> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.gpuoutlet.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Bidding > Find capacity sold by auction, accept a lot's terms, place a bid, and see what happens when you win. Some sellers sell capacity by competition instead of at a published price. The capacity is put up as a **lot** with a closing time, and buyers bid against each other until the window shuts. A bid is a stated intention to buy at that price, and a place in the ranking. It is not a payment, it reserves nothing, and no money moves when you place it. Winning produces an **introduction**: you and the seller are given each other and contract directly, exactly as on the rest of the marketplace. ## Find a lot * **Lots** in the dashboard menu (`/app/auctions`) lists them. The page has three tabs: **Market**, every lot still taking bids or about to; **Bidding on**, the lots your company has bid on; **Selling**, your own lots. The entry sits on both the **Buy** and the **Sell** menus, because one company can be selling one lot and bidding on another. * On [Radar](/buying/radar), a listing with a lot that has not closed shows **BY AUCTION** or **CURRENT BID** where a rate would be, and its button reads **Bid Now**. The lot may not have opened yet; the lot page says so and lets you accept its terms in the meantime. ## Before you can bid Three things admit your company to a lot. A bid that is refused says which one is missing and what to do about it. | Requirement | Why | | - | - | | Your company has signed the **Auction rules** | A company-level document covering bidding, asked for at the moment a company bids rather than at onboarding. It is not listed on **Documents**; if a bid is refused for it, write to [support](/reference/support). See [Agreements](/account/agreements). | | The capacity is not **Indicative** | Nobody has proven the right to sell it, so nothing on it can be committed to. This one is not yours to fix. | | You accepted this lot's terms, at its current version | You bid under terms you have read. See [Accept the terms](#accept-the-terms). | Only an owner, authorized signatory or trader can bid. A viewer can read a lot and not bid on it. Bidding does not ask for your second factor: a bid commits no money. See [Team and roles](/account/team-and-roles). ## The lot page Open a lot at `/app/auctions/:id`. The heading gives the size of the lot, for example "4 nodes at auction", with a status badge beside it. **Standing** shows the countdown — **Bidding closes in**, or **Opens in** before the window starts — and how many bids the lot has drawn. Whether the leading amount is shown depends on the format. **Terms of this lot** is the text you accept before bidding. | Row | What it says | | - | - | | **Format** | **Open** or **Sealed**. See [Open and sealed lots](#open-and-sealed-lots). | | **Quantity** | The nodes this lot sells. It can be some or all of the listing's. | | **Reserve** | The seller's floor. A bid exactly at it clears. "Any bid clears" when the seller set none. | | **Bid step** | The smallest raise on an open lot; the granularity bids are quoted in on a sealed one. | | **Bidding window** | When bidding opens and closes. | | **Uptime commitment**, **Provisioning**, **Payment schedule** | Shown when the seller stated them. | | **Seller's conditions** | The seller's own conditions on who may bid, in their words. Nothing checks this text; it binds you because you accepted the terms containing it. | ## Open and sealed lots The format decides who can see what while the lot is open. It decides nothing else: both formats take the same bids and are decided by the same comparison, and the seller cannot change it once the lot exists. | Format | While the lot is open | | - | - | | **Open** | The current best bid is visible, to anyone. A new bid has to clear it by the bid step. | | **Sealed** | No bid is visible to anyone, the seller included, until the lot closes. | On a sealed lot the page does not hide a number it holds: nothing computes a leading amount before the close, so there is none to show. The smallest bid a sealed lot takes is the published reserve, and it never moves with the bidding — which is what stops the refusals telling you what somebody else bid. ## Accept the terms Press **Accept this lot's terms (version N.0)** on the bid panel. Accepting records the version and a hash of the text you were shown. * Accepting is what admits your company to bid. It covers only the version named on the button. * The page cannot show whether you have already accepted, so the control is always available. Pressing it again records the same version and changes nothing. * If the seller amends the lot, the version moves and every earlier acceptance stops admitting. Accept the new text before bidding again. * A seller cannot accept their own lot's terms, and cannot bid on their own lot. You can accept the terms before the window opens. ## Place a bid Type the amount and press **Place bid**. The lot decides at the instant your bid lands, under the server's clock, and a refusal says what to fix. | Refusal | What it means | | - | - | | Below the floor | The bid is under what the lot takes. The message carries the floor: the reserve on a sealed lot, the leading bid plus the step on an open one. | | Off the step | The amount does not sit on the lot's bid step, counted from the floor. | | Terms not accepted | Accept the lot's terms at the version shown. | | The capacity became indicative | The seller's right to sell lapsed while the lot was running. Nothing you can do fixes it. | Your company has at most one live bid on a lot. Placing another **replaces** it rather than adding to it: the old bid is kept on file as **Replaced**. A bid cannot be withdrawn on its own; replace it while the window is open. The panel shows your own bid and nobody else's, with the terms version it was placed against. No other company's amount is on the page, on either format. A bid is not secured and no funds are committed. The platform cannot compel payment on a bid, and you are never asked for a deposit or a card to bid. What a bid decides is who is introduced to the seller, and at what price. ## When the lot closes The window is judged by the server's clock and is exclusive at the end: at the closing time it is already over. The lot is then decided: * The highest bid that clears the reserve wins. Equal amounts are settled by who bid first. * **Reserve not met** when bids came in and none reached the seller's floor. * **No bids** when none came in at all. The **Result** panel shows the outcome, the clearing price, how many bids were received and when it was decided. Losing bidders see the clearing price — a decided price is a market signal — and never the ranking or any losing amount, including their own. The settlement record cannot be edited or removed. ## If you win A win produces an introduction, the same record a seller's **Accept and reveal** produces. The notification "Your bid won" carries the introduction's reference, such as `GO-YYYYMMDD-XXXXXX`. It appears in **Introductions** (`/app/introductions`), with the seller's legal name and country. The seller has your company's contacts and reaches out. Readiness, the seller's invoice and payment all work as on any other introduction. See [Buyer introductions](/buying/introductions). A request is created on your company's behalf to carry the demand behind the win. It is copied from the listing you bid on — its GPU, region, nodes and term — and appears in **Requests** with a note saying it came from the auction. You did not type it; it is there because an introduction is always about a stated demand. The seller pays GPU Outlet the 1% success fee on what they receive from you, exactly as on any introduction. You pay GPU Outlet nothing. See [Success fee](/selling/success-fee). ## What you are told Auction notices appear in the dashboard only. They are not emailed, and there is no switch for them in **Settings**. | Notice | When | | - | - | | "An auction opens soon" | A lot whose terms you accepted is about to open. | | "You have been outbid" | Your bid is no longer leading on an open lot. | | "The auction you bid on closed" | Bidding is over. The result is on the lot. | | "Your bid won" | You won, and the introduction is open. | ## Related What the other two buttons on a Radar card do. The same lot, from the seller's side. What a win turns into. Lot and bid statuses in one place. This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.