Find a Tender is the government’s free service for finding public sector contracts. TenderWorthy is an independent service, not part of Find a Tender or the government. This guide covers how to use it: search and filters, saved searches and email alerts, what the notice types mean, and when you need to register. It is part of our guide on how to win public sector contracts.
The short version: select Search, narrow the notices with the filters, save the search to get an email when something new matches, and register only when you decide to bid. gov.uk’s own walkthrough is here (updated 23 June 2026).
What Find a Tender is now
Find a Tender is the Central Digital Platform at the same web address as before. The gov.uk guidance says the platform is available at find-tender.service.gov.uk (para 1) and that procurement notices are published by all contracting authorities in one place (para 8).
Four things to know:
- It is free. The supplier guide says Find a Tender is free to use for everyone and that you should not pay to view public sector opportunities.
- It replaced an EU service. gov.uk says it replaced the EU’s Tenders Electronic Daily for UK high value contracts on 1 January 2021.
- It also carries smaller contracts. Buyers advertising a contract worth at least £12,000 (central government) or £30,000 (other authorities), including VAT, must first publish a below-threshold tender notice on the platform (paras 10 to 12; section 87). There are exceptions, set out in our guide to how Find a Tender and Contracts Finder differ.
- It is not the only place. Contracts Finder and the devolved portals exist too. See other places tenders are published.
Searching Find a Tender
Start a search: no account needed
On the Find a Tender homepage, select Search. The gov.uk walkthrough says the search opens showing all notices on the platform, with filters to narrow them down.
The factsheet says suppliers only need to register when they want to bid.
The filters gov.uk describes
The walkthrough names these filters, using these labels:
- Notice type. Choose which notices to see. Selecting Tender Notice shows the available tender notices, the ones you can bid on.
- Suitability. Select “Small and medium-sized enterprises” to see opportunities marked as particularly suitable for SMEs.
- Contract location. Choose one or more regions, then confirm with “Add regions to filter”.
Then select “Update results” to apply them. The walkthrough’s worked example is a small supplier looking for work in the East of England.
The search page may offer more than these. gov.uk says there is a range of filters, so check the service for the full list.
Search in the buyer’s words
Buyers and suppliers can describe the same job in different words. Try the plain words for your trade, then the words a buyer would write in a notice, such as “grounds maintenance” where you might say “gardening”.
Notices are also classified by CPV code, a standard list of codes for what is being bought. You can find the CPV codes for your trade and see whether the service lets you search by them. If it does, codes find notices that use none of your keywords.
Saved searches and email alerts
Alerts on Find a Tender work through saved searches. The gov.uk walkthrough describes the steps:
- Choose your filters.
- Select “save search”. A pop-up opens.
- Name the search and choose how often you want to be emailed.
You are then emailed when a newly posted notice meets your saved criteria. The supplier guide says setting up alerts is free.
The guidance doesn’t say whether you need to sign in to save a search, which frequencies are offered, or whether there is a limit on how many searches you can save. Check those on the service.
If you used the old Find a Tender, your login did not carry over. Existing users had to re-register, and the supplier guide says that if you use the same email address, saved searches from your old account are pulled through.
An alert matches your search, not your business. It will tell you a notice exists, but it can’t tell you whether you hold the insurance, accreditations or turnover the buyer will ask for. Treat each alert as “worth a look”, not “worth a bid”.
What a tender notice tells you
When an alert lands, open the notice. For competitive procedures, the gov.uk guidance lists what a tender notice must include. The parts that decide whether you bid are:
- Conditions of participation. A description of any conditions you must meet (para 85(c)). The notice should also tell you that you will need to submit core supplier information through the platform at a relevant stage.
- Award criteria. The criteria, or a summary of them (para 85(h)). This is how your bid will be scored.
- How and when to submit. How tenders or requests to participate must be submitted, and the date by when (para 85(i)).
The notice gives access to the associated tender documents, or explains how they will be provided. The guidance says these must generally be provided free of charge and electronically (para 19). A buyer need not provide them separately if the notice already holds everything you need to tender.
Insurance and certification requirements may sit in those documents rather than in the notice. In the week to 10 Oct 2026, 29 of the 470 live notices we saw stated insurance requirements in the notice text (as of 10 Oct 2026). Open the documents before you decide. For a five-minute routine, see how to read a tender notice in five minutes.
Find a Tender notice types, decoded
gov.uk says there are 17 notices across the procurement and contract management cycle, and that not all are used in every procurement. The walkthrough names UK1, UK4 and UK6. The full list below comes from gov.uk’s Procurement Act e-learning, module 2.
| Code | Notice | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| UK1 | Pipeline notice | A look ahead at planned procurements. Required of buyers expecting to spend over £100m in a financial year, for procurements over £2m |
| UK2 | Preliminary market engagement notice | The buyer intends to talk, or has talked, to the market. A tender may follow |
| UK3 | Planned procurement notice | An optional heads-up that a tender notice is coming |
| UK4 | Tender notice | The opportunity itself. Required for open and competitive flexible procedures, and for regulated below-threshold procurements |
| UK5 | Transparency notice | Published before a direct award, in almost all cases. No competition to enter |
| UK6 | Contract award notice | The outcome and the intention to award. Starts the standstill period where one applies |
| UK7 | Contract details notice | Published after any standstill period and award. Contracts over £5m also get their contract documents, redacted as appropriate |
| UK8 | Contract payment notice | Quarterly report of individual payments over £30,000 under a public contract |
| UK9 | Contract performance notice | KPI scores, at least annually, for public contracts over £5m, and poor performance or breach, within 30 days |
| UK10 | Contract change notice | Published before a qualifying contract modification |
| UK11 | Contract termination notice | Published when a public contract ends or is terminated |
| UK12 | Procurement termination notice | The procurement ended without an award, after a tender or transparency notice |
| UK13 to UK16 | Dynamic market notices | Advertising, establishing, changing or terminating a dynamic market |
| UK17 | Payments compliance notice | Twice-yearly report on performance against 30-day payment terms |
The e-learning was based on a draft of the Procurement Regulations 2024, and says that the pipeline, contract payment, contract performance and payments compliance notices were being introduced in later phases. Treat the table as a guide to what the codes mean, and check the service for what is live.
Before a tender
UK1, UK2 and UK3 are early warnings. A pipeline notice covers planned procurements over £2m, over an 18-month period (paras 2 and 7), so it is mainly a signal about larger buyers. A buyer that runs preliminary market engagement must publish a notice before its tender notice or explain in the tender notice why it hasn’t (s.17).
A planned procurement notice published at least 40 days, and no more than 12 months, before the tender notice is a qualifying one (s.15). The time periods guidance (para 20(d)) says a qualifying notice can let the buyer cut the minimum tendering period to ten days. If you see one in your trade, start preparing now.
The opportunity: UK4 and UK5
The UK4 tender notice is the one to act on. The UK5 transparency notice is the opposite: the buyer is awarding without a competition, so there is nothing to bid for. It is still a way to see who bought what.
After award
UK6 starts the standstill period where one applies. The contract award notice gives the awarded supplier and the estimated contract value, so it shows who won and at what price. UK7 to UK11 and UK17 cover the life of the contract. UK12 means the procurement ended without an award. UK13 to UK16 cover dynamic markets.
Registering on the Central Digital Platform
You don’t need to register to search. You need to when you want to bid. It’s free: the registration guide says the platform is free to use for everyone.
The guide sets out these steps:
- Create a GOV.UK One Login, using your individual work email, unless you already have one.
- Register on the Central Digital Platform. Sign in, accept the privacy policy and enter your name.
- Register your organisation as a supplier. From “My account”, select “Register an organisation” and choose Supplier. Have your Companies House number (or an equivalent, such as a Charity Commission number) and registered address ready.
- Check your details and save.
- Find your unique identifier by selecting “View”.
The guide says to assign one person to set up the organisation. They can add and approve other users. Share your unique identifier with the buyer before you are awarded a contract.
Buyers also need your core supplier information. The platform stores it for use across bids, it falls into four categories (para 59), and you can complete it in advance (para 62). If you win a notifiable below-threshold contract, the buyer must ensure you are registered and have given your unique identifier (para 74).
You can register before you find a tender you want to bid for.
Common mistakes
- Using an old login. Existing users had to re-register after the platform changed.
- Assuming it only lists big contracts. Below-threshold tender notices appear on the platform too.
- Trusting a threshold figure from a start page. The figure on the gov.uk start pages isn’t current; our Find a Tender vs Contracts Finder guide explains.
- Expecting every Scottish buyer. Devolved Scottish authorities are excluded authorities under the Act (s.2(5)(a)), and Scottish procurement legislation applies to them (para 18). gov.uk names Public Contracts Scotland as the Scottish portal. See our page on tenders in Scotland.
Find a Tender in our data
In the week to 10 Oct 2026 (as of 10 Oct 2026), we saw 470 live tenders across Find a Tender and Contracts Finder, from 338 distinct buyers (how we count). We merge the two feeds and remove duplicates by matching title, buyer and closing date, so each tender shows once. For live notices by sector and region, see live UK tenders.
Once you have your searches running, your first tender checklist covers what to have ready.
Or let us check them for you
Find a Tender is free and worth using. If you’d rather not sift it yourself, tell us your trade and postcode to join the free weekly list of live tenders, starting soon. On Pro (£49/month), notices that fit your trade and area are checked against what each states about insurance, certifications and location, and you get an email each morning on days with new matches.
Questions
Is TenderWorthy part of Find a Tender?
No. TenderWorthy is an independent service and has no connection with Find a Tender, the Cabinet Office or the government. Find a Tender is the government's own free service, at find-tender.service.gov.uk. We read the public notices, and on Pro we check what notices that fit your trade and area state about insurance, certifications and location, but you can use the government service without us.
Do I need an account to search Find a Tender?
The government's supplier guide says suppliers only need to register at the point they want to bid for a contract, and that opportunities can be searched at no cost. The gov.uk walkthrough starts at the Search option on the homepage. Whether the service asks you to sign in for particular features, such as saving a search, is something to check on the service itself.
How do I set up email alerts on Find a Tender?
Per the gov.uk walkthrough, apply your filters, then select 'save search'. A pop-up lets you name the search and choose how often you are emailed, and you are emailed when a newly published notice meets your criteria. The supplier guide says setting up alerts is free.
What is a UK4 notice?
UK4 is the tender notice. gov.uk's e-learning says it is required for open and competitive flexible procedures, including establishing a framework, and for regulated below-threshold procurements. It is the notice that tells you there is an opportunity to tender, and it is the one to read closely.
Why doesn't my old Find a Tender login work?
When the platform changed, existing users had to re-register. The supplier guide says that if you use the same email address, saved searches from your old account are pulled through to the new one.