How to bid

How to find and bid on public tenders in France

Data as of 1 October 2026 Published 1 October 2026

Open now
8,635
New in the last 7 days
7,933
Closing within 7 days
1,812

France ranks 7th of 183 countries by open tenders in ScoutTide's data. As of 1 October 2026, there were 8,635 open public tenders across every sector, and 7,933 new ones had appeared in the previous seven days. The counts change daily, so treat every figure here as a snapshot rather than a fixed total. For a company that sells to governments, the practical questions are the same ones this guide answers: where the notices are published, which categories carry the most demand, who the buyers are, how long you have to respond, and how to keep track without opening every portal every morning.

An open tender, in the sense used here, is one published on an official procurement portal whose deadline has not yet passed. Where a notice states no deadline, it counts as open if it was first seen within the last 60 days.

Where public tenders are published

The tenders covered here come from three official sources, and the counts below are as of 1 October 2026:

EU TED is the European Union's official journal for public procurement notices. France BOAMP is the official French bulletin of public procurement notices. UN Global Marketplace is used by United Nations agencies and appears here with a small number of notices relevant to France.

Each portal publishes its own registration requirements, and they differ. If you intend to respond to notices on a given portal, check the registration requirements there directly before you plan your first submission.

You can browse the full set at all open tenders in France, and the official sources ScoutTide reads are listed separately if you want to see the underlying portals.

What is in demand

Demand is spread across sectors, but it is not evenly spread. These are the sectors with the most open tenders as of 1 October 2026:

Construction is the single largest category by a clear margin, followed by engineering services and facilities management. Transport and logistics and manufacturing form a second cluster, and environmental services, security and defence and healthcare are smaller again.

Value disclosure is the exception rather than the rule. Only 1,383 of the 8,635 open tenders state an estimated value, about 16%. Among the 1,382 tenders with a stated value in euros, the median is EUR 957,758, and the middle half of values falls between EUR 371,250 and EUR 3,805,213. In other words, most notices give you no value signal at all.

Who buys

The buyer base is broad. There were 4,785 different buyers with open tenders as of 1 October 2026. The ten busiest, by number of open tenders each, were:

  • Nantes Métropole: 24
  • Eau du Morbihan: 23
  • Métropole Aix Marseille Provence: 20
  • VILLE de PARIS - DFA - SDA: 18
  • Ville de Lyon: 18
  • Eurométropole de Strasbourg: 17
  • Ville de Marseille: 17
  • Toulouse Métropole: 16
  • Communauté Urbaine du Grand Reims: 15
  • Métropole européenne de Lille: 15

The concentration is low. The five busiest buyers together account for 103 open tenders, about 1% of the total. That has a direct consequence for how you should work: there is no shortlist of a few dozen accounts that will fill your pipeline. The demand is spread across thousands of buyers, with fewer than two open tenders each on average.

For a supplier, this cuts both ways. You are unlikely to win by targeting only the largest publishers, because even the largest is running 24 open tenders. But it also means that a well-defined offer, matched against the right category and geography, can reach many different buyers rather than a fixed list.

France ranks 7 of 183 countries by open tenders, so the volume is there. The work is in filtering it.

Deadlines: how much time you get

Time is a key constraint. Of the open tenders with a stated deadline as of 1 October 2026:

  • 1,812 close in under 7 days
  • 5,395 close in 7 to 29 days
  • 995 close in 30 to 59 days
  • 433 close in 60 days or more

The median time left until the deadline is 17 days. The median gap between a notice first appearing and its deadline is 22 days. That 22-day figure is the one to plan around: it is the typical window from publication to submission, not the time remaining on any particular notice you happen to see.

Two practical points follow. First, the largest block of deadlines sits in the 7-to-29-day band, so a weekly review cycle will usually catch a notice with enough time left to respond properly. Second, 1,812 tenders close within seven days, which means a weekly cycle alone will lose you those. If short-deadline work is part of your business, you need a daily view rather than a weekly one.

Deadlines are set by the buyer and stated in each notice. Nothing here changes them, and no general rule about how much time you are entitled to should be inferred from these counts.

A practical routine for finding tenders

Checking EU TED, France BOAMP and UN Global Marketplace by hand, every day, across eight or more sectors, is not realistic for a small team. A workable routine looks more like this.

  • Define your offer narrowly. "Construction" is 1,860 open tenders. A specific trade, product or service within construction is a list you can actually read.
  • Decide your geography. Buyers are spread across 4,785 organisations, so a regional filter alongside a sector filter helps cut noise.
  • Work to a fixed rhythm. Review new notices daily if you chase short-deadline work; weekly if you focus on the 7-to-29-day band.
  • Read the deadline before the detail. With a median of 17 days left, a notice that looks interesting but closes in three days is not a live opportunity.
  • Keep a record of what you skip and why. With this many buyers, a record of past decisions saves you reviewing the same kind of notice twice.

ScoutTide collects open tenders from official portals, matches them against what a company sells, sends a daily list of new matches, and shows English titles where available. That replaces the manual sweep across portals with a single daily list. It does not register you anywhere, and it does not submit anything on your behalf.

If you want to see how this works for your sector, sign up to get tenders like these matched to what you sell, and check plans and pricing for the options available.

Frequently asked questions

How many public tenders are open in France right now?

As of 1 October 2026, there were 8,635 open public tenders in France across every sector. The counts change daily, so the number you see will differ from this snapshot.

Which sectors have the most open tenders?

Construction leads with 1,860 open tenders, followed by engineering services with 1,160, facilities management with 892, transport and logistics with 667 and manufacturing with 457. Environmental services (400), security and defence (311) and healthcare (246) follow.

Which portals publish these tenders?

The tenders covered here come from EU TED (4,525 open tenders), France BOAMP (4,108) and UN Global Marketplace (2). Each portal publishes its own registration requirements, which you should check on the portal itself.

How long do I have to respond to a tender?

Of the open tenders with a stated deadline as of 1 October 2026, 1,812 close in under 7 days, 5,395 close in 7 to 29 days, 995 in 30 to 59 days and 433 in 60 days or more. The median time left is 17 days, and the median gap between a notice first appearing and its deadline is 22 days.

How many different buyers publish tenders in France?

There were 4,785 different buyers with open tenders as of 1 October 2026. The five busiest together account for 103 open tenders, about 1% of the total, so demand is spread widely rather than concentrated among a few large publishers.

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