awards": [{ "suppliers": ["Dynatrace Limited"], "value": 249480, "currency": "GBP", "date": "2026-09-17T00:00:00+01:00" }],
  "url": "https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/06291f8e-82ec-405e-87c2-1451a9f0aa93",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-18T17:09:46.163Z"
}

How much does it cost to scrape UK tenders?

You pay per notice delivered: $3.00 per 1,000 notices, no start fee. Duplicates removed across portals are not charged, and with monitor mode notices from earlier runs are skipped. Set a maximum cost per run in Apify; the actor stops when it is reached. The $5 monthly credit on the Apify free plan covers about 1,650 notices.

In monitor mode, the first run (empty memory) is a free baseline: it stores the notices that exist today and returns nothing, so it costs nothing. Later runs return and charge only new notices. Turn off "Monitor: first run is a free baseline" if you also want the existing notices.

Limits

• Fields are only as complete as the portals publish them; value, deadline, postcode and SME flag can be null.
• Find a Tender's API filters on last update date; the actor then keeps only notices whose publishedDate falls inside your daysBack window, so old notices that were merely updated are not returned.
• Keyword filtering is done on title and description only.
• De-duplication matches on OCID and stage, and also on stage + title + buyer name.
• Up to 500 API pages (100 releases each) are scanned per source per run; maximum 50,000 output rows.
• Monitor mode remembers up to the last 100,000 notices per memory name.
• The value filter does not convert currencies.

Legal and terms

Data comes from the official public OCDS APIs of Contracts Finder and Find a Tender. Both APIs publish the data under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Award data can contain names of sole-trader suppliers; you are responsible for your use under UK GDPR.

FAQ

What is the difference between Contracts Finder and Find a Tender?

Contracts Finder lists lower-value contracts in England; Find a Tender lists UK-wide contracts above the procurement thresholds. Many notices appear on both, so this actor merges them.

How do I get only contract awards?

Set stages to award. The awards field lists suppliers, value and date.

How do I get daily bid alerts?

Turn on monitor mode, keep the same memory name, and schedule the actor daily.

Are cancelled tenders included?

Yes, if their stage matches your filter; they get status: "cancelled".

Can I send results to Slack, Sheets or a CRM?

Yes, via Apify integrations, webhooks or the API.

Other Data Pipe actors

• EU Tenders Scraper (TED) & Tender Monitor
• France Company Register Scraper (SIRENE)
• SEC EDGAR Filings Search & Monitor
• LEI Lookup & Company Search (GLEIF)