Key takeaways
- G-Cloud tenders are the route public sector buyers use to purchase cloud hosting, software and support without running a full open tender.
- G-Cloud 14 expires on 28 October 2026. G-Cloud 15, the first iteration awarded under the Procurement Act 2023, carries an estimated award date of 6 August 2026 — leaving the two frameworks overlapping for roughly three months.
- G-Cloud 15 restructures the lots and introduces a hosting lot scoped for workloads above OFFICIAL, opening the framework to defence and security-classified cloud requirements.
- Suppliers must now register on the Central Digital Platform before they can bid.
- A framework place alone is not a pipeline. From DCI Market Analysis Conducted in July 2026, roughly 70% of published opportunities are open, non-framework competitions.
G-Cloud Tenders Explained: A Faster Route to Public Sector Work
Most cloud and digital suppliers do not lose public sector work because their technology falls short. They lose it because they never see the opportunity in time, or they assume a framework place is a prerequisite they cannot meet. G Cloud tenders exist precisely to remove that friction: they let a buyer compare published services and award a contract in weeks rather than months, and they are how a large share of UK public sector cloud spend now reaches the market.
The catch is that the framework is a moving target. Iterations open and close on fixed dates, the lot structure changes, and the route to registration has just been rewritten by new legislation. Miss the window and you wait — potentially years — for the next one.
Want to see what live cloud and digital opportunities look like across the UK public sector? Book a DCI demo.
What Is G-Cloud? Understanding the Framework
G-Cloud is a UK government commercial agreement, operated by the Crown Commercial Service, that lets public sector organisations buy cloud-based hosting, software and support services from pre-approved suppliers. Rather than each buyer running its own competition, suppliers publish standardised service definitions and pricing once, and buyers select from that catalogue.
Anyone asking what is G Cloud in practical terms should understand three things about how the G Cloud framework differs from open tendering:
- Services are pre-defined. You publish what the service does, who it is for and what it costs. Buyers cannot ask you to build something bespoke at call-off stage.
- Pricing must be your best government pricing. You cannot charge public sector buyers more than commercial customers for an equivalent service.
- Buyers can award directly. For straightforward purchases, a buyer compares catalogue listings and places an order without a mini-competition.
G-Cloud services have historically been listed and searched through the Digital Marketplace, the government platform where cloud services are bought and sold.
G-Cloud 14 vs G-Cloud 15: What’s Changed
The G-Cloud framework lifecycle
G-Cloud has run in numbered iterations since 2012, from G-Cloud 9 and G-Cloud 13 through to the current cycle. Each is competed, awarded, then replaced. Historically that created a hard problem: miss an application window and you were locked out of the gcloud framework until the next one opened — potentially years of inaccessible spend.
G-Cloud 14 — the previous iteration
G-Cloud 14 (also written G Cloud 14, reference RM1557.14) started on 29 October 2024 under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Its original 18-month term was extended by six months, giving it an end date of 28 October 2026. Crown Commercial Service describes it as providing access to over 4,000 suppliers and more than 46,000 services across three lots.
Critically, buyers can still place new call-off contracts under G-Cloud 14 right up to expiry, and those call-offs run on their own clock: up to 36 months initially, with one optional extension of up to 12 months — a maximum of four years. Work awarded under G-Cloud 14 stays on G-Cloud 14 terms. It does not roll into the successor framework.
G-Cloud 15 — the current framework
G-Cloud 15 (RM1557.15), written by some buyers as G Cloud 15, is the first G-Cloud iteration let under the Procurement Act 2023, and the change is structural rather than cosmetic. It runs as a four-year open framework, built as three consecutive terms of roughly 18 months, 18 months and 12 months. Because it is open, it reopens during its life to admit new suppliers and accept revised pricing — expected at around the 18-month point.
Crown Commercial Service published an estimated award date of 6 August 2026, having brought the date forward from an earlier estimate in September. With G-Cloud 14 running to late October, the two frameworks overlap for roughly three months.
Two further changes matter commercially. G-Cloud 15 absorbs the previously separate Cloud Compute framework into the main structure. And call-off terms lengthen materially: legal analysis of the tender pack by Burges Salmon (2026) notes hosting lots can run up to five years with extensions of up to three more, while software and support lots run to four years with up to two years of extension.
The service lots
The three-lot shape familiar from earlier iterations — Cloud Hosting, Cloud Software, Cloud Support — persists under G-Cloud 14. G-Cloud 15 subdivides it. The tender documentation published by Crown Commercial Service sets out technical ability requirements across five lots:
| Lot | Scope |
| 1a | Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service |
| 1b | IaaS and PaaS above OFFICIAL — defence and security customers |
| 2a | Infrastructure software |
| 2b | Software as a Service |
| 3 | Cloud support services |
Lot 1b is the headline change for defence suppliers. For the first time, the mainstream government cloud framework carries a hosting lot explicitly scoped for classified workloads above OFFICIAL. Burges Salmon’s analysis notes it also carries the framework’s heaviest liability provisions and a Cyber Essentials Plus expectation.
How to Apply for G-Cloud Tenders, Backed by DCI
Applying for G-Cloud tenders rewards suppliers who work from live data rather than instinct. DCI (business intelligence) is what keeps you ahead of the process rather than reacting to it.
- Choose your lots deliberately, using data rather than guesswork. Financial standing is assessed lot by lot under G-Cloud 15, not once across the framework, so bidding into more lots means clearing more thresholds. DCI’s win rate and competitor analysis across past G-Cloud lots shows where your business is genuinely competitive, so you commit effort to the lots most likely to convert.
- Write service definitions as your shop window. Each listing needs to state what the service does, who it is for, its key features and its price, since buyers award from this document and vagueness costs call-offs. DCI’s library of successful past listings and buyer search behaviour helps you see what language and structure actually gets picked.
- Prepare the compliance pack. Expect evaluation against price, quality and social value, plus modern slavery statements, prompt payment compliance, and carbon reduction plans for some lots. DCI centralises these requirements by lot, so your team is working from one current checklist instead of piecing it together from separate guidance documents.
- Watch the reopening points. As an open framework, G-Cloud 15 lets you join or revise pricing mid-term, so missing the initial award is no longer terminal, but you need to know when the window opens. DCI’s alerts surface reopening dates and framework amendments in real time, so you act on the window rather than discovering it after the fact.
G-Cloud in Practice: Buyers and Suppliers
How public sector buyers use G-Cloud
Buyers clarify requirements, search the catalogue with filters for category, features, pricing and security certification, then shortlist. For standard purchases they award directly. Under G-Cloud 15 they gain a formal further-competition route, so larger or more complex call-offs can be scored on social value and technical capability rather than catalogue comparison alone.
What buyers cannot do is negotiate. They may not ask you to submit a bespoke proposal, alter the service, or reduce your published price.
How suppliers win business on the framework
G Cloud suppliers who win consistently treat the listing as the start, not the finish. They track which buyers are active in their category, who holds the incumbent contract, and when that contract expires. This is where most suppliers are working blind — bidding without visibility of who they are competing against or what the incumbent charges.
That blind spot is expensive. From DCI Market Analysis Conducted in July 2026, information technology accounts for roughly 38% of all published public sector opportunities — 10,324 of them, across 6,136 awards worth £70.3bn at an average of £11.5m each. It is simultaneously the highest-volume and most contested sector in the market. Differentiation, not presence, decides outcomes.
See who is winning in your category, and when their contracts expire — start a free DCI trial.
Why G-Cloud Matters in the New Procurement Landscape
The Procurement Act 2023, implemented in February 2025, has pushed frameworks further to the centre of public sector buying rather than sidelining them. Alongside it, the Central Digital Platform standardises supplier identity across procurements, lowering the marginal cost of bidding once you are registered.
Value concentration is the real argument. From DCI Market Analysis Conducted in July 2026, frameworks represent 25–30% of local government opportunities by count but 60–82% of their value; in health, frameworks are 29% of notices by count yet carry 89% of the value. Frameworks are where the large money sits.
For defence and security suppliers, the timing is unusually favourable. The Defence Investment Plan confirmed on 30 June 2026 commits £298bn over four years, taking annual UK defence spending to roughly £80bn by 2029, and DCI data from July 2026 shows defence notice volume doubling month-on-month. Within that envelope sits roughly £2bn for AI targeting and £115m for AI and biosecurity — cloud-dependent programmes that now have a dedicated above-OFFICIAL route to market through Lot 1b.
Winning More Than G-Cloud: How DCI Helps
Here is the uncomfortable arithmetic. From DCI Market Analysis Conducted in July 2026, roughly 70% of published opportunities are open, non-framework competitions — winnable without a framework place at all. A further £13.6bn of IT contracts are due to expire and return to market within six months. Meanwhile, a G-Cloud listing captures none of that on its own.
Contracts Finder will show you a portion of what has been published. DCI is built for the part that decides outcomes: seeing opportunities early, knowing who holds the incumbent contract, and knowing when it ends.
- Tender alerts move you from searching to being notified — across framework and open competitions alike, rather than one portal at a time.
- Framework intelligence tracks framework activity and expiry, so a missed entry point becomes a diarised date rather than a lost cycle.
- Award data and spend analysis show who won, for how much, and which buyers are spending — the incumbent picture most suppliers bid without.
- Aria Intelligence generates supplier-focused framework summaries covering scope, lots, timelines and commercial structure, plus personalised opportunity assessments aligned to your capabilities and procurement history — cutting qualification from hours to minutes.
- Cyber security and defence coverage matters specifically for Lot 1b suppliers, where the buying community is defence and security rather than general government.
DCI’s coverage draws on 880+ sources across 195 countries, with direct feeds from all major UK government portals supplemented by curated sources confirmed to carry opportunities those portals do not publish. Our market insights hub sets out the wider picture, including our guide to the UK defence procurement system.
G-Cloud Tenders — Frequently Asked Questions
What is G-Cloud and who runs it?
G-Cloud is a UK government commercial agreement for buying cloud hosting, software and support services. It is operated by the Crown Commercial Service and available to central government, local authorities, the NHS, education, blue light services and devolved administrations.
What is the difference between G-Cloud 14 and G-Cloud 15?
G-Cloud 14 was awarded under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and expires on 28 October 2026, with three lots. By contrast, G-Cloud 15 is the first iteration under the Procurement Act 2023: a four-year open framework that reopens to new suppliers mid-term, with five lots including a hosting lot for workloads above OFFICIAL, and longer call-off terms.
How do I become a G-Cloud supplier?
Bid into your chosen lots when the framework is open, publishing a service definition and pricing document for each service. Because G-Cloud 15 is an open framework, a supplier can also apply at scheduled reopening points rather than waiting for the next numbered iteration. DCI tracks those reopening points as they’re confirmed, so you’re positioned to apply as soon as a window opens instead of finding out after it’s passed.
Where are G-Cloud tenders published?
Framework opportunities are published through government notice services, and awarded services are listed for buyers to search. Award notices above threshold appear on Contracts Finder, but by that point the contract is already decided. Suppliers who monitor pre-market engagement and contract expiry through DCI reach opportunities considerably earlier, while there’s still time to act on them.
How often does a new G-Cloud framework open?
Historically every 12 to 18 months as each iteration was replaced. Under G-Cloud 15’s open framework model, the framework itself reopens during its four-year term — expected around the 18-month mark — so entry points are more frequent than the numbered-iteration cycle implies.
Make G-Cloud Work for You
G-Cloud tenders remain one of the most efficient routes into UK public sector cloud spend, and G-Cloud 15 makes that route both more accessible and more demanding: open re-entry and longer call-offs on one hand, Central Digital Platform registration, lot-by-lot financial checks and social value scoring on the other. For defence and security suppliers, Lot 1b is a genuinely new market.
But a framework place is a licence to compete, not a pipeline. The suppliers who grow are the ones who see the opportunity early, understand who they are bidding against, and know when the incumbent’s contract runs out.
Ready to win public sector cloud contracts? Request a DCI demo and see the G-Cloud and wider public sector pipeline in one place.