UK Gov Tenders Scraper

UK Gov Tenders Scraper

Scrape UK government tenders from the Contracts Finder OCDS feed, filtered by stage and date. Every tender comes with its title, buyer, value, deadline, and award details. No API key or registration. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

The UK government publishes thousands of public sector contracts every month, but manually checking the Contracts Finder website is slow and you miss updates. This actor reads the official OCDS feed directly, applies your stage and date filters, and returns each matching tender in a clean, flat row. No browser, no login, no rate-limit headaches.

Who uses it	What they scrape UK Government Contracts Finder for
Bid writers and proposal teams	Find live tenders that match their sector before competitors do
Market researchers	Analyse UK public spending patterns by department, value band, or region
Sales and business development leads	Build a pipeline of upcoming government contract opportunities
Data analysts and journalists	Track awarded contracts to see who is winning public sector work

What it does

This Actor collects UK government tenders from the Contracts Finder OCDS feed and returns each one as a flat row with its title, description, buyer, value, stage, dates, and supplier details.

• 📅 Date filter: set a published-from date to collect only fresh tenders or backfill a historical range.
• 🏷️ Stage filter: choose Tender, Award, Contract, or Planning notices so you see exactly the phase you care about.
• 📦 Flat output: every tender is one row, ready for spreadsheets, databases, or BI tools.
• ⚡ Direct feed access: reads the official OCDS JSON feed, so results match what is on Contracts Finder in real time.

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

What you can do with UK Government Contracts Finder data

📬 Build a daily tender alert.

A bid writer runs the actor each morning with stage set to Tender and published-from set to yesterday, then pushes new matches to a Slack channel or email.

📊 Analyse departmental spending.

A researcher collects a year of Award and Contract notices, groups them by buyer name and value band, and identifies which departments spend most on external suppliers.

🗺️ Map regional contract distribution.

A data analyst scrapes all tenders with a location field, then plots them on a map to show where public money flows across the UK.

🏆 Monitor competitor wins.

A sales lead filters by Award stage, searches for competitor names in the supplier field, and tracks which contracts they have secured.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key needed	The OCDS feed is public; you start scraping in seconds.
Fixed schema	Every run returns the same columns, so your pipeline never breaks.
Stage filtering	Separate live opportunities from awarded contracts in one setting.
Date control	Pull only the latest notices or backfill months of data.

How it compares

No other Store actor targets UK Government Contracts Finder the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	UK Gov Tenders Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When UK Government 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 maximum item count, an optional published-from date, and a notice stage. Filters run as each tender 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 UK Gov 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 UK Government 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-gov-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 your published-from date. If it is set too far in the past or future, the feed may return nothing. Try removing the date filter or setting it to a recent date. Also confirm the stage filter matches the notices you expect.

The run finished but the dataset is empty.

The OCDS feed may not have any notices matching your exact stage and date combination. Widen the date range or switch the stage to see if data exists. If the issue persists, run the actor without any filters to confirm the feed is reachable.

I need more filters, like by region or CPV code.

The actor currently filters by stage and date only. You can download the full dataset and filter in Excel, Google Sheets, or a database. For programmatic filtering, use Apify's dataset API or an integration to pipe the data into a tool that supports queries.

The actor is taking a long time to run.

A high maxItems value combined with a wide date range will pull more data and take longer. Lower the maxItems or narrow the published-from window to speed up the run.

Some tender fields are empty in the output.

Not every notice includes all fields. For example, a Tender stage notice will not have an award date or supplier name. Those fields are populated only when the notice reaches the Award or Contract stage.

FAQ

Question	Answer
What is Contracts Finder?	Contracts Finder is the UK government's official portal for public sector procurement notices. It publishes tenders and contract awards above certain value thresholds using the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS).
Do I need an API key or login?	No. The actor reads the public OCDS feed directly. You do not need to register, create an app, or manage tokens.
How many tenders can I scrape in one run?	You set the maximum in the input. The actor can collect up to a million tenders per run, limited only by what is available in the feed for your chosen filters.
What data fields does each tender row include?	Each row includes the tender title, description, buyer name, published date, deadline date, contract value, award date, supplier name, notice stage, and the raw OCDS ID. The exact field list is shown in the sample output on the actor's page.
Can I filter by contract value or buyer name?	The input schema provides stage and date filters. For value, buyer, or keyword filtering, you can apply those after the run in your spreadsheet, database, or by post-processing the dataset with another tool.
How often is the feed updated?	Contracts Finder publishes new notices throughout the working day. Running the actor on a schedule gives you a fresh snapshot each time.
Does this cover devolved administrations like Scotland or Wales?	Contracts Finder covers English central government and wider public sector bodies. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have their own portals. This actor reads the Contracts Finder OCDS feed specifically.
What is the OCDS format?	The Open Contracting Data Standard is a global schema for publishing procurement data. This actor parses the OCDS JSON feed and flattens it into rows, so you do not need to handle nested JSON yourself.
Can I get live tender notices only?	Yes. Set the stage filter to 'Tender' and the actor returns only open opportunities. Use 'Award' or 'Contract' for closed and awarded notices.
How do I export the results?	After the run completes, you can download the dataset as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify storage tab, or push it to an external service via an integration.

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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.