Data note: TED is an official EU source and its CPV classification is complete and reliable in our data. However, some structural fields (notice type, procurement method) default to a generic value in our dataset and are not presented as official — always confirm procedure details and documents on the official TED notice.
What is TED (Tenders Electronic Daily)?
Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) is the official online supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) dedicated to public procurement. It publishes above-threshold notices from contracting authorities across the EU and the European Economic Area.
TED is an official, authoritative source — not a third-party aggregator. Each notice is tied to an OJEU publication number, which is the canonical reference for that procurement. This makes EU TED tenders unusually trustworthy compared with scraped or re-published notices elsewhere.
How CPV codes classify TED tenders
The single greatest strength of EU TED tenders is the Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV). Every TED notice is classified with one or more CPV codes — a standardised, hierarchical taxonomy that describes exactly what is being procured, independent of language.
On this platform, CPV is the most complete and reliable classifying field we ingest from TED. That means CPV-based filtering and sector mapping work especially well for TED, letting you isolate the European opportunities that genuinely match your offering. The CPV codes guide explains the structure in depth.
What data TED publishes (and what we show honestly)
A TED notice reliably carries an OJEU publication number, the contracting authority (buyer), the country, the CPV classification and the submission deadline. These are the fields you can depend on when triaging EU TED tenders.
We are deliberate about what we do not over-claim. In our current data, some structural fields such as notice type and procurement method default to a generic value rather than the precise official category, so we do not present those as authoritative. We surface what TED gives us reliably — CPV, buyer, country, deadline, OJEU reference — and point you to the official notice for the rest.
- Reliable: OJEU publication number, buyer, country, CPV codes, deadline.
- Not presented as official: notice type and procurement method, which default to a generic value in our dataset.
- Always verify on TED: full tender documents, eligibility and exact procedure details.
Monitor TED alongside UN and World Bank sources
TED is powerful, but it is European. Real opportunity often spans institutions: an engineering consultancy might pursue EU TED tenders, World Bank-financed projects and UN agency work in parallel. This platform lets you monitor TED in the same workspace as those other tiers.
Filter the live tender list to TED, save that view, and turn it into a tender alert — then do the same for the UN system or development banks. You get the precision of TED's CPV data without losing sight of the wider international market.
TED thresholds, OJEU and the move to eForms
Not every European public contract appears on TED. The service publishes notices above the EU financial thresholds, which are revised periodically and differ by contract type and authority. Contracts below those thresholds are handled on national portals instead, which is one reason a serious supplier monitors both EU TED tenders and the relevant national sources rather than assuming TED captures everything.
Every TED notice is part of the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), and the OJEU publication number is the stable, citable reference for a given procurement. When you discuss a tender with a partner or record it in your pipeline, that publication number is the unambiguous identifier — far more reliable than a title that may be translated or abbreviated.
The EU has been migrating TED to eForms, a more structured notice standard designed to improve data quality and machine-readability. This is a genuine, ongoing change to how notices are published. We track TED through this transition and continue to rely on the fields that remain consistently populated and trustworthy — above all CPV, buyer, country and deadline — rather than on structural fields that are not reliably filled in our dataset.
- Above-threshold only: TED carries notices above EU thresholds; sub-threshold work lives on national portals.
- OJEU number: the canonical, citable reference for each procurement.
- eForms migration: a real, ongoing structural upgrade we monitor and adapt to.
A practical workflow: from a TED notice to a bid
Knowing what TED is matters less than having a repeatable way to act on it. A workable workflow starts with CPV: identify the two or three CPV codes that describe what you sell, and filter the live tender list to EU TED on those codes. This immediately removes the vast majority of irrelevant notices and leaves a focused shortlist.
From that shortlist, triage on the fields you can trust — buyer, country and deadline — to judge whether an opportunity is worth pursuing and whether the timeline is realistic. Save the filtered view so the same criteria keep working as new notices arrive, and convert it into a tender alert so qualifying opportunities reach you without manual checking.
When a notice clears triage, open the official TED notice for the full picture: complete tender documents, eligibility and selection criteria, the exact procedure, and the submission mechanism. This two-stage approach — fast CPV-based triage on the platform, then authoritative detail on TED — gives you both speed and accuracy without over-relying on any single system.
Best use cases: who gets the most from TED monitoring
EU TED tenders reward certain supplier profiles disproportionately. Firms selling clearly classifiable goods or services — engineering, construction, IT, medical equipment, professional services — benefit most, because CPV filtering maps cleanly onto what they sell. If your offering matches a handful of CPV codes, TED is probably the highest-precision source you will ever monitor.
Cross-border bidders are the second big winner. TED exists precisely to open EU public contracts to suppliers from other member states and beyond, and every notice is structured and referenced consistently regardless of the buyer's country or language. A Turkish engineering firm or a Spanish IT vendor can scan the same CPV-filtered stream across all 27 member states at once.
On this platform, the practical advantage is combining that precision with breadth: TED's structured European stream sits in the same workspace as UN and development-bank sources, so a supplier pursuing both EU and multilateral work runs one monitoring routine rather than two. We add the cross-source layer; TED itself remains the official system of record we link back to for every notice.
Frequently asked questions
Is TED free to search?
Yes. Tenders Electronic Daily is a free, official EU service at ted.europa.eu. This platform adds value on top by letting you monitor TED with CPV-based filtering alongside 16 other global sources, save searches and receive matched alerts — but the underlying TED data is publicly available.
What are CPV codes?
CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) is the EU's standardised classification for what is being procured. Every TED notice carries CPV codes, which makes filtering and sector mapping highly reliable for EU TED tenders. See our CPV codes guide for the full structure.
How often is TED updated?
TED publishes new notices on every EU working day. On this platform, TED notices are refreshed on a regular ingestion schedule (daily monitoring). Always confirm the official deadline on the TED notice before preparing a bid.
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