TED tenders API: how to search EU public procurement notices

Call the TED Search API yourself

The endpoint is POST https://api.ted.europa.eu/v3/notices/search (official docs). You send an expert-search query and the list of fields you want back. This query asks for open calls for tenders mentioning software from German and Austrian buyers published since 5 October 2026:

curl -s -X POST https://api.ted.europa.eu/v3/notices/search \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "query": "FT ~ (software) AND form-type IN (competition) AND buyer-country IN (DEU AUT) AND publication-date>=20261005 SORT BY publication-number DESC",
    "fields": ["publication-number", "notice-title", "buyer-name", "deadline-receipt-tender-date-lot", "estimated-value-proc"],
    "limit": 3,
    "scope": "ACTIVE"
  }'

On 2026-10-12 it reported 225 matching notices. The first one came back like this:

{
  "publication-number": "704126-2026",
  "notice-title": {"eng": "Germany – Software supply services – VEEAM Handelspartnervergabe", "deu": "…"},
  "buyer-name": {"deu": ["Die Autobahn GmbH des Bundes"]},
  "deadline-receipt-tender-date-lot": ["2026-11-10+01:00"]
}

Useful query fields:

What you will have to handle

• Paging. limit is at most 250, and (number of fields + 1) × limit must stay at or below 10,000. For big result sets use "paginationMode": "ITERATION" and pass back iterationNextToken; the API returns a token even on the last page, so stop on a short page.
• Rate limits. In our tests, bursts of about 25 requests in 10 seconds got HTTP 429. One request per second is safe.
• Multilingual fields. Names, titles and descriptions come back as {"deu": [...], "eng": [...]} maps. TED translates titles into all languages as "Country – CPV category – original title"; descriptions and buyer names stay in the original language.
• Currencies. Values are in the buyer's currency (PLN, CZK, SEK…). Comparing them needs exchange rates.
• Lots and winners. Deadlines, values and winners can sit at lot level, spread across parallel arrays.
• Change notices. Corrections create new versions; set onlyLatestVersions or you will count the same tender twice.
• Alerts need memory. To send only new notices you must store what you already delivered.

None of this is hard, but it adds up to a few days of work and some upkeep. That is the gap the actor fills.

Search TED without code

1. Open TED Tenders API on Apify.
2. Set any filters: keywords, CPV codes, countries or NUTS regions, notice types, value range, "Only open tenders". Filters combine with AND; several values inside one filter combine with OR.
3. Pick the period: Published in the last N days (default 7) or exact dates.
4. Click Start. Results come newest first; export CSV or Excel, or use the Tenders and Contract awards views.

Your filters become a TED expert query, shown in the log and the SUMMARY record, so you can always check what was asked. Advanced users can add conditions in the TED expert query field. Values are converted to EUR with the latest ECB reference rates.

A call for tenders from a real run on 2026-10-03, shortened:

{
  "publicationNumber": "681471-2026",
  "noticeUrl": "https://ted.europa.eu/en/notice/-/detail/681471-2026",
  "noticeTypeLabel": "Contract notice",
  "title": "Bulgaria – Motor vehicles – PPD26-110 „Доставка на нови неупотредявани автомобили“",
  "buyerName": "Електроразпределителни мрежи Запад ЕАД",
  "buyerCountry": "BGR",
  "cpvMain": "34100000",
  "deadline": "2026-11-03T23:59:59+02:00",
  "daysUntilDeadline": 31,
  "isOpen": true,
  "estimatedValueEur": 2545000.0,
  "submissionUrl": "https://app.eop.bg/today/608285",
  "lotCount": 5
}

And a contract award with its winner:

{
  "publicationNumber": "681004-2026",
  "noticeTypeLabel": "Contract award notice",
  "buyerName": "Państwowy Fundusz Rehabilitacji Osób Niepełnosprawnych",
  "awardedValue": 13884357.4, "awardedValueCurrency": "PLN", "awardedValueEur": 3171754.97,
  "winners": [{"name": "SOFTIQ Sp. z o.o.", "country": "POL", "size": "medium"}]
}

Worked examples with real numbers

1. Every open tender in one country

{
  "countries": [
    "BG"
  ],
  "noticeTypes": [
    "competition"
  ],
  "publishedWithinDays": 14,
  "onlyOpen": true,
  "maxItems": 200
}

On 2026-10-03 this matched 298 notices; the first 200 were output in 2 API requests. Of those 200: 105 supplies, 62 services and 33 works contracts; 192 open procedures. All 200 had an estimated value, a median of about €230,000 and €521 million in total. The most common categories were construction work (10), electricity (8) and medical consumables (8).

2. Who won IT contracts above €100,000?

{
  "cpvCodes": [
    "72",
    "48"
  ],
  "countries": [
    "DE",
    "AT",
    "FR",
    "PL"
  ],
  "noticeTypes": [
    "result"
  ],
  "publishedWithinDays": 7,
  "minValueEur": 100000,
  "maxItems": 300
}

42 award notices matched; 36 remained after the EUR value filter (Polish zloty converted at ECB rates): 15 from Poland, 13 Germany, 7 France, 1 Austria, worth €67.1 million together. 7 of the 35 winner names were withheld because they could be sole traders (see limits).

3. A daily tender alert

{
  "keywords": [
    "software",
    "cloud computing"
  ],
  "cpvCodes": [
    "72",
    "48"
  ],
  "countries": [
    "BG",
    "RO"
  ],
  "noticeTypes": [
    "competition"
  ],
  "onlyOpen": true,
  "publishedWithinDays": 7,
  "onlyNew": true
}

Schedule it every weekday morning and connect an integration (email, Slack, Google Sheets or a webhook) to the run's dataset. In our alert test the first run output 476 notices, an immediate second run 0, and after we deleted 3 entries from the alert memory exactly those 3 came back. The 7-day window means a missed run never loses notices.

Handy CPV prefixes: 72 IT services, 48 software, 45 construction, 33 medical equipment, 79 business services, 71 architecture and engineering, 90 environmental services, 34 transport equipment, 30 office and computing machinery, 09 fuels and energy.

What each row contains

Honest limits

• TED is not every tender. It carries notices above the EU thresholds plus some voluntary ones. Many smaller tenders appear only on national portals.
• Translation is title-only. Descriptions and lot titles stay in the original language. Full-text search works in any EU language.
• Values are what buyers publish. Some notices have none, or only per lot or per framework agreement; value filters drop notices without a value.
• Winner names are withheld when they might be a person. A name is shown only if it contains a company or organisation marker (GmbH, Sp. z o.o., S.A., Ltd, University…); otherwise nameWithheld: true keeps country and size. In a 3,000-notice test, 14% of winner entries were withheld.
• No contact persons. E-mail addresses and phone numbers are removed from descriptions.

TED notices are official EU publications reusable for commercial and non-commercial purposes under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU. Not affiliated with the EU Publications Office.

All input fields

Generated from the actor's live input schema (build 1.0.3).

Call it from code

Start a run and get the results in one HTTP request with the Apify API (your token is under Console, Settings, API & Integrations):

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/adamhaleworks~ted-tenders-api/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"cpvCodes":["45"],"countries":["BG"],"noticeTypes":["competition"],"onlyOpen":true}'

The run's Output tab offers 2 ready-made views; every view exports to CSV, Excel, JSON or XML:

• Tenders: publicationDate, title, buyerName, buyerCountry, noticeTypeLabel, contractNature, cpvMain, deadline, daysUntilDeadline, estimatedValueEur, noticeUrl
• Contract awards: publicationDate, title, buyerName, buyerCountry, winnerNames, winnerCount, awardedValueEur, awardedValue, awardedValueCurrency, noticeUrl

What it costs

With the planned price, notices dropped by your filters and notices already delivered in "only new" mode would not be charged. Our EU-wide "software" or "cloud computing" alert matched about 160 new calls for tenders a day, about $0.40 a day; one country or a CPV filter brings it to cents.

FAQ