One winning bid pays a year of Bidsmith.
NYC bid-writing consultants charge $3,500 – $7,500 per response. Bidsmith drafts the same artifact — narrative, M/WBE plan, compliance pre-flight — in minutes. Built for the New York City public-procurement market specifically.
Subscription tiers
Solo
For a one-person firm bidding a few times a month. Replaces ad-hoc proposal-writer hours.
Proposal writer: $150/hr × 3 hrs/mo ≈ $450
- 5 bid responses per month
- 1 firm profile
- Full AI features (narrative, M/WBE, compliance)
- Live SAM.gov + NYC debarment
- Direct PDF upload (no Drive links needed)
- Email support
- Cancel anytime
Firm
For a small subcontractor with a bid coordinator and 5–10 bids per month. Replaces one outsourced RFP per month.
Consultant: 1 outsourced bid/mo = $3,500+ alone
- 25 bid responses per month
- 3 firm profiles (JVs, subsidiaries)
- 5 users
- Multi-user collaboration
- Custom prompt overrides per firm
- Priority email support
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Pro
For an active GC bid department doing 40+ bids monthly. ROI: one $2M contract win pays a year of Pro in under 3 months.
Capture retainer: $3K–$5K/mo for far less throughput
- 75 bid responses per month
- 10 firm profiles
- 15 users
- API access for CRM / Procore integration
- Custom prompt overrides per firm + per project
- Phone + Slack support
- Quarterly strategy review with founder
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Other ways to use Bidsmith
Free
Try Bidsmith against a real RFP. Full features, watermarked submission package, one bid per month.
Start freePay-Per-Bid
One full bid response, no subscription. Consultants charge $3,500–$7,500 for the same work.
Consultants: $3,500–$7,500 per response
Buy a bidEnterprise
For large GCs, NYC agencies, and BID programs. Unlimited usage, white-label, SAML SSO, dedicated CSM.
Capture firm engagement: $200K–$500K/yr
Talk to salesWhat you'd otherwise pay
| Service | Going rate | Bidsmith equivalent | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| One outsourced RFP response | $3,500–$7,500 | $499 / Pay-Per-Bid | 86–93% |
| Federal-grade proposal writer | $150–$300/hr | $349 Solo (≈ 2hr equivalent) | 80%+ |
| Capture-management retainer | $1,500–$3,000/mo | $1,499 Firm + 25 bids included | 50%+ |
| Loopio (general RFP tool) | $20K–$142K/yr | Pro $48K/yr + NYC compliance | 50–66% |
| Full capture firm engagement | $200K–$500K/yr | Enterprise from $50K/yr | 60–90% |
For agencies and GCs issuing RFQs
If your team produces 20+ RFQs a year — DDC, NYCHA, SCA, NYCEDC, MTA, Port Authority, large GC subcontractor packages — Bidsmith replaces $10K–$25K of internal labor per RFQ. The compliance pre-flight and M/WBE plan automation alone move participation rates measurably, and the diagram generator + RFQ template library cut your turnaround time by 3×.
Frequently asked
- Can I really replace a $3,500 consultant with $499 of software?
- You're replacing the writing work, not the strategic capture work. Bidsmith drafts the narrative, builds the M/WBE plan, and runs the compliance pre-flight — the parts that are templatable and rules-based. The judgment calls (which bids to pursue, who to partner with, how to price) stay with you. For most NYC contractors, the writing IS the bottleneck, which is why the consultant rate exists in the first place.
- Why can't you charge a percentage of the bids I win?
- Contingent fees on government contracts are prohibited under FAR §3.4 and parallel NYC PPB Rules. Every legitimate proposal-writing firm operates on flat fees, hourly billing, or retainers for the same reason. Bidsmith's subscription model is the legally clean approach.
- What if Bidsmith generates a bad response and I lose the contract?
- Every binding step in Bidsmith requires explicit human approval — section-by-section in the narrative, every compliance check, the final package download. The platform never auto-submits. You remain responsible for what you sign and submit, the same way you would with any consultant. We offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on the monthly tiers.
- Can I cancel anytime?
- Yes. Monthly subscriptions cancel at the end of your billing cycle with one click. No retention calls, no contract clauses, no minimum terms. Founder pricing locks for as long as you stay subscribed — cancel and re-subscribe later and you'd pay standard rates.
- Do you charge for the AI inference cost?
- No. The per-tier price covers all AI usage up to the monthly cap. If you exceed your cap, you can either upgrade or buy an extra response at the Pay-Per-Bid rate ($499). We don't bill usage overages because the unpredictability hurts our customers; we'd rather price the cap correctly.
- Is my data used to train AI models?
- No. Bidsmith calls Anthropic's API with zero-retention configured. Your RFP content and bid responses are never used to train Claude or any other model. Vercel Blob storage is per-user namespaced; nobody outside your account can access your uploaded PDFs.
- What's coming next?
- Originator-side workflow for agencies (issue RFQs with one click, track responder participation, M/WBE compliance dashboard), API access for CRM / Procore integration, NYC state & federal-tier expansion, and white-label deployment for BID programs. Want early access? Email us.
Bidsmith never auto-submits. Every binding step is an explicit human action. SAM.gov debarment + NYC list + VENDEX + insurance + M/WBE compliance all checked before you can download a package. Built for the PPB Rules. Made for New York City.