---
url: https://docs.tenderapi.eu/getting-started.md
description: >-
  Base URL, request format and your first call to the TenderAPI REST API for EU
  public tenders. Free while in beta, no API key.
---

# Getting Started

TenderAPI collects public tenders from [TED](https://ted.europa.eu) and national procurement portals across Europe, cleans them up, and serves them through one REST API. You can search tenders, look up a single tender, and find the organisations that buy or win contracts.

**The API is free to use while in beta. No API key or sign-up is needed.** Field names and behaviour may still change, so check back here now and then.

## Base URL

```
https://api.tenderapi.eu
```

All endpoints live under `/api/v1`. Every request and response uses JSON.

* Search endpoints are `POST` requests with a JSON body. Send the header `Content-Type: application/json`.
* Single item endpoints are `GET` requests with the id in the URL.

## Your first request

Fetch five recent tenders from Irish buyers.

::: code-group

```bash [cURL]
curl -X POST https://api.tenderapi.eu/api/v1/tenders/search \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"buyerCountries": ["IRL"], "limit": 5}'
```

```python [Python]
import requests

res = requests.post(
    "https://api.tenderapi.eu/api/v1/tenders/search",
    json={"buyerCountries": ["IRL"], "limit": 5},
)
for tender in res.json()["tenders"]:
    print(tender["title"], tender["link"])
```

```ts [TypeScript]
const res = await fetch("https://api.tenderapi.eu/api/v1/tenders/search", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ buyerCountries: ["IRL"], limit: 5 }),
});
const data = await res.json();
for (const tender of data.tenders) {
  console.log(tender.title, tender.link);
}
```

:::

The response has a `tenders` list and a `page` object. Here it is cut to one tender:

```json
{
  "tenders": [
    {
      "id": "01a081e3-88a2-7089-b004-c05ce794265e",
      "title": "Contract for Housing First for Tenancy Support and Property Sourcing Services -Lot 1",
      "abstract": "Provision of Housing First tenancy support and Property Sourcing services",
      "status": "awarded",
      "serviceType": "services",
      "source": "ted",
      "publicationDate": "2026-09-04T00:00:00Z",
      "deadline": null,
      "deadlineHasTime": false,
      "buyer": {
        "name": "Dublin City Council",
        "country": "IRL"
      },
      "cpvCodes": ["85310000", "85311000", "85320000", "98000000", "85000000", "85300000"],
      "estimatedValue": {
        "value": 4838930,
        "currency": "EUR",
        "valueEur": 4838930
      },
      "link": "https://ted.europa.eu/en/notice/-/detail/609885-2026"
    }
  ],
  "page": {
    "nextCursor": "eyJkIjoiMjAyNi0wOS0wNCIsImlkIjoiMDFhMDgxZTMtODhhMi03MDg5LWIwMDQtYzA1Y2U3OTQyNjVlIiwicSI6IjE0ZjI5YzM0YTdiMSJ9",
    "total": { "count": 14, "capped": false }
  }
}
```

The full list of fields is on the [Search Tenders](/search-tenders#response) page. To get the next five results, send the same request again with `cursor` set to `nextCursor`. See [Pagination](/pagination).

## Endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `POST` | `/api/v1/tenders/search` | [Search Tenders](/search-tenders) |
| `GET` | `/api/v1/tenders/{id}` | [Get Tender](/get-tender) |
| `POST` | `/api/v1/organisations/search` | [Search Organisations](/search-organisations) |
| `GET` | `/api/v1/organisations/{id}` | [Get Organisation](/get-organisation) |
| `GET` | `/api/v1/organisations/{id}/tenders` | [Organisation Tenders](/organisation-tenders) |

## Common values

### Country codes

Countries use three letter [ISO 3166-1 alpha-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-3) codes, for example `DEU` for Germany, `FRA` for France and `SVN` for Slovenia. Two letter codes like `DE` are rejected. Kosovo, which has no official ISO code, uses `XKX`.

### CPV codes

Tenders are classified with [Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)](https://simap.ted.europa.eu/cpv) codes. A CPV code is 8 digits and describes what is being bought. Filtering by a code also matches all codes below it, so `45000000` (construction work) includes `45233000` (road works).

Find the right code for your sector with our [CPV code search](https://tenderapi.eu/en/tools/cpv/).

### Dates

Dates in requests and responses use ISO 8601, for example `2025-03-15T00:00:00Z`. Publication dates are day precision, so their time part is always midnight UTC.

Deadlines are returned in UTC and carry the hour when the portal publishes one, and `deadlineHasTime` is `true`. When a portal gives only a day, the deadline is the end of that day in the portal's local time and `deadlineHasTime` is `false`.

## Limits

There are no enforced rate limits during beta. Please keep requests reasonable, and use `limit` and cursors instead of pulling the same data repeatedly.

## Next steps

* [Search Tenders](/search-tenders) lists every filter you can use.
* [Pagination](/pagination) explains how to walk through large result sets.
* [Portals](/portals) shows where the data comes from and how to filter by portal.
* [Errors](/errors) explains the error format.