# /findatender/tenders/search

`POST /api/findatender/tenders/search`

Price: 20 credits

Search Find a Tender notices of one kind — opportunities (pipelines, market engagements, planned procurements and live tenders), awarded contracts, or commercial tools (frameworks and dynamic markets) — by keyword, status, contracting authority, supplier suitability, CPV code, value and date range, with the buyer, supplier, value, key dates, CPV codes and delivery location of each notice.

## How to use it

Pick kind first: opportunity for anything not yet awarded, contract for awarded contracts with a supplier, commercial_tool for frameworks and dynamic markets, which come back one row per lot. Each kind accepts its own statuses, sorts and filters, so a filter from another kind returns 422. Use the ocid of a result to fetch its full OCDS record from findatender/tenders.

## Parameters

- `access-token` (string, required)

## Request body

- `timeout` (integer) — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
- `kind` (string, required) — Notice kind to search (one of: "opportunity", "contract", "commercial_tool")
- `count` (integer, required) — Max number of results (min: 1; max: 1000)
- `keyword` (string, nullable) — Full-text keyword (examples: "software"; minLength: 1)
- `status` (array, nullable) — Notice statuses to include (one of: "pipeline", "pre_market_engagement", "planned", "tender", "active", "terminated", "upcoming", "closed"; minItems: 1)
- `authority_name` (string, nullable) — Contracting authority name (examples: "Ministry of Defence"; minLength: 1)
- `authority_type` (array, nullable) — Contracting authority types (one of: "central_government", "sub_central_government", "public_undertaking", "private_utility", "other"; minItems: 1)
- `suitability` (array, nullable) — Supplier kinds the notice is marked suitable for (one of: "sme", "vcse")
- `cpv` (string, nullable) — CPV code, eight digits; 48000000 matches every code of the 48 division (examples: "48000000", "72200000"; minLength: 1)
- `value_min` (number, nullable) — Minimum total value in GBP (examples: 100000; min: 0)
- `value_max` (number, nullable) — Maximum total value in GBP (examples: 5000000; min: 0)
- `date_from` (string, nullable) — Earliest contract end date, inclusive (examples: "2026-01-01")
- `date_to` (string, nullable) — Latest contract end date, inclusive (examples: "2026-06-30")
- `tool_type` (array, nullable) — Commercial tool kinds (one of: "pa23_framework", "pcr15_framework", "pa23_dynamic_purchasing_system", "pa23_utilities_dynamic_purchasing_system", "pcr15_dynamic_purchasing_system"; minItems: 1)
- `is_open_to_other_authorities` (boolean, nullable) — Whether other contracting authorities may use the tool
- `sort` (string, nullable) — Result order (one of: "relevance", "newest", "oldest", "value_ascending", "value_descending", "end_date_ascending", "end_date_descending", "date_signed_ascending", "date_signed_descending", "title_ascending", "title_descending", "status_ascending", "status_descending", "tool_type_ascending", "tool_type_descending")

## Response

### 200 — Successful Response

- `@type` (string) (default: "FindatenderTenderSummary")
- `id` (string, required)
- `ocid` (string, nullable)
- `kind` (string, required) (one of: "opportunity", "contract", "commercial_tool")
- `lot_id` (string, nullable)
- `lot_title` (string, nullable)
- `description` (string, nullable)
- `status` (string, nullable)
- `stage` (string, nullable)
- `buyer` (object, nullable)
  - `@type` (string) (default: "FindatenderPartyRef")
  - `id` (string, nullable)
  - `name` (string, nullable)
  - `authority_type` (string, nullable) (one of: "central_government", "sub_central_government", "public_undertaking", "private_utility", "other")
- `suppliers` (array) (default: [])
  - `@type` (string) (default: "FindatenderPartyRef")
  - `id` (string, nullable)
  - `name` (string, nullable)
  - `authority_type` (string, nullable) (one of: "central_government", "sub_central_government", "public_undertaking", "private_utility", "other")
- `value` (object, nullable)
  - `@type` (string) (default: "FindatenderValue")
  - `amount` (number, nullable)
  - `amount_gross` (number, nullable)
  - `currency` (string, nullable)
- `dates` (object, nullable)
  - `@type` (string) (default: "FindatenderSummaryDates")
  - `deadline_date` (string, nullable)
  - `engagement_deadline_date` (string, nullable)
  - `estimated_publication_date` (string, nullable)
  - `start_date` (string, nullable)
  - `end_date` (string, nullable)
- `cpv` (array) (default: [])
  - `@type` (string) (default: "FindatenderClassification")
  - `scheme` (string, nullable)
  - `code` (string, nullable)
  - `description` (string, nullable)
- `cpv_hidden_count` (integer, nullable)
- `delivery_location` (string, nullable)
- `is_sme_suitable` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_vcse_suitable` (boolean, nullable)
- `tool_type` (string, nullable)
- `is_open_to_other_authorities` (boolean, nullable)
- `country` (string) (default: "GB")
- `url` (string, required)

## Errors

### 422 — Validation Error

A filter, status or sort was passed for a notice kind that does not support it

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.