Bid status is where an opportunity sits in its lifecycle, and on Bid Banana it decides which of three datasets you are searching. The I'm peeling for toggle under the search box switches between Open bids you can still respond to, Closed bids whose deadline has passed, and Award data showing who won and for how much.
How Do I Switch Between the Three?
The toggle sits directly under the search box on the Search tab, and again above your results. Click Open bids, Closed bids or Award data and your keyword carries across, so you can run the same phrase against all three in a few clicks.
◆ NOTE: Bid status is a toggle, not a filter in the left-hand panel. Each mode searches a genuinely different dataset, which is why the filters and the result cards change when you switch.
What Are Open Bids?
Open bids are live solicitations still accepting submissions. Bid Banana collects them daily from thousands of local, state and federal sources across all 50 states. This is the mode you use when you want work you can win now.
It is also the richest of the three. Result cards show the closing date, an estimated value range, the solicitation type, an AI estimate of how much effort the response will take, and buttons for See how to respond and View details. You can filter by closing date, state, agency, NAICS code, industry, type and access, and sort by relevance, newest first, or closing soon.
Open bids is the only mode that supports saved searches, so once you have a search that works, save it and let the daily email do the looking.
What Are Closed Bids?
Closed bids are solicitations whose submission deadline has passed. You cannot respond to one, but the record is valuable: it tells you an agency has bought what you sell, and roughly when they will need it again.
Cards show the agency, the title, the date it closed, and the solicitation description. Filters narrow by Closed date (Any time, Last 30 days, Last 90 days, Last year), state, agency and access.
Three ways to use them:
- Build a prospect list. Search your service across your state and note which agencies appear more than once. Those are the buyers worth a relationship.
- Time your approach. A contract that closed 30 months ago on a three-year term is about to come round again. Introduce yourself before the next solicitation drops, not after.
- Learn the language. Read how agencies in your sector actually word their scopes of work, then use those phrases as your open bid keywords.
💡 Tip: Our blog post Closed Bid Search: Using Past Bids to Inform Your Future Proposals goes deeper on turning closed records into a prospecting plan.
What Is Award Data?
Award data covers contracts that have been awarded and published — the outcome rather than the opportunity. It answers the question the other two modes can't: who actually won, and on what terms.
Each result shows the awarding agency and state, the contract title, Won by the winning vendor or vendors, the award amount, the contract term, and the competition type such as Full and Open Competition. Click View contract for the full record. Filters cover state, agency, procurement type, NAICS code and industry.
Three ways to use it:
- Identify your real competition. Search your category in your region and note the vendor names that keep appearing.
- Benchmark your pricing. Award amounts and contract terms tell you what agencies in your space actually pay, which is a far better guide than guessing.
- Spot teaming opportunities. Where an award lists several vendors, that is a contract structured for more than one supplier — and a route in for a smaller firm.
💡 Tip: Our blog post Award Data Search: Use Previous Wins to Better Your Bid walks through reading award records competitively.
Which Mode Should I Use?
Match the mode to the question you are asking:
- "What can I bid on right now?" — Open bids.
- "Who buys what I sell, and when do they buy it?" — Closed bids.
- "Who am I up against, and what do they charge?" — Award data.
Used together they form a decent research routine: find the winners in Award data, confirm the buying cycle in Closed bids, then set a saved search on Open bids so the next one comes to you.
💡 Tip: You can save a result from any of the three modes to Favorites with the banana icon in the top-right corner of the card, so useful research sits alongside the bids you are chasing.
One thing to expect as you move between them: the filter panel changes, because each mode searches a different dataset and only the relevant filters are offered. How to Search Using Keywords and Filters sets out which filters appear where.