# UK Find a Tender Contracts Scraper (`parseforge/ukcontracts-tenders-scraper`) Actor

Scrapes UK public sector tender notices from Find a Tender. Returns each notice as a flat row with title, description, buyer, value, deadline, and award status. Filter by keyword and export up to 1,000,000 tenders.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/parseforge/ukcontracts-tenders-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [ParseForge](https://apify.com/parseforge) (community)
- **Categories:** Automation, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $7.69 / 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.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

[![ParseForge](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ParseForge/apify-assets/main/banner.jpg)](https://apify.com/parseforge?fpr=vmoqkp)

### UK Find a Tender Contracts Scraper

**Scrape UK public sector tenders from Find a Tender, up to a million per run.** Every notice comes with its title, description, buyer, value, deadline, and award status. No login or API key. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Find a Tender is the UK government's official portal for high-value public contracts, but its search is clunky and there is no bulk export. This Actor reads the public notice feed directly, filters by keyword, and returns each tender in one flat row. It is built for bid teams, market analysts, and suppliers who need the latest opportunities without manual copying.

| Who uses it | What they scrape UK Find a Tender for |
|---|---|
| Bid managers | Monitor new tenders for keywords relevant to their company's services |
| Market researchers | Analyse public procurement trends by sector or buyer |
| Sales teams | Build a pipeline of upcoming public sector contracts |
| Compliance officers | Track awarded contracts for audit or competitive intelligence |

### What it does

This Actor collects UK public sector tender notices from Find a Tender, filtered by a keyword you provide, and returns each notice as a flat row.

- 🔍 **Keyword filter:** case-insensitive match on tender title and description, so you get only relevant notices.
- 📦 **Bulk export:** collect up to 1,000,000 tenders per run, then download as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.
- 🕒 **Always fresh:** each run pulls the latest published notices from the live feed, no caching.
- 🧾 **Flat schema:** every tender is one row with consistent fields, ready for spreadsheets or databases.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

### What you can do with UK Find a Tender data

**📈 Monitor new opportunities.**

A bid manager runs the Actor daily with the keyword 'software' and receives a fresh CSV of every new tender mentioning software, ready for triage.

**🧠 Analyse procurement trends.**

A market researcher collects six months of tenders for 'construction' and pivots the data by buyer and value to spot spending patterns.

**🤝 Build a sales pipeline.**

A sales team scrapes all tenders above £100,000 in their region, then filters by deadline to prioritise upcoming bids.

**🔎 Track competitors' wins.**

A compliance officer searches for a rival company's name in awarded notices to understand their public sector footprint.

### Why choose this scraper

|  | What you get |
|---|---|
| **Official source** | Data comes straight from the UK government's Find a Tender portal, the authoritative record for high-value public contracts. |
| **No API hassle** | No registration, no OAuth, no rate-limit headaches. The Actor handles the public feed for you. |
| **One row per tender** | Every notice is flattened into a single record with title, description, buyer, value, deadline, and more. |
| **Scale on demand** | Set maxItems from 1 to 1,000,000 and let Apify's infrastructure handle the volume. |

### How it compares

No other Store actor targets UK Find a Tender the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

| | UK Find a Tender Contracts Scraper | Build it in-house | By hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup | Run it now, zero config | Days of engineering | None, but hours per pull |
| When UK Find a Tender changes | Maintained for you | You fix it | You re-learn the page |
| Proxies, retries, anti-bot | Built in | Your problem | Browser only |
| Output | Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export | Whatever you build | Copy-paste |
| Cost | Pay per result | Engineering time | Analyst hours |

### Configure the run

Drive the Actor with a single keyword, or leave it empty to return all recent tenders. The filter runs as each notice is read, so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

```json
{
  "maxItems": 10
}
```

A larger pull:

```json
{
  "maxItems": 200
}
```

### Pricing

Pay-per-result: **$0.0085 per result** collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

| Results collected | Approximate cost |
|---|---|
| 100 results | $0.85 |
| 1,000 results | $8.50 |
| 10,000 results | $85.00 |

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

### Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. [Upgrade your Apify plan](https://console.apify.com/sign-up?fpr=vmoqkp) to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

### Run it

1. [Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit](https://console.apify.com/sign-up?fpr=vmoqkp).
2. Open the [UK Find a Tender Contracts Scraper](https://apify.com/parseforge/ukcontracts-tenders-scraper?fpr=vmoqkp).
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click **Start**.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the **Dataset** tab.

Run it programmatically through the [Apify API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2) (`run-sync-get-dataset-items`) or the [ApifyClient](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js) for JavaScript and Python.

### Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to UK Find a Tender through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=parseforge/ukcontracts-tenders-scraper"
```

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

### Troubleshooting

**Why am I getting no results?**

Your keyword may be too specific or misspelled. Try a broader term, or leave the keyword empty to return all recent tenders. Also check that maxItems is at least 1.

**The run takes a long time.**

The Actor reads the feed sequentially. If you set maxItems very high, it will keep going until it reaches that number or the feed ends. Lower maxItems for faster runs.

**Some fields are empty in the output.**

Not every tender has a value, deadline, or award status. Empty fields are normal and reflect missing data on the source site.

**I get an error about the website structure.**

The Find a Tender site may have changed its layout. Report the issue on the Actor's Apify page, and we will update the scraper.

### FAQ

| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What is Find a Tender? | Find a Tender is the UK government's official portal for public sector contracts above certain thresholds. It replaced the EU's TED system for UK buyers after Brexit. |
| Does this Actor require an API key or login? | No. It reads the public notice feed directly, so you only need an Apify account to run it. |
| Can I filter by buyer, value, or deadline? | The input schema currently supports only a keyword filter on title and description. For other filters, you can post-process the exported data in your own tools. |
| How many tenders can I collect in one run? | You can set maxItems up to 1,000,000. The Actor will stop once it reaches that number or the feed is exhausted. |
| What format is the output? | Each tender is a flat JSON object. You can download the dataset as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from Apify. |
| How often should I run this Actor? | New notices are published daily. For most use cases, a daily or weekly schedule is sufficient. You can set up a recurring run in Apify. |
| Does the keyword search the full tender text? | It searches the title and description fields only, not attachments. If you need full-text search, consider downloading the notice PDFs separately. |
| Is this legal to scrape? | Find a Tender is a public government website with no robots.txt restrictions on the notice feed. Always review the site's terms of use and scrape responsibly. |

### Related actors

Browse the full [ParseForge collection](https://apify.com/parseforge?fpr=vmoqkp) for more scrapers.

🆘 **Need help?** Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ **Disclaimer.** This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Crown Commercial Service. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.

# Actor input Schema

## `keyword` (type: `string`):

Optional. Case-insensitive substring filter applied to each tender's title and description (for example software, catering, construction). Leave empty to return all recent tenders.

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

Maximum number of tenders to collect per run.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "maxItems": 10
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (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 = {
    "keyword": "",
    "maxItems": 10
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("parseforge/ukcontracts-tenders-scraper").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 = {
    "keyword": "",
    "maxItems": 10,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("parseforge/ukcontracts-tenders-scraper").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 '{
  "keyword": "",
  "maxItems": 10
}' |
apify call parseforge/ukcontracts-tenders-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

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/Jo6ttYxGlKEfSXlhP/builds/26ktBUFBfCuWG4udC/openapi.json