How to use BidFederal

1. Describe your business clearly

The quality of your matches depends directly on the quality of your description. BidFederal uses semantic search, so it's looking for the actual meaning of what you do — not exact keywords.

Include what you do, who you typically do it for, and any specialties or certifications (e.g. a specific set-aside status) if relevant — these all help sharpen your matches.

2. Understanding your matches

Each match includes a few key pieces of information:

• Agency — which federal department or office posted the opportunity.
• State — where the work is performed, when specified. Some contracts don't list a state; this usually means the location wasn't specified in the original SAM.gov listing.
• Deadline — the response deadline at the time of matching. Always double check this on the official SAM.gov listing, since deadlines can be extended after the fact.
• Why it fits — a short explanation of why this contract was matched to your business description.

Click "View on SAM.gov" on any match to see the full, official listing — including complete requirements, current deadline, and how to submit a bid.

3. Ask follow-up questions naturally

Once you have results, you can keep chatting instead of starting a new search. BidFederal understands the difference between a new search and a question about what's already in front of you. For example:

• "Which states are these in?"
• "Can you explain why the second one fits?"
• "Only show me the ones closing this month"
• "Now show me contracts for [a different service]"

The first three are answered directly from your existing results. The last one triggers a fresh search, since it's a genuinely new request.

4. Managing your chats

You can keep up to 5 saved chats at a time. Each one keeps its own conversation history, so you can maintain separate threads for different services or business angles. Delete old ones from the sidebar to free up space for a new search.

5. Daily search limit

To keep the service sustainable, there's a limit on how many messages you can send per day. If you hit it, you'll see a message letting you know, and you can pick back up the next day.