How to Find Government Tenders: Every Major Portal by Country
Governments spend over $13 trillion annually on procurement. Here's exactly where to find those opportunities, country by country.
United Kingdom
The UK centralised procurement publishing under the Find a Tender Service (FTS) following Brexit. Every contract above £12,000 (central government) or £30,000 (sub-central) must be advertised here. For lower-value opportunities, Contracts Finder lists contracts in England worth over £12,000.
- Find a Tender — mandatory for above-threshold contracts
- Contracts Finder — lower-value English contracts
- G-Cloud / Digital Marketplace — IT and cloud services framework
- NHS Supply Chain — healthcare procurement
- MOD Defence Contracts Online — defence sector
- PCS (Public Contracts Scotland) — Scottish public bodies
- Sell2Wales — Welsh public sector contracts
Set up keyword alerts on FTS for your industry — most suppliers only find out about opportunities through alerts, not manual searching.
United States
SAM.gov is the single portal for federal contracts. You must register in SAM before you can bid on any federal opportunity. For small businesses, the SBA (Small Business Administration) manages set-aside programmes that reserve contracts for qualifying firms.
- SAM.gov — all federal contract opportunities
- USAspending.gov — historical award data (useful for competitive intelligence)
- SBA set-asides — 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, WOSB categories
- State portals — CaleProcure (California), BidNet Direct (multi-state), and individual state procurement offices
European Union
TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) publishes all EU public contracts above directive thresholds. Since the 2024 eForms regulation, notices follow a standardised electronic format. Each member state also operates national portals for below-threshold contracts.
Australia & New Zealand
AusTender is the Australian Government's official procurement portal. State governments run separate portals — NSW eTenders, VicTenders, QTenders. New Zealand uses GETS (Government Electronic Tenders Service).
Canada
CanadaBuys (formerly MERX and buyandsell.gc.ca) is the federal procurement platform. Provincial portals include BIDS (Ontario) and SEAO (Quebec).
Middle East & Asia
- UAE — Tejari, Abu Dhabi Government procurement portal
- Saudi Arabia — Etimad platform (mandatory for government contracts)
- India — GeM (Government e-Marketplace), CPPP (Central Public Procurement Portal)
- Singapore — GeBIZ (Government Electronic Business)
Pro Tip: Don't Just Search — Get Alerts
Most portals let you set keyword alerts. Configure alerts for your industry terms and check daily. The best opportunities often have tight deadlines — if you find them a week late, you've already lost. Upload any tender you find to Lucius AI for instant analysis to decide whether it's worth bidding on.