Massachusetts COMMBUYS Bids Scraper with UNSPSC Codes

What does Massachusetts COMMBUYS Bids Scraper do?

It collects open bids from COMMBUYS, the Massachusetts state procurement portal used by state agencies, cities, towns, schools and public authorities. Each record has the bid number, title, buying organization, opening (due) date, buyer name and email, UNSPSC codes with descriptions, the full bid description, posting date and attachment names. Filters keep runs small, and pricing is per result.

Data source

The public COMMBUYS open bids search at commbuys.com/bso, read without a login, plus each bid's public detail page. Data is live, so every run reflects what is open today.

Why use it?

• Lead generation for contractors and vendors: find new Massachusetts bids by keyword and UNSPSC category the day they post.
• Monitoring: schedule a daily run and send new bids to Slack, email or a sheet.
• Market research: see which towns and agencies buy what, and when bids open.
• It replaces manual clicking through the portal search and paged result tables.

How to use it

1. Open the Actor and set the filters.
2. Click Start. Download results as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read them through the API.
3. Add a Schedule and an Integration (Slack, Google Sheets, webhook) to get new records automatically.

Input

Field	Description
keywords	Search bid descriptions for each keyword (for example road, janitorial). Empty lists all open bids.
organization	Keep only bids whose organization contains this text (for example Town of, College).
dueDateFrom / dueDateTo	Keep only bids opening within this date window (YYYY-MM-DD).
fetchDetails	Open each bid page for UNSPSC codes, description, buyer email and posting date. On by default.
maxResults	Hard stop for the run. You are billed per result, so this caps the cost.
proxyConfiguration	Apify proxy is recommended for larger runs.

Example input:

{
    "keywords": ["road"],
    "organization": "Town of",
    "dueDateFrom": "2026-11-01",
    "maxResults": 50
}

Output

Every record has the same shape:

{
    "id": "BD-27-1348-PD34-PD45-134756",
    "bidNumber": "BD-27-1348-PD34-PD45-134756",
    "title": "RFQ General and FSB Contractor for New Dispatch Facility",
    "agency": "Town of Westborough",
    "dueDate": "2026-11-04T13:00:00",
    "status": "Sent",
    "buyer": "Katelyn Barker",
    "alternateId": null,
    "url": "https://www.commbuys.com/bso/external/bidDetail.sda?docId=BD-27-1348-PD34-PD45-134756&external=true",
    "description": "Renovation of a two-story structure, with basement, located at 20 Phillips Street in Westborough, MA...",
    "postedDate": "2026-10-23T11:13:00",
    "department": "PD34 - Police Department",
    "bidType": "OPEN",
    "purchaseMethod": "Open Market",
    "typeCode": "NS - Non-Statewide Solicitation",
    "buyerEmail": null,
    "allowElectronicQuote": true,
    "unspscCodes": ["72-13-00"],
    "unspscDescriptions": ["General building construction"],
    "attachments": ["Legal Ad_RECC"],
    "scrapedAt": "2026-10-26T08:43:10.531Z"
}

Field	Meaning
id / bidNumber	Stable COMMBUYS bid number, safe for deduplication between runs
title	Bid title from the listing
agency	Buying organization
dueDate	Bid opening date and time in Massachusetts local time (the portal gives no time zone)
status	Portal status; open bids show as Sent
buyer, buyerEmail	Purchaser name and the info contact email when the bid publishes one
unspscCodes, unspscDescriptions	UNSPSC categories on the bid items
postedDate	When the bid became available

Pricing

Pay per event: a small fee when a run starts, then a fixed price per result returned. You only pay for records that pass your filters. Set maxResults to cap any run.

Limitations

• Only open bids are listed. Awarded and closed bids, blankets and contracts are not included.
• The portal search is plain text on bid descriptions, so a keyword only matches words in that field. Item level UNSPSC filtering is not offered by the portal; filter the unspscCodes column after the run.
• Bid documents are listed by name only. Downloads need a COMMBUYS login.
• Turning off fetchDetails is faster but leaves out UNSPSC codes, description, buyer email and posting date.

FAQ

Is this legal? The Actor reads listings the site publishes for any visitor without a login and stores only business information published for that purpose. You are responsible for how you use the data.

Something is missing or broken? Open an issue in the Issues tab; response time is usually under a day.