ParseForge
UK Contracts Finder Scraper
parseforge/uk-contracts-finder-scraper
Lead generationBusinessAutomation
Scrapes UK public sector contract notices from Contracts Finder by keyword and OCDS notice stage. Returns each contract as a flat row with title, buyer, value, dates, and full notice details.
- Total users
- 5
- Monthly active
- 2
- Total runs
- 144
- Bookmarked
- 0
- Rating
- Not rated yet
- Last modified
- 12 days ago
Overview
UK Contracts Finder Scraper
Scrape UK public sector contracts from Contracts Finder by keyword and notice stage, up to a million per run. Each contract comes with its title, buyer, value, dates, and full notice details. No login or API key. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.
Contracts Finder is the UK government's official portal for public procurement opportunities, but its web interface makes bulk analysis slow and manual. This Actor reads the public search results directly, filtered by keyword and OCDS notice stage, and returns each matching contract in one fixed schema.
| Who uses it | What they scrape UK Contracts Finder for |
|---|---|
| Sales teams | Find new public sector tender opportunities in their niche |
| Market researchers | Track which government departments are buying what |
| Procurement analysts | Monitor award patterns and supplier competition |
| Compliance officers | Keep an audit trail of published contract notices |
What it does
This Actor collects UK public sector contract notices from Contracts Finder by keyword and notice stage, and returns each one as a flat row.
- 🔎 Keyword search: Enter any term like 'software', 'construction', or 'consultancy' to match contract titles and descriptions.
- 📋 Notice stage filter: Choose planning, tender, award, or implementation stages, or combine them in one run.
- 📦 Bulk collection: Set a maximum up to 1,000,000 contracts per run and let the Actor paginate through all results.
- 🗂️ Fixed schema: Every contract returns the same flat structure, ready for spreadsheets or databases.
Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.
What you can do with UK Contracts Finder data
📈 Find new tender opportunities.
A sales team runs the Actor daily with their product keywords and the tender stage to get a fresh list of open public sector contracts.
📊 Track government spending.
A market researcher collects award notices for a specific keyword over several months to see which suppliers are winning contracts.
🔍 Monitor competitor activity.
A procurement analyst scrapes award notices for a niche to identify which companies are repeatedly winning public work.
🗂️ Build a contract database.
A data engineer schedules the Actor to collect all tender and award notices for a set of keywords and stores them in a central database.
Why choose this scraper
| What you get | |
|---|---|
| No API key or registration | Reads the public Contracts Finder search directly, so you can start scraping in minutes |
| All notice stages | Planning, tender, award, and implementation notices in one dataset |
| Built for scale | Collect up to a million contracts per run with automatic pagination |
| Clean, flat output | Each contract is one row with consistent fields for easy analysis |
How it compares
No other Store actor targets UK Contracts Finder the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.
| UK Contracts Finder Scraper | Build it in-house | By hand | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup | Run it now, zero config | Days of engineering | None, but hours per pull |
| When UK Contracts Finder 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 keyword and one or more notice stages, and set a maximum number of contracts to collect per run. The Input tab lists every parameter.
A first run with the defaults:
{
"maxItems": 10
}
A larger pull:
{
"maxItems": 200
}
Pricing
Pay-per-result: $0.0467 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.
| Results collected | Approximate cost |
|---|---|
| 100 results | $4.67 |
| 1,000 results | $46.70 |
| 10,000 results | $467.00 |
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
- Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
- Open the UK Contracts Finder Scraper.
- Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
- 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 UK 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/uk-contracts-finder-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 the selected notice stage may have no matching contracts. Try a broader keyword or include more stages.
The run stops before reaching my maxItems.
The Actor stops when there are no more results on Contracts Finder for your query. Lower your maxItems or broaden your keyword to collect more.
Some fields are empty in the output.
Contracts Finder does not always publish every field for every notice. Empty fields mean the data was not available on the source page.
The Actor is slow for large runs.
Large runs with high maxItems can take time because the Actor must request many pages. Use a higher memory allocation or split the run by keyword.
I get a timeout error.
Contracts Finder may be temporarily slow. Retry the run, or reduce maxItems to shorten the run duration.
FAQ
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Do I need an API key or login for Contracts Finder? | No. The Actor reads the public search results from Contracts Finder without any authentication. |
| What is an OCDS notice stage? | OCDS is the Open Contracting Data Standard. Contracts Finder uses stages like planning, tender, award, and implementation to describe where a contract is in its lifecycle. |
| Can I search for multiple keywords at once? | The input accepts one keyword per run. To search multiple terms, run the Actor once per keyword or use a task with different inputs. |
| How many contracts can I collect in one run? | You can set the maximum up to 1,000,000 contracts. The Actor will paginate through all available results until it reaches that limit or there are no more matches. |
| What data does each contract include? | Each row includes the contract title, description, buyer name, published and closing dates, value, and other notice details as returned by Contracts Finder. |
| Can I filter by buyer or region? | The current input only supports keyword and notice stage. For buyer or region filtering, collect the data and filter it in your spreadsheet or database. |
| Is this legal to scrape? | Contracts Finder publishes public procurement data under the Open Government Licence, which permits reuse. Always check the current terms before large-scale scraping. |
| How often should I run the Actor? | New notices are published daily. Many users schedule the Actor to run once a day or once a week to keep their dataset current. |
| Can I export the results to Excel? | Yes. Apify datasets can be exported to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the run page or via API. |
| What if I get no results? | Check your keyword spelling and try a broader term. Also make sure the selected notice stage has published notices for that keyword. |
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.
Input
| Field | Type | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| keyword | string | Search query (e.g. 'software', 'construction') | not set |
| stages | array | OCDS stage to include | ["tender"] |
| maxItems | integer | Maximum number of contracts to collect per run. | 10 |
Pricing
from $35.03 per 1,000 results
| Charged for | What it is | Price each |
|---|---|---|
| result | Single result in the default dataset. | $0.03503 to $0.0467 |
Tiered: the lower figure is the price on a higher Apify plan. Billing and the free credit live on Apify.
API
One POST returns the dataset directly. Same shape for every scraper in the library, so swapping the slug is the only change.
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/parseforge~uk-contracts-finder-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"helloWorld": 123
}' Examples
Input that runs as-is.
{
"helloWorld": 123
} Reviews
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Issues
We build and maintain this scraper, so a problem with it comes to us. Report it on the Apify listing and the thread stays attached to the scraper where the next person can find it: open an issue.
Broken and urgent, or you would rather not post in public? Write to parseforge@protonmail.com and it reaches the people who wrote it.