Contracts Finder UK Tenders Scraper

Contracts Finder UK Tenders Scraper

Scrape UK government tenders from Contracts Finder, up to a million per run. Every notice comes with its title, buyer, value, dates, and description. No login or API key. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Contracts Finder is the UK government's free public database of procurement notices, but its web interface makes bulk analysis slow. This Actor reads the public notice feed directly, filtered by publication date, and returns each tender in one fixed schema. It is built for suppliers, analysts, and researchers who need every matching notice, not the first page.

Who uses it	What they scrape Contracts Finder for
Bid managers	Find new public sector contracts in their industry before competitors do
Market researchers	Track which government departments are buying what, and from whom
Sales teams	Build a pipeline of public sector buyers who already have budget
Data journalists	Analyse public spending patterns across regions and categories

What it does

This Actor collects UK public procurement notices from Contracts Finder and returns each one as a flat row.

• 📅 Date filters: set publishedFrom and publishedTo to collect only notices in a window, or leave both blank for everything.
• 🔢 Volume control: maxItems caps the run from 1 to 1,000,000 tenders, so you can sample or take the full feed.
• 📦 Fixed schema: every notice lands as one flat row, ready for CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML export.
• ⚡ No API key: the Actor reads the public Contracts Finder feed directly, with no registration or OAuth.

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

What you can do with Contracts Finder data

📈 Track new opportunities daily.

A bid manager runs the Actor each morning with publishedFrom set to yesterday, gets every new notice in their sector, and shortlists the ones worth a bid.

🗺️ Map public spending by region.

A market researcher collects a year of notices, groups them by buyer location, and shows which regions are spending most on a category.

🤝 Build a buyer pipeline.

A sales team pulls all notices from a set of government departments, extracts buyer names and contact details, and loads them into their CRM.

📊 Analyse award patterns.

A data journalist scrapes all awarded contracts in a sector, compares values and suppliers, and finds outliers worth investigating.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
Full notice body	The complete description text, not a truncated preview
Buyer and supplier names	Who is buying and who won the contract, where published
Contract values and dates	Award value, publication date, and deadline where available
One row per tender	Flat output that drops straight into a spreadsheet or database

How it compares

This Actor focuses on the UK Contracts Finder feed with simple date filters, while the alternatives either cover multiple countries or add keyword search on the same source.

Feature	ParseForge	Global Public Tenders & Government Contracts Scraper	UK Contracts Finder Scraper
UK Contracts Finder source	Yes	Yes	Yes
Publication date filters	Yes	Not listed	Yes
Keyword search	Not listed	Not listed	Yes
Multi-country coverage	Not listed	Yes	Not listed
Status filter	Not listed	Not listed	Yes
Max items control	Yes	Not listed	Not listed

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with publication date filters and a maximum item count, and filters run as each notice is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
 "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.021 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$2.10
1,000 results	$21.00
10,000 results	$210.00

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 to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the Contracts Finder UK Tenders Scraper.
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 (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to Contracts Finder through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/contractsfinder-uk-tenders-scraper"

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

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check that publishedFrom is not after publishedTo. Also try leaving both date fields blank to confirm the feed returns data, then narrow the range.

The run stops before maxItems.

The Actor stops when there are no more matching notices in the feed. If you expected more, widen your date range or check that the source has published new notices.

Some fields are empty in the output.

Contracts Finder does not always publish every field for every notice. Empty fields mean the source did not provide that value for that tender.

The run takes a long time.

Large maxItems values mean more requests. Reduce maxItems or narrow the date range to speed up the run.

I get an error about the date format.

Use YYYY-MM-DD, for example 2025-01-31. Other formats may be rejected or interpreted incorrectly.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need an API key or login for Contracts Finder?	No. The Actor reads the public notice feed directly, so there is no registration, OAuth, or key to manage.
Can I filter by keyword or CPV code?	The current input supports publication date filters and a maximum item count. Keyword and CPV filtering are not built in, but you can filter the exported dataset in your own tools.
How many tenders can I get in one run?	You can set maxItems from 1 up to 1,000,000. The Actor stops when it reaches that number or when there are no more matching notices.
What date format do the filters use?	Use ISO dates in YYYY-MM-DD format, for example 2025-01-01. Leave a field blank to leave that end of the range open.
Does this include awarded contracts or only open tenders?	Contracts Finder publishes notices at different stages. The Actor returns whatever is in the public feed for your date range, including award notices where they are published.
Can I export to Excel or CSV?	Yes. Apify datasets export to CSV, JSON, Excel, and XML, so you can open the results in any spreadsheet or BI tool.
Is this the same as the official Contracts Finder API?	It reads the same public data, but without the need to register for an API key or manage rate limits yourself.
How often is the data updated?	The Actor reads live data on each run, so you get the notices that are published at the moment you run it.
Can I schedule this to run every day?	Yes. Use Apify schedules to run the Actor daily, and set publishedFrom to the previous day to collect only new notices.
What if I get no results?	Check your date filters. If publishedFrom is after publishedTo, or both are set to a range with no notices, the run will be empty. Try widening the range.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection 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.