# UK Public Tenders Scraper (Contracts Finder + Find a Tender) (`tenderwire/uk-public-tenders`) Actor

Get UK government tenders and contract awards from Contracts Finder and Find a Tender in one clean dataset. Filter by keyword, CPV code, value, deadline and SME suitability. Uses the official open data APIs.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/tenderwire/uk-public-tenders.md
- **Developed by:** [TenderWire Data](https://apify.com/tenderwire) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, Lead generation
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$5.00 / 1,000 notices

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

## UK Public Tenders Scraper (Contracts Finder + Find a Tender)

Get every new UK public sector tender and contract award in one clean dataset. This Actor reads the two official UK government portals, **Contracts Finder** and **Find a Tender**, through their open data APIs and gives you one consistent table you can export to Excel, CSV, JSON, Google Sheets or your CRM.

Filter by keyword, CPV code, contract value, deadline and SME suitability. Turn on **alerts mode** and schedule it daily to receive only the notices you have not seen before.

### What does UK Public Tenders Scraper do?

- Downloads tender notices (open opportunities), award notices (who won and for how much) and planning notices.
- Merges **Contracts Finder** (most notices in England from £12,000) and **Find a Tender** (higher value notices across the whole UK) into one format.
- Cleans the data: one row per notice, ISO dates, numeric values, CPV codes as a list, a direct link to the official notice.
- Remembers what it already delivered, so a daily schedule only sends new notices.
- Uses only official open data published under the Open Government Licence. No login, no proxies, no browser.

### Who uses it?

- **Bid and sales teams** who want a daily list of new UK tenders in their sector, straight into Slack, email or a CRM.
- **Bid writing consultancies** that track opportunities for many clients (one saved search per client).
- **Market researchers and analysts** who study public spending, buyers and suppliers.
- **Competitor tracking**: see which companies win which contracts, for how much, and from which buyers.
- **SaaS and data products** that need a reliable UK tender feed without maintaining their own integration.

### What data do you get?

| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| title | Provision of Conversion Support Services for Student Recruitment |
| buyerName | Glasgow Caledonian University |
| valueAmount, valueCurrency | 800000, GBP |
| deadlineDate | 2026-12-04T12:00:00.000Z |
| publishedDate | 2026-11-04T16:19:41.000Z |
| stage | tender, award or planning |
| cpvCodes, categoryDescription | \["79411100"], Business development consultancy services |
| procurementCategory, procurementMethod | services, Open procedure |
| placeOfPerformance | \["UKM82"] (NUTS / ITL region codes or region names) |
| suitableForSme | true / false (Contracts Finder only) |
| awardedSuppliers, awardValueAmount, awardDate | winners of award notices |
| buyerContactEmail, buyerContactPhone, buyerWebsite | organisation contact channels |
| noticeUrl | link to the official notice |
| documentUrls | links to tender documents when published |
| source | uk-contracts-finder or uk-find-a-tender |

### How to use it

1. Click **Try for free**.
2. Pick the sources and stages (default: open tenders from both portals).
3. Add keywords or CPV code prefixes, for example `software` or `72` for IT services.
4. Click **Start**. A typical 3 day search finishes in under a minute.
5. Download the results as Excel, CSV or JSON, or connect them to Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier or Make.

**Tip:** for daily alerts, turn on **Only new since last run**, then create a Schedule (for example every weekday at 7:00).

### Input example

```json
{
    "sources": ["contractsFinder", "findATender"],
    "stages": ["tender"],
    "daysBack": 3,
    "keywords": ["software", "cloud", "cyber"],
    "cpvPrefixes": ["72", "48"],
    "minValue": 50000,
    "onlyOpen": true,
    "onlyNewSinceLastRun": false,
    "maxItems": 500
}
```

### Output example

```json
{
    "source": "uk-find-a-tender",
    "noticeId": "104855-2026",
    "ocid": "ocds-h6vhtk-0323a9",
    "noticeType": "tender",
    "stage": "tender",
    "status": "active",
    "title": "Provision of Conversion Support Services for Student Recruitment for Glasgow Caledonian University",
    "description": "The University is seeking a Contractor for the Provision of a Conversion Partner who is equipped to provide a bespoke data driven, measurable series of conversion solutions through expertise in the HE sector.",
    "buyerName": "Glasgow Caledonian University",
    "buyerId": "GB-FTS-9129",
    "buyerCountry": "United Kingdom",
    "buyerCity": "Glasgow",
    "buyerContactEmail": "procurement@gcu.ac.uk",
    "buyerContactPhone": "+44 1413313578",
    "buyerWebsite": "https://www.publictendersscotland.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/",
    "cpvCodes": ["79411100"],
    "categoryCodes": [],
    "categoryDescription": "Business development consultancy services",
    "procurementCategory": "services",
    "procurementMethod": "Open procedure",
    "valueAmount": 800000,
    "valueCurrency": "GBP",
    "publishedDate": "2026-11-04T16:19:41.000Z",
    "deadlineDate": "2026-12-04T12:00:00.000Z",
    "contractStartDate": null,
    "contractEndDate": null,
    "placeOfPerformance": ["UKM82"],
    "suitableForSme": null,
    "awardedSuppliers": [],
    "awardValueAmount": null,
    "awardDate": null,
    "noticeUrl": "https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/104855-2026",
    "documentUrls": [],
    "language": "en",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-11-05T08:50:24.933Z"
}
```

### How much does it cost?

This Actor uses **pay per result**: you pay **$5 per 1,000 notices** delivered (half a cent per notice), plus a tiny Apify start fee per run. Nothing else: it needs no proxies and very little compute.

- A daily alert for one sector usually returns 10 to 60 new notices a day, so it costs well under $10 a month.
- Apify's free plan includes monthly credit, enough to try the Actor many times.
- Set **Max notices** to cap the cost of any run.

### Alerts mode and integrations

With **Only new since last run** turned on, the Actor stores the IDs it already delivered (in your own Apify account) and outputs only new notices next time. Use a different **Alerts state name** for each saved search. Combine it with:

- **Schedules** to run every morning.
- **Integrations** to send each run's results to Slack, email, Google Sheets, Airtable, HubSpot, Zapier, Make or a webhook.
- The **Apify API** to pull results into your own system.

### Other tender Actors with the same output format

All our tender Actors output exactly the same fields, so you can combine them in one sheet or database:

- **EU TED Tenders Scraper**: all EU tenders and awards from Tenders Electronic Daily.
- **CanadaBuys Tenders Scraper**: Canadian government tenders and contract awards.

### FAQ

**Is this legal?**
Yes. Contracts Finder and Find a Tender publish this data through official open APIs under the Open Government Licence v3.0, which allows commercial reuse with attribution: "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0."

**Why is buyerContactEmail sometimes empty?**
We only output organisation mailboxes such as procurement@ or tenders@. Personal mailboxes of individual officials and contact person names are removed on purpose, to keep the dataset free of personal data.

**Why is the value empty for some notices?**
Buyers do not always publish an estimated value. When you set a minimum or maximum value, notices without a value are dropped.

**Why does the same tender appear twice?**
Contracts Finder and Find a Tender are separate portals and a few buyers publish on both. Each portal gives the notice its own ID. Updates (amended deadlines, corrections) appear as new notices with stage tender and noticeType tenderUpdate.

**How fresh is the data?**
Live. Each run reads the official APIs at that moment.

**Can I get older notices?**
Yes. Set **Date from** and **Date to**. Both portals keep years of history.

**Something looks wrong?**
Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab. We run an automatic self-check every day that detects source changes, and usually fix problems within a day.

# Actor input Schema

## `sources` (type: `array`):

Which official UK portals to read. Contracts Finder lists most notices in England from £12,000 (£30,000 for central government). Find a Tender lists higher value notices across the whole UK.

## `stages` (type: `array`):

tender = open opportunities you can bid on. award = who won and for how much. planning = early market engagement and pipeline notices.

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

How many days of notices to fetch, counting back from now. Ignored when 'Date from' is set.

## `dateFrom` (type: `string`):

Optional start date (YYYY-MM-DD). Overrides 'Days back'.

## `dateTo` (type: `string`):

Optional end date (YYYY-MM-DD). Defaults to now.

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

Keep notices whose title, description or buyer contains at least one of these words. Case-insensitive. Leave empty for all.

## `excludeKeywords` (type: `array`):

Drop notices that contain any of these words.

## `cpvPrefixes` (type: `array`):

Keep notices with a CPV code starting with any of these digits. Example: 72 = IT services, 45 = construction work, 79 = business services, 85 = health and social work.

## `minValue` (type: `integer`):

Keep notices with an estimated value at or above this amount. Notices without a value are dropped when set.

## `maxValue` (type: `integer`):

Keep notices with an estimated value at or below this amount.

## `onlyOpen` (type: `boolean`):

Keep only notices whose submission deadline is today or later.

## `smeOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Contracts Finder flags notices suitable for small and medium businesses. Find a Tender notices have no such flag and are dropped when this is on.

## `onlyNewSinceLastRun` (type: `boolean`):

Remember which notices were already delivered and output only new ones. Ideal for a daily schedule that feeds email, Slack or a CRM.

## `stateKey` (type: `string`):

Use a different name for each saved search that runs in alerts mode, so their memories do not mix.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many notices. You only pay for notices delivered.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Not needed: these are official open APIs. Only turn on if you see repeated rate limit errors.

## `selfCheck` (type: `boolean`):

For the maintainer. Fetches a small sample, checks the source format has not changed and writes a SELF_CHECK report. Outputs no notices.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "sources": [
    "contractsFinder",
    "findATender"
  ],
  "stages": [
    "tender"
  ],
  "daysBack": 3,
  "onlyOpen": false,
  "smeOnly": false,
  "onlyNewSinceLastRun": false,
  "stateKey": "default",
  "maxItems": 50,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  },
  "selfCheck": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

## `allFields` (type: `string`):

No description

## `selfCheck` (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 = {
    "maxItems": 50
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("tenderwire/uk-public-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 = { "maxItems": 50 }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("tenderwire/uk-public-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 '{
  "maxItems": 50
}' |
apify call tenderwire/uk-public-tenders --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,tenderwire/uk-public-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/FokxGIY4761UzeSF2/builds/Opm2FK49I0gcLhzWN/openapi.json