# /contractsfinder/tenders/search

`POST /api/contractsfinder/tenders/search`

Price: 25 credits

Search Contracts Finder notices by keyword, notice kind, status, delivery region, postcode radius, CPV code, contract value and the publication, deadline, award and approach-to-market date windows. Each row carries the notice title and description, its buyer and awarded supplier, value range and awarded value, CPV codes, delivery location, SME and VCSE suitability and the notice URL.

## How to use it

Rows come back by relevance and the register serves at most 1000 of them per call, so cut a broad question into published_from and published_to windows rather than raising count. Pass the row id to contractsfinder/tenders for the full notice with contacts, awards and attachments.

## Parameters

- `access-token` (string, required)

## Request body

- `timeout` (integer) — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
- `count` (integer, required) — Max number of results (min: 1; max: 1000)
- `query` (string, nullable) — Keyword matched on title, description, buyer and supplier (examples: "software")
- `notice_type` (string, nullable) — Kind of notice (one of: "Contract", "Pipeline", "PreProcurement")
- `status` (string, nullable) — Notice status (one of: "Open", "Closed", "Awarded")
- `regions` (array, nullable) — Delivery regions, as named by the register (examples: ["Wales","South East"])
- `postcode` (string, nullable) — Postcode the radius is measured from (examples: "SW1A 1AA")
- `radius_miles` (number, nullable) — Radius around the postcode, in miles (examples: 10; max: 500; >: 0)
- `cpv_codes` (array, nullable) — CPV codes of the procurement subject (examples: ["48000000"])
- `value_from` (number, nullable) — Lowest contract value, in GBP (min: 0)
- `value_to` (number, nullable) — Highest contract value, in GBP (min: 0)
- `published_from` (string, nullable) — Earliest publication date (examples: "2026-09-01")
- `published_to` (string, nullable) — Latest publication date (examples: "2026-09-21")
- `deadline_from` (string, nullable) — Earliest submission deadline
- `deadline_to` (string, nullable) — Latest submission deadline
- `awarded_from` (string, nullable) — Earliest award date
- `awarded_to` (string, nullable) — Latest award date
- `approach_market_from` (string, nullable) — Earliest approach to market date
- `approach_market_to` (string, nullable) — Latest approach to market date
- `is_sme_suitable` (boolean, nullable) — Only notices marked suitable for SMEs; the register does not support excluding them (one of: true)
- `is_vcse_suitable` (boolean, nullable) — Only notices marked suitable for voluntary, community and social enterprises; the register does not support excluding them (one of: true)
- `is_supplier_sme` (boolean, nullable) — Only notices awarded to an SME; the register does not support excluding them (one of: true)
- `is_supplier_vcse` (boolean, nullable) — Only notices awarded to a voluntary, community or social enterprise; the register does not support excluding them (one of: true)
- `is_subcontract` (boolean, nullable) — True for subcontract notices only, false for everything else

## Response

### 200 — Successful Response

- `@type` (string) (default: "ContractsfinderNoticeSummary")
- `id` (string, required)
- `parent_id` (string, nullable)
- `notice_identifier` (string, nullable)
- `description` (string, nullable)
- `notice_type` (string, nullable)
- `status` (string, nullable)
- `stage` (string, nullable)
- `is_sub_notice` (boolean, nullable)
- `buyer` (object, nullable)
  - `@type` (string) (default: "ContractsfinderPartyRef")
  - `id` (string, nullable)
  - `name` (string, nullable)
- `suppliers` (array) (default: [])
  - `@type` (string) (default: "ContractsfinderPartyRef")
  - `id` (string, nullable)
  - `name` (string, nullable)
- `value` (object, nullable)
  - `@type` (string) (default: "ContractsfinderValue")
  - `amount` (number, nullable)
  - `amount_min` (number, nullable)
  - `amount_max` (number, nullable)
  - `currency` (string, nullable)
- `awarded_value` (object, nullable)
  - `@type` (string) (default: "ContractsfinderValue")
  - `amount` (number, nullable)
  - `amount_min` (number, nullable)
  - `amount_max` (number, nullable)
  - `currency` (string, nullable)
- `dates` (object, nullable)
  - `@type` (string) (default: "ContractsfinderSummaryDates")
  - `published_at` (integer, nullable)
  - `deadline_at` (integer, nullable)
  - `awarded_at` (integer, nullable)
  - `approach_market_at` (integer, nullable)
  - `contract_start_at` (integer, nullable)
  - `contract_end_at` (integer, nullable)
  - `last_update_at` (integer, nullable)
- `cpv` (array) (default: [])
- `cpv_extended` (array) (default: [])
- `cpv_description` (string, nullable)
- `cpv_description_expanded` (string, nullable)
- `sector` (string, nullable)
- `location` (object, nullable)
  - `@type` (string) (default: "ContractsfinderLocation")
  - `postcode` (string, nullable)
  - `region` (string, nullable)
  - `region_text` (string, nullable)
  - `latitude` (number, nullable)
  - `longitude` (number, nullable)
  - `is_nationwide` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_sme_suitable` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_vcse_suitable` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_supplier_sme` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_supplier_vcse` (boolean, nullable)
- `relevance_score` (number, nullable)
- `country` (string) (default: "GB")
- `url` (string, required)

## Errors

### 422 — Validation Error

Contracts Finder rejected the search criteria

What to do: Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.

- `detail` (array)
  - `loc` (array, required)
  - `msg` (string, required)
  - `type` (string, required)
  - `input` (any)
  - `ctx` (object)

### 408

The request ran past its time limit

What to do: Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.

### 412

The entity was not found, or a precondition failed

What to do: Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.

### 429

Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted

What to do: When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.

### 500

Something broke on our side

What to do: Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.

### 529

Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded

What to do: Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

## Response envelope

Success: Array of objects (may be empty if no results)

Error: Error may coexist with partial results if it occurs mid-execution. Check X-Error header and status code.

Every response carries these headers:

- `X-Error` — Error message text (present only on error)
- `X-Request-ID` — Unique request identifier
- `X-Execution-Time` — Execution time in seconds
- `X-Result-Count` — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
- `X-Total-Available-Results` — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
- `X-Warning` — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
- `X-Retry-After` — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.