On a federal sealed-bid solicitation, your submitted bid stays open as a binding offer for a set number of calendar days after the bid receipt deadline, and the bid acceptance period on federal contracts is typically 60 days unless the solicitation states otherwise. During that window the government can accept your bid at any time at the price and terms you submitted. You cannot raise the price, change the terms, or walk away because costs shifted.
What the Acceptance Period Commits You To
The acceptance period functions as a one-sided option. The agency has no obligation to pick your bid, but if it does, you are on the hook for what you submitted. That is the whole point: evaluators need time to compare offers on identical terms without worrying that a bid will evaporate mid-review.
Two Federal Acquisition Regulation clauses set this up, and a solicitation will use one or the other. FAR 52.214-15 defaults to 60 calendar days from the bid receipt deadline unless you write in a different number.1Acquisition.GOV. FAR 52.214-15 – Period for Acceptance of Bids FAR 52.214-16 works differently. The contracting officer fills in a mandatory minimum acceptance period, and you can offer a longer window but not a shorter one. A bid offering fewer days than the stated minimum is rejected as nonresponsive.2Acquisition.GOV. FAR 52.214-16 – Minimum Bid Acceptance Period
The clock starts on the date the solicitation specifies for receipt of bids. Not the date you mailed the package. Not the date someone opened it. Standard Form 33, used for most sealed-bid solicitations, has a blank for the acceptance period and restates the 60-day default.3General Services Administration. Standard Form 33 – Solicitation, Offer, and Award Complex procurements such as major construction or specialized equipment may call for 90 or 120 days. Verify the number before you submit. Misreading this field is one of the fastest ways to lose a bid before anyone evaluates the technical approach.
When the Government Asks You to Extend
Evaluations do not always finish on schedule. When administrative delays push a decision past the original acceptance period, the contracting officer will send a written request asking the lowest-priced eligible bidders to extend. That request must go out before the original period expires. If your bid is backed by a bid bond, the surety also has to consent to the extension.4Acquisition.GOV. FAR Subpart 14.4 – Opening of Bids and Award of Contract
You have the right to say no. Decline the extension and your bid simply expires at the end of the original period. There is no penalty and no forfeiture of your bid bond. The government cannot punish you for refusing to keep your price open longer than you originally agreed.
Agreeing means the opposite: you are locked in at your original pricing for the additional time, and the agency can award the contract at any point during the extended window. That decision deserves real thought when weeks or months have passed and your material or labor costs have moved. Once you agree in writing, your bid is live again.
What if the lowest bidders all refuse and the acceptance periods lapse? The contracting officer then faces a choice. Either resolicit the entire procurement, or, if circumstances justify it, seek authorization from the head of the contracting activity to proceed with an award despite the expired periods.4Acquisition.GOV. FAR Subpart 14.4 – Opening of Bids and Award of Contract
How Bid Protests Affect the Clock
A bid protest filed with the Government Accountability Office before award effectively puts the procurement on hold. The agency generally cannot make an award while the protest is pending unless the head of the contracting activity provides a written finding that urgent and compelling circumstances justify proceeding.5Acquisition.GOV. FAR 33.104 – Protests to GAO GAO decisions can take months. That creates obvious tension with a 60- or 90-day acceptance period.
The bridge is the same extension mechanism used for any administrative delay. Before the acceptance periods expire, the contracting officer asks bidders whose offers might still win to extend. You can agree or decline without consequence. If every eligible bidder refuses, the agency either resolicits or pushes the award through under the urgency exception.5Acquisition.GOV. FAR 33.104 – Protests to GAO
Post-award protests work on a different track. If the GAO protest arrives within 10 days of the contract award, or within 5 days after a required debriefing (whichever is later), the contracting officer must immediately suspend contract performance. A post-award protest that misses this window does not automatically stop work, though the contracting officer still has discretion to pause if the award looks vulnerable.5Acquisition.GOV. FAR 33.104 – Protests to GAO
Award Inside the Window
The government makes its award through written or electronic notice to the winning bidder, and the notice must go out within the acceptance period or any agreed extension.4Acquisition.GOV. FAR Subpart 14.4 – Opening of Bids and Award of Contract For supply and service contracts, the award is typically executed on the award portion of Standard Form 33; for construction, Standard Form 1442. Commercial-item awards may use Standard Form 1449. Where negotiations after bid opening produce changes, the contracting officer prepares a bilateral contract on Standard Form 26 rather than using the award block on SF 33.6Acquisition.GOV. FAR Part 53 – Forms
The bid combined with the award document is the contract. Once the authorized official signs within your acceptance period, you have a binding agreement.
After award, the pace picks up. The contracting officer must notify each unsuccessful bidder in writing within three calendar days that their bid was not accepted. When the award goes to someone other than the lowest bidder, the notice to each lower bidder must include the reason for rejection.4Acquisition.GOV. FAR Subpart 14.4 – Opening of Bids and Award of Contract
Practical Points When You Set or Accept the Period
The acceptance period is one of the few fields in a sealed bid where a small number carries large consequences. A few habits keep it from tripping you up.
- Read the solicitation to see whether FAR 52.214-15 or 52.214-16 applies. Under the first, you can propose a shorter or longer period, and silence gives you 60 days. Under the second, anything below the stated minimum is an automatic rejection.
- If you write in a number on SF 33, make sure it is long enough to cover a realistic evaluation timeline. A 30-day bid on a procurement that typically takes 75 days to evaluate is an invitation to expire before award.
- Price your bid with the possibility of an extension request in mind, especially in volatile input markets. Extensions are voluntary, but declining them means the work goes to a competitor.
- If your bid is backed by a bid bond, coordinate with your surety in advance so consent to an extension does not become a bottleneck.
- Track the expiration date. Once it passes without an extension, the agency has no bid to accept, and any contact that looks like negotiation after that point should be handled carefully.
The acceptance period is the government’s assurance that the prices it opens are the prices it can award. For the bidder, it is the outer limit of a commitment made under whatever market conditions existed on bid day. Know the number, know when it runs out, and decide in advance how you will answer if the contracting officer calls asking for more time.