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How to Register on SEAO: Quebec Public Tenders Step by Step (2026)

The account is free and takes under an hour. The Quebec requirements around it take longer, so start them first.

At a glance

Cost
Free account. Documents cost about $0.03 a page plus $5.50 an order, or $6.95 a month for a Specialist subscription. Electronic bids are $20 to $30 each.
Time
Under an hour for SEAO itself. Weeks for an NEQ, and about 50 days on average for AMP authorization.
What you need
  • A work email address (personal addresses are refused)
  • A credit card for document orders
  • Your Quebec enterprise number (NEQ), if you have one
  • Someone who reads French: most notices and many documents are French only
Official site

Step by step

0 of 6 steps done

  1. Create a professional government authentication account

    SEAO signs you in through the Service d’authentification gouvernementale (SAG). Create a professional account with your work email address. Personal addresses such as Gmail are refused. You will choose a username and password and confirm with a 6-digit code sent by email.

  2. Create your organization and assign roles

    The first person to register creates the organization and becomes its Coordonnateur, who assigns roles to everyone else:

    • Comptabilité manages the credit card and payment settings
    • Spécialiste orders documents and manages the supplier profile
    • Lecteur reads notices
    • STVE submits bids electronically

    One person can hold several roles but works in one at a time.

  3. Add a payment method

    The Comptabilité user registers a credit card and the default settings for deferred payment. You need this before you can order any tender documents.

  4. Choose basic services or a subscription

    The Spécialiste chooses between:

    • Basic services (free): pay per order, plus a $20 occasional-order fee each time
    • Subscription ($6.95 a month per Specialist): no occasional-order fee, and access to email alerts

    If you expect to order documents more than once every few months, the subscription is cheaper. The Spécialiste can also fill in your entry in the supplier directory.

  5. Enable electronic bid submission

    The STVE user accepts the electronic submission terms and chooses a payment method. Each electronic bid costs $20 for subscribers and $30 for basic-service users, charged after closing. You can replace or withdraw your documents free of charge before the deadline.

  6. Turn on matching alerts

    SEAO’s matching (“jumelage”) alerts email you new notices daily or three times a day, based on your categories. They are only available to subscribers and cost $0.35 per notice. Use the code finder to pick the right UNSPSC categories in French and English.

What SEAO costs

  • Specialist subscription: $6.95 a month
  • Reader subscription: $3.00 a month
  • Document content search: $24.95 a month
  • Standard documents: $0.03 a page, plus $5.50 an order
  • Occasional-order fee for basic-service users: $20.00 an order
  • Electronic bid: $20.00 (subscriber) or $30.00 (basic services)
  • Matching alerts: $0.35 per notice

Addenda issued after you order are sent free, and you can preview a document free up to five times. The price list does not say whether taxes are included.

Before you bid in Quebec

NEQ. A corporation from outside Quebec must register with the Registraire des entreprises within 60 days of starting activities in Quebec, such as performing a contract there, and name a mandatary if it has no Quebec address. Registration is $397 for a foreign corporation and $106 a year after that.

Attestation de Revenu Québec. Quebec public bodies require a valid attestation for contracts of $25,000 or more. It is free and issued immediately online through My Account for businesses if your returns are filed and you have no overdue debts. It must not be dated after the bid deadline, and it expires at the end of the third month after it is issued. If you have no establishment in Quebec, confirm with the buyer whether it applies to you.

AMP authorization. Contracts and subcontracts of $1 million or more for services, or $5 million or more for construction and public-private partnerships, require an authorization to contract from the Autorité des marchés publics. You must hold it on the bid date. The application costs $539, processing averages about 50 days, and you need audited or review-engagement financial statements. Since April 2026 an authorization no longer expires, as long as you file the $203 annual update.

Bidding in French

Under the Charter of the French language, contracts with the Quebec government, and the documents sent to conclude them, including bids, must be in French. There are exceptions: a version in another language can be attached for businesses whose head office is outside Quebec in a jurisdiction where French is not official, and technical documents that do not exist in French can stay in their original language. Check each tender’s instructions.

Use the bid results

SEAO publishes who bid and at what price when bids are opened, which no other Canadian system does routinely. That makes it the best place in the country to learn how competitive a category is. Cothon’s analysis of 62,370 Quebec tenders shows how close the winning and losing bids usually are.

Frequently asked questions

Is SEAO free?

Registering is free. Tender documents are paid per order unless you subscribe for $6.95 a month, and electronic bids cost $20 to $30 each.

Do I need to be based in Quebec to use SEAO?

No. Any business can register on SEAO. Depending on the contract, you may need to register with the Registraire des entreprises, hold an Attestation de Revenu Québec, and hold AMP authorization for large service and construction contracts.

Can I submit a bid in English on SEAO?

Bids to the Quebec government must generally be in French. An additional version in another language is allowed for businesses headquartered outside Quebec in a jurisdiction where French is not an official language. Municipal buyers set their own rules in each tender.

When do I need AMP authorization?

For Quebec public contracts or subcontracts of $1 million or more for services, or $5 million or more for construction and public-private partnerships, including the value of renewal options. You must hold it on the bid submission date.

What happened to seao.ca?

SEAO moved to a new platform run by the Government of Quebec in June 2024. The current address is seao.gouv.qc.ca.

Sources

Registered? Now find the tenders.

Cothon watches every portal in this guide, and the ones it does not cover, in one feed in English and French, and shows who wins and at what price.

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