How API records are counted

Every TenderSignal API plan includes an allowance of records. This guide explains what counts as a record, when the count starts again and what happens when you reach the end of your allowance, so you can plan how your tools use the API.

What a record is

A record is one item in the data of a response: one tender, one award, one buyer or one renewal. A request that returns twenty tenders uses twenty records. Asking for your usage costs nothing, and neither does a request that fails, for example because a parameter was wrong.

Repeats are free

Each record counts once per calendar month. If your tool asks for the same tender again later in the month, through any endpoint, it does not count again. That means you can check for new tenders as often as you like and only use your allowance on what is new to you. A tender and its award notice share one record, so looking up the award for a tender you already have is free too.

When the count starts again

Paid plans start again at the beginning of each calendar month, at midnight UTC, whatever date your billing period starts. The free demo allowance is a one-off: it does not start again, and it is there to let you try the API before choosing a plan. Unused allowance does not roll over and has no cash value.

Reaching the end of your allowance

If a page would go past your allowance, you get the records that fit and the rest of the page is left for later. The response still includes a cursor, so you can carry on from exactly where you stopped once your allowance starts again or you change plan. When there is nothing left at all, the API answers with an error that says your allowance has been used, how much you have used and when it starts again.

Every response also carries headers with your plan, your allowance, how many records you have used and how many the request used, so your tool can keep an eye on this without an extra call.

Links to buyers' portals

On API Pro, records include the link to the notice on the buyer's own portal. There is a monthly fair-use limit on how many distinct records come with these links. Records you have already received with links keep them for the rest of the month. Past the limit, records still arrive in full, just without the portal links, and they are marked so your tool can tell.

Buyer contact details

Buyer contact details are not counted separately, but they depend on where you are billed. They are included for accounts billed in the UK, the European Economic Area or a country the UK government recognises as having adequate data protection. Demo accounts get none. Where contacts are withheld, the response says why, so you can tell a missing contact from one the buyer never published.

Need more?

If your plan's allowance is not enough, move up a plan from the developers page, or email [email protected] to ask for a larger custom allowance. The current allowances and limits are listed with the plans at tendersignal.co.uk/developers#pricing.