How to bid for public tenders in Portugal.

Portugal at a glance

Old and new rules side by side. Procedures started before 1 October 2026 stay on the old rules, so check the notice date. The reform moved the special simplified procedures of the 2021 law into the CCP and raised most thresholds. It also requires buyers to use digital systems, including AI with human oversight, to plan and run procedures.

Thresholds and procedures (from 1 October 2026)

The old limits were €30,000 / €20,000 for direct award and €150,000 / €75,000 for consulta prévia.

• Simplified direct award: goods and services up to €5,000 and works up to €10,000 can be awarded on an invoice, with no electronic procedure.
• New “consulta prévia especial”: at least 5 invitees, below €2 million and below the EU thresholds. It covers:
  • EU-funded projects and public housing;
  • IT, software, cloud and digital transformation;
  • health and social-care buildings;
  • priority or strategic projects.
• New flexible public tender: below EU thresholds, buyers can adapt formalities, for example a negotiation phase, an e-auction or phased evaluation. Comment and challenge periods drop to 3 days.
• Repeat-award cap: a firm can’t keep being invited to direct awards or invited quotes by the same buyer once its awards over the current and previous two years reach the limit.
• Minimum bid periods:
  • 6 days for goods and services in a public tender without an EU notice;
  • 14 days for works (6 for very simple works);
  • 30 days with an EU notice (15 with a prior information notice or urgency).
• Bid validity: 66 days unless the documents set longer.
• Lots: a decision not to split a contract into lots must be justified above €250,000 for goods and services and €500,000 for works.

Who can bid

• No establishment needed. The CCP doesn’t require a Portuguese establishment to bid. Tax and social-security compliance is checked in Portugal or in your home state.
• Covered countries. For contracts covered by the WTO Government Procurement Agreement or other EU agreements, Portuguese buyers must treat signatory countries’ companies on equal terms.
• Countries without an agreement. Under the EU Court’s Kolin ruling, companies from countries with no agreement have no right to equal treatment and may be admitted or refused. See how companies from outside the EU can bid for EU tenders.
• Consortia can bid. If they win, members form the legal structure the documents require before signing, and are jointly liable.
• Works: the winner needs an IMPIC licence (alvará) or public-works certificate in the right categories. EEA and GPA companies without one provide an IMPIC declaration that they meet the requirements.
• A Portuguese tax number (NIF) isn’t required by the CCP to bid. Platforms record a company tax ID at registration, and invoicing in Portugal may in practice need one, so check with your platform early.

The four licensed platforms

IMPIC currently licenses VortalGOV, acinGov, ComprasPT and anoGov. The notice names which one the buyer uses.

• Free access: each platform must give any company free access for at least 3 simultaneous users to its basic services, and only charge for extras.
• Registration time: free registration must take no more than 3 working days.
• The signature rule: every uploaded document needs a qualified electronic signature. Each file inside a zip must be signed individually, or the bid can be excluded.
  • If your certificate doesn’t show that the signer can bind the company, upload a power of representation.
  • Platforms add qualified time-stamps to everything.

Bidding, step by step

1. Find the tender in the Diário da República, on TED (above the EU thresholds) or on Portal BASE. The notice names the platform.
2. Register on that platform, allowing up to 3 working days.
3. Get qualified e-signature certificates for each signatory, from a provider on the EU trusted lists.
4. Download the documents: the programme or invitation, and the specifications (caderno de encargos). Raise errors and omissions within the first third of the bid period.
5. Prepare the bid in Portuguese. For works, include the price list, work plan and financial schedule. Add the ESPD in procedures with an EU notice. Prices exclude VAT.
6. Sign every file and submit on the platform before the deadline. Late bids are excluded.
7. Evaluation. The jury can ask for clarifications or give up to 5 days to fix formal defects, such as a missing translation or signature. It then issues a preliminary report, and you have at least 5 days to comment (3 in the flexible procedure).
8. After award, the winner provides:
   • qualification documents, only those the buyer can’t fetch itself;
   • the caução;
   • comments on the draft contract.
9. Post the caução within 10 days of the award notice.
10. Sign within 30 days of accepting the draft. In EU-level procedures, wait for the 10-day standstill.

Qualification documents: now “once only”

• Only the winner provides qualification documents (habilitação): no criminal convictions, and no tax or social-security debts.
• Since October 2026, buyers must first collect this evidence themselves through public interoperability systems, and may only ask you for what they can’t get that way.
• Where your home country doesn’t issue such certificates, a solemn declaration before a judicial or administrative authority, notary or professional body is accepted.
• Translation: documents must be in Portuguese or have a duly legalised translation, unless the programme accepts foreign-language documents. If you don’t fix defects in time, the award lapses and goes to the next bidder.
• Apostilles: Portugal is in the Hague Apostille Convention. Between EU states, an EU regulation removes the apostille for certain public documents, including criminal-record certificates, but not the translation requirement.

Security (caução) and payment

• When: a caução is required whenever the buyer pays a price.
• How much: up to 5% of the contract price, or up to 10% if your price was abnormally low.
• Waivers. The caução can be waived for contracts under €1 million; the buyer may then withhold up to 10% of payments instead. It can also be replaced by performance insurance or a joint-liability declaration from a bank established in the EU.
• Forms:
  • a bank guarantee;
  • surety insurance (seguro-caução);
  • a cash or securities deposit in Portugal. The winner pays the costs, and if the caução isn’t posted in time, the award goes to the next-ranked bid.
• Payment: 30 days from the invoice by default. A contract can set a different term, but never more than 60 days, and unjustified longer terms are void. Contractors must issue electronic invoices.

How bids are evaluated

• The standard: contracts go to the most advantageous bid (proposta mais vantajosa). That can be multi-factor, using weighted criteria and a published evaluation model, or a single factor such as price.
• Factors can include:
  • quality and the team’s qualifications;
  • after-sales service and delivery;
  • environmental and social sustainability, and circularity;
  • innovation and life-cycle cost. The reform aims to give quality more weight.
• Ties can’t be broken by submission time. If still tied after the weighted factors, lots are drawn.
• Unusually low prices: the jury must first ask for a written explanation. Bids that aren’t justified are excluded.
• Bids above the base price are excluded. A base price is now optional.
• Reserved contracts. Contracts can be reserved for sheltered workshops, certified Portuguese SMEs (below EU thresholds; works under €500,000), local firms in small local tenders, and recognised start-ups. There’s no national-origin price preference.

Challenging a decision

1. Administrative challenge (optional):
   • deadline: 5 days from notification, or 3 days in the flexible public tender and the special consulta prévia;
   • effect: it doesn’t suspend the procedure, but the buyer can’t qualify, negotiate or award until it decides;
   • decision: within 5 days, and silence counts as rejection.
2. Court: urgent pre-contractual proceedings in the administrative courts, within one month.
3. Automatic suspension: a court challenge to an award in a procedure with a standstill suspends the award, or the contract if already signed, if filed within 10 working days of the award notice. The buyer can ask the judge to lift it.
4. Standstill: 10 days between award notice and signature. It doesn’t apply to direct awards, invited quotes, procedures without an EU notice or single-bid procedures.
5. Arbitration of pre-contractual disputes is now fully voluntary.

Court of Auditors approval (visto). Contracts of €750,000 or more (excluding VAT) need the Tribunal de Contas visto before payments can be made. Contracts above €950,000 have no effect at all until it’s granted. A bill to limit the visto to contracts of €10 million or more passed its first vote in May 2026, but isn’t law yet.

What changed in 2025–2026

• April 2025: subcontracting rules changed. Contracts can now reserve “critical tasks” to the contractor, instead of banning or capping subcontracting generally.
• 30 June 2025: the EU excluded Chinese companies from medical-device tenders of €5 million or more.
• 28 October 2025: design-and-build became a normal option, and simplified procedures were extended to public housing.
• 1 January 2026: new EU thresholds (€5,404,000 works; €140,000 / €216,000 goods and services; €432,000 utilities).
• 1 October 2026: Decreto-Lei 177/2026 took effect:
  • higher direct-award and invited-quote thresholds;
  • the special consulta prévia and the flexible public tender;
  • the caução waiver under €1 million;
  • “once only” qualification documents;
  • a start-up reservation;
  • an optional base price;
  • a digital-systems duty;
  • voluntary arbitration.
• Pending: reform of the Tribunal de Contas law (visto only from €10 million).

Live Portuguese tenders

See also how companies from outside the EU can bid for EU tenders and how to bid for EU public tenders on TED.

Questions

Sources

• Decreto-Lei 177/2026 and the republished Código dos Contratos Públicos (Diário da República)
• Lei 96/2015 on electronic public procurement platforms
• IMPIC: licensed electronic procurement platforms
• Portal BASE
• Code of Administrative Court Procedure (CPTA), consolidated

This guide explains the rules in plain English; it isn’t legal advice. Procurement rules change, and each tender document sets its own conditions — it always prevails.