Portal comparison 2026-09-05 4 min read
TED vs an EU-wide MCP agent
TED is the EU's official above-threshold notice database. Here is what it does well, what it leaves to you, and a real worked example of what one raw TED notice does not tell you.
TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) is the online version of the 'Supplement to the Official Journal' of the EU, dedicated to European public procurement.
TED is Victano's largest single source: 127,137 rows measured live, covering 103 days of publication.
What TED is
TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) is the online version of the EU's Official Journal supplement dedicated to public procurement. Every contracting authority across the 27 EU member states (plus EEA and GPA partner countries) must publish above-threshold notices there. It is the single most complete above-threshold record in Europe, and it is free to search.
What it does well
- Legally required and comprehensive. Above-threshold work across 27+ countries has to publish here, and no other single source has the same reach.
- Structured metadata. CPV codes, buyer identity, procedure type, value bands (where stated) and deadlines are all machine-readable fields.
- Multilingual by design. Notices publish in the buyer's own language, with some fields translated.
What it does not do
- It does not match your company. A CPV search returns every notice carrying that code, whether or not your turnover, certifications, or exclusion grounds would qualify you to bid.
- It does not carry below-threshold work. National below-threshold portals (Contracts Finder in the UK, and fifteen others Victano ingests) publish work that never reaches TED at all, a different and larger volume in most countries.
- It does not qualify, translate context, or draft. Nothing on TED writes a bid/no-bid memo, checks a turnover minimum against your file, or explains a foreign-language notice's eligibility criteria in your working language.
A worked example of what one TED notice does not tell you
Measured live on 2026-09-05: TED notice ted:575493-2026 *"CAWT PEACEPLUS Healthier Futures Project"*, published by the Regional Business Services Organisation Procurement and Logistics Service, carries countries=['GBR'] (a Northern Ireland cross-border health programme). Reading the raw TED card tells you the buyer, the CPV code and the summary. It does not tell you whether your company's turnover, sector history or certifications clear this buyer's bar, whether this buyer has run similar PEACEPLUS lots before, or what a below-threshold version of the same work looks like on the UK's own Contracts Finder register (which TED does not carry at all, since it is UK-domestic). Answering those needs either manual cross-referencing across three portals, or an agent that reads all of them against one company profile in the same session.
The honest split
| Job | Start here |
|---|---|
| Above-threshold browse across 27 EU states | TED |
| UK below-threshold browse | Contracts Finder |
| UK above-threshold browse | Find a Tender Service |
| Company-profile matching across TED + 15 national portals + grants | Victano MCP (connect guide) |
If you only need to browse above-threshold EU notices, TED is the source of truth and nothing beats its coverage for that slice. If you want a below-threshold layer TED does not carry, or an agent that reads eligibility criteria against your own company profile instead of a keyword filter, that is the gap Victano is built for.
FAQ. Questions people ask
Does Victano replace TED?
No. TED is the European Union's official publication channel for above-threshold procurement across all 27 member states, and it stays the authoritative record. Victano reads TED plus fifteen national below-threshold portals and the EU grants register, and connects that reading to your company profile: an agent layer on top, not a replacement.
Does Victano ingest TED?
Yes. TED is Victano's largest single source (127,137 rows measured live, covering 103 days of publication, refreshed continuously with a stated data_as_of timestamp on every response).
What does TED do that Victano does not?
It is the legally required, free, official publication point for above-threshold work across all 27 EU member states plus EEA and GPA partners. Nothing replaces that as the authoritative record of what was published, when, and by whom.
What does a connected agent add that raw TED search does not?
TED's own search returns every notice matching a CPV code or keyword, in whichever language the buyer published in, without checking it against your company. A connected agent can hold your turnover, certifications, sectors and past contracts, read a notice's eligibility criteria against that file, follow the citation graph to the buyer's contract history, and add fifteen national below-threshold portals TED does not carry at all.
Victano puts this inside the AI you already use. Say “Read https://victano.com/start.md and follow the onboarding instructions” to Claude or ChatGPT and it connects itself. No form, no password, free during the Founding Beta.
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