Bring your AI. Find your next opportunity.

AI agents are welcome. Your own assistants and agents may use NextBid through the API and MCP under your account. No separate agent seats. This page is written for people who already run an AI assistant, and for the assistant itself: what NextBid is, how to connect, and what it costs. Machine-readable copies: ai.json and llms.txt. Signing up for a company? Subscribe / sign up.

What NextBid is

Open government bids, already read. Federal, state and local opportunities from multiple public procurement sites, organized for small businesses and their AI: one clean record per opportunity, and the source documents as text when the source makes them available.

Who it servesSmall businesses and set-aside firms that know their trade and don't have an army of estimators. Their AI assistants get the same data over MCP or REST.

What is available nowThe Data API: search by trade, set-aside program, agency, source and deadline; the full record; the converted documents as text.

CoverageFederal, state and local opportunities across the U.S., plus U.S. federal work abroad. State and local coverage is expanding, starting in California. Current coverage is listed on the site.

FreshnessSources are checked on a schedule. Every record carries the time its source was last checked and a link to the official notice. The issuing agency's official notice always controls. See Data sources & freshness.

What it is notNot an eligibility determination for any set-aside, not legal advice, and not a bid submission tool. Verify with the agency before you bid.

Who runs itNextBid, an independent company, not a government agency. Questions and licences: admin@nextbid.us.

Why not just ask a chatbot?A general chatbot guesses from what it remembers. Through NextBid your AI works from current records and the source documents, with the official link and the last-checked time on every one.

Connect in one step

Create a key in your account, paste one block, and twelve tools appear in your assistant. Plain HTTPS works the same way with the same key. Full guide: Connect with MCP.

MCP (Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor and others)

Streamable HTTP, stateless, key in a header.

{ "mcpServers": { "nextbid": {
    "url": "https://api.nextbid.us/mcp",
    "headers": { "X-API-Key": "YOUR_KEY" } } } }

REST

Every tool is also a GET. JSON in and out, times in UTC.

curl -H "X-API-Key: $KEY" \
 "https://api.nextbid.us/v1/opportunities?tradelines=roofing&set_asides=sdvosb&due_within_days=30"

search_opportunitiestrade, keyword, agency, source, set-aside program, deadline window

get_opportunitythe full record: contacts, amendments, documents, source link

list_documentsfiled documents and the portal's attachment list

list_filesthe text artifacts stored for one bid

read_fileone artifact as text, Document 0 first

list_tradelines21 trades with specialties and search aliases

list_set_asidesset-aside programs with official references and open counts

corpus_statsthe numbers with their definitions: total, open, due in 30 days, set-asides across every program, by source

my_accountyour plan, allowance used and remaining, recent requests, keys; free

mark_pursuitrecord watching, pursuing, submitted, won or lost, only when you say so; free

my_usageplan, calls used, remaining allowance

Filters your assistant can use

Trades and set-aside programs accept ids or plain words. Unknown words come back named, so the assistant can correct itself.

Filter	Accepts	Example
`tradelines`	21 trade ids or any alias from Trades & services	`re-roof` resolves to `roofing`
`set_asides`	program ids or aliases from Small business & set-asides	`8(a)`, `HUBZone`, `sdvosb`, `wosb`, `DVBE`, `small business`, `open`
`agencies`, `sources`	agency name fragments; source portal names	`agencies=Sacramento`
`due_within_days`, `deadline_from`, `deadline_to`	deadline window	`due_within_days=30`
`q`, `sort`	keywords over title and description; `deadline` or `relevance`	`q=generator&sort=relevance`

Questions it can answer

Open roofing solicitations in Texas due this month.
Concrete repair bids in California, with the deadline and official link for each.
Commodity purchases for traffic signs in Arizona.
Janitorial contracts for school districts that close in the next 30 days.
Electrical upgrades that mention prevailing wage.
Open this bid and tell me who may bid, what the scope is, and whether the addenda changed the bid form.
Show me the official notice and when its source was last checked.

AI reads it; you decide. The issuing agency's official notice always controls. Answers are decision support, not eligibility or award determinations.

Cost and control

No agent seats: the account is the customer, and every agent on it shares one allowance. Nothing is charged that you did not turn on. The allowance is 6,000 calls each month (100 calls during the trial); the meter stops at the allowance, and spending caps are planned.

Trial14 days with up to 250 unique opportunities delivered (and up to 100 calls), whichever comes first. Card required; cancel before it ends and you won't be charged. One active key. How usage works.

Price$49.99 a month or $499 a year, the same access either way, with 6,000 calls each month included. Designed for ongoing research, applications and AI agents. Bulk copying or resale isn't permitted. One call is one metered API request or MCP tool call; REST and MCP share one meter. Researching one opportunity takes about ten.

At the allowanceThe API answers 402 until your next monthly allowance; nothing extra is charged. Extra usage is planned and will stay off unless you turn it on with a spending cap.

Limits600 calls a minute per key, 4 in flight; over the limit you get a 429 with Retry-After, never a bill.

Usage visibilityEvery response carries usage and remaining allowance in its headers; my_usage returns the same.

LicenceUse the data in your own work and products. No redistribution of the corpus or of buyer contacts as a list. Terms, privacy; API Terms (draft, not yet in effect).

API reference OpenAPI specification Machine-readable summary llms.txt Pricing Terms of use

Subscribe / sign up (people and AI agents)

Authorized AI agents may assist with or complete NextBid signup and account setup. Payment and acceptance of terms must be authorized by the account owner or organization. The same steps work for a person and for an agent acting for a company. Structured copy: the signup object in ai.json.

1. Request a signup linkUse any Start now button, or POST https://data.nextbid.us/start/request with JSON {"name", "email", "business", "plan": "monthly" | "annual", "source": "ai_assisted" | "agent" | "api"} (plan and source optional). Any valid request answers {"ok":true}.

2. Verify the emailEmail verification is required before checkout. The owner opens the link from admin@nextbid.us (https://nextbid.us/start?t=<token>&plan=…). It works for 24 hours; a new request replaces it.

3. Choose a planMonthly $49.99 a month or Annual $499 a year. Same access; 6,000 calls each month after the trial.

4. CheckoutA payment method is required, on Stripe. Nothing is charged today; cancel before the 14-day trial ends and nothing is charged.

5. Create the passwordAfter checkout (https://nextbid.us/start/complete?session_id=…) the company account is ready. Create the password; it signs in to data.nextbid.us/dashboard.

6. Create a key and connectKeys at data.nextbid.us/keys. Then REST https://api.nextbid.us/v1/... or MCP https://api.nextbid.us/mcp with header X-API-Key.

Trial: 14 days, up to 100 calls and 250 unique opportunities, whichever comes first. Card required. Activate now in Plans & billing ends the trial early and starts the paid plan. The optional source value (human_web, ai_assisted, agent, api; anything else counts as unknown) only measures how signups start; no source is restricted.