G-Cloud 15: What You Need to Do Right Now

G-Cloud 15 has launched and the initial application window has closed, so “right now” means something different from what it meant a year ago. Applications ran from 23 October 2025 to 30 January 2026, the framework was awarded on 6 August 2026, and buying opened to the public sector in September 2026: GCA’s RM1557.15 agreement page now states that “G-Cloud 15 has replaced G-Cloud 14” and carries the buyer guidance and per-lot access for the live framework. If you won a place, the work now is getting found and getting bought. If you missed the window, your route in is the reopening, not a new iteration.

This page is the action list for the current phase, updated 23 September 2026. For how the framework itself works, see our Ultimate Guide to G-Cloud; for the story behind the earlier award date, see G-Cloud 15 is arriving early.

Where is G-Cloud 15 right now?

As at 21 September 2026, G-Cloud 15 (RM1557.15) is awarded and open to buyers. The dates that matter:

• 23 October 2025: application window opened. Recorded in: Tender notice on Find a Tender.
• 30 January 2026: application window closed. Recorded in: Tender notice on Find a Tender.
• 24 July 2026: contract award notice published. Recorded in: Find a Tender.
• 6 August 2026: framework awarded. Recorded in: GCA RM1557.15 agreement page timeline.
• September 2026: framework opened for public sector use. Recorded in: GCA RM1557.15 agreement page, which states that G-Cloud 15 “has replaced G-Cloud 14” and publishes the buyer guidance and per-lot access.
• 28 October 2026: G-Cloud 14 expires; all call-offs under it must be signed by this date. Recorded in: GOV.UK launch announcement; GCA RM1557.14 agreement page.
• Around 18 months into the term: first reopening to new suppliers. Recorded in: GCA supplier information session; GOV.UK launch announcement.
• 6 August 2026 to 5 August 2030: framework term. Recorded in: Find a Tender contract award notice.

The framework is open for business. GCA’s RM1557.15 agreement page states that “G-Cloud 15 has replaced G-Cloud 14”, gives a start date of 6 August 2026, and publishes the buyer guidance, both award routes and the access links for all five lots. Go-live was originally expected in mid-August and moved once, to the week commencing 7 September 2026. G-Cloud 14 remains available until it expires on 28 October 2026, so there is no gap in cover. Framework dates move, and the reopening date will be no different, so check the GCA agreement page before you build a campaign around any of them.

You won a place on G-Cloud 15. What should you do now?

Treat the next few weeks as your launch, not your finish line. The contract award notice records 4,233 suppliers awarded a place, so the catalogue you are joining is crowded from day one. Five things earn their keep now.

1. Get your Cyber Essentials evidence in. This is the hard deadline with the sharpest consequence, though it is not the only one you carry: a management information return is due to GCA every month, whether or not you have won anything. Under G-Cloud 15, Cyber Essentials is mandatory for every supplier, and evidence of certification is required within 12 months of the framework award date. The framework was awarded on 6 August 2026, which puts that deadline in August 2027. Suppliers who do not provide a valid certificate in time are suspended from the framework, and suspended suppliers are reinstated once a valid certificate is provided. Subcontractors who process personal or OFFICIAL data need certificates too. GCA’s October 2025 supplier session also stated that Cyber Essentials certificates “will be validated prior to visibility on the Digital Platform”, so this is a findability issue as well as a compliance one.
2. Read your own listings as a buyer would. Your service name, description and features are what a buyer searches and filters on in the Digital Marketplace catalogue, and the catalogue is public, so competitors and partners read them too. Search for your own service using the words a buyer would type, not your product name, and see whether you surface.
3. Check your pricing document and terms are the ones you meant to submit. Your prices cannot be increased during the term: Framework Schedule 3 says the Framework Prices “cannot be increased except as in accordance with this Schedule”, and points suppliers to the reopening to update pricing for the next period. A decrease or a discount is a different matter and can be requested in writing at any time. An error that pushes a price up, though, is one you live with until the reopening.
4. Decide who owns G-Cloud internally. Someone needs to own call-off responses, monitor buyer activity and answer an award with competition inside its deadline. GCA’s agreement page lists “two call-off procedures: award with competition and award without competition”, previously called further competition and direct award, and both are available on all five lots, so a request can arrive in either form.
5. Start the sales work. A listing is a qualifying round. Pick the departments, councils, NHS bodies or universities you serve best and go to them, rather than waiting for a search to find you. Our G-Cloud spend data tool shows who has been buying what, from whom, which is the closest thing to a map of your market.

For the detail on each of these, including the monthly management information return and the pricing rules that bind you for the rest of the term, see G-Cloud 15 is live: what happens next for listed suppliers.

You missed the G-Cloud 15 window. When can you apply?

You are not waiting for G-Cloud 16. G-Cloud 15 is the first G-Cloud let as an open framework under the Procurement Act 2023, which means it reopens to new suppliers during its life rather than only at the next iteration. It runs for four years as successive terms of 18, 18 and 12 months, with reopening points between them: the first at around 18 months, the second at around 36 months. The framework term is 6 August 2026 to 5 August 2030, as recorded in the contract award notice. A first reopening at around 18 months points to early 2028, which is where our early award update puts it.

That is the single most important correction to make if you were told that missing an iteration costs you four years. It does not any more. What to do with the time:

• Diarise the reopening and work backwards. The suppliers who struggle are the ones who start six weeks out. Certification, financial evidence and written content are all slow to produce and all reusable.
• Start your Cyber Essentials certification now if you do not hold it. It is a condition of being on G-Cloud 15, with Cyber Essentials Plus for the hosting lots. If you sell hosting, the ISO certifications for those lots take longer still. The Ultimate Guide to G-Cloud sets out the full compliance gates.
• Decide your lot strategy properly. There are five lots on G-Cloud 15, and applying to the wrong one is a common and avoidable failure. Work out which lot each service genuinely belongs in while you have time to think about it.
• Register on the central digital platform. Find a Tender is the government’s central digital platform under the Procurement Act 2023. You register once, hold your core business details there and reuse them across bids, and it is free. There is no reason to leave that to the week of the deadline.
• Keep selling in the meantime. Other GCA agreements may fit your services, and subcontracting to or partnering with a G-Cloud 15 supplier keeps you delivering in the public sector while you wait.

For the detail on what changes for you while the framework is live, and how to use the wait, see G-Cloud 15 is live, and you are not on it: here is what to do.

What if you are still selling through G-Cloud 14?

G-Cloud 14 expires on 28 October 2026, and every call-off under it must be in place (signed) by that date. That is GOV.UK’s wording, and the distinction matters: a call-off signed in time runs on its own terms afterwards, but a procurement that is not signed by 28 October 2026 cannot be placed on G-Cloud 14 at all and needs another route: G-Cloud 15, another framework, subcontracting through a supplier who holds a place, or engagement outside a framework altogether. Work cannot be transferred between frameworks either, so what is delivered under G-Cloud 14 stays on G-Cloud 14 terms. The practical job is a pipeline audit against that date, and a conversation with any buyer whose signature looks like slipping past it. If you are on G-Cloud 14 and did not win a G-Cloud 15 place, assume buyer attention shifts sooner than the expiry date implies, and read the section above.

What should be on your checklist in the next 30 days?

Whichever group you are in, five checks cover the ground:

• Certifications. Cyber Essentials current, or the certification process started. Renewal dates diarised.
• Listings. Service descriptions written in buyers’ words, accurate, and free of the marketing language that reads badly to a public sector evaluator.
• Pricing. Your pricing document says what you intended, and you know when you can next change it.
• Evidence. Case studies and outcomes ready to reference, because buyers ask for proof, not adjectives. This is the evidence you put in front of a buyer in a competitive call-off, which is a different job from the case studies you can add to your catalogue listing at any time once you hold a place.
• Ownership. A named person responsible for G-Cloud activity, with time in their week for it.

What mistakes should you avoid in this phase?

• Assuming the listing does the selling. More than 4,000 suppliers hold G-Cloud 15 places. Publishing and waiting is the most common way to earn nothing from the framework.
• Letting the Cyber Essentials deadline drift. It is 12 months from the award date, it applies to your subcontractors as well, and the consequence is suspension.
• Treating framework dates as fixed. Go-live moved once before it happened: originally mid-August, then the week commencing 7 September 2026. The reopening will behave the same way, so check the GCA agreement page before you commit spend to any date.
• Believing you have missed your chance for four years. The open framework changed that, and acting on the old assumption costs you the preparation time you now have.
• Leaving G-Cloud 14 business to the last minute. 28 October 2026 is a hard stop for signing call-offs under that framework, not just for completing them.

Where can you get help with G-Cloud 15?

Advice Cloud has worked with G-Cloud since the framework’s early years and has helped more than 610 organisations secure over £2.1 billion in public sector contracts. If your listings need sharpening before buyers arrive, or you want to prepare properly for the reopening, our framework listing services cover lot strategy, compliance answers, listing copy and document review. When a buyer runs an award with competition, our bid services team supports the response, from review to full bid management.

Frequently asked questions about G-Cloud 15 right now

Can I still apply to G-Cloud 15?

Not at the moment. The initial application window ran from 23 October 2025 to 30 January 2026 and has closed. Because G-Cloud 15 is an open framework, it reopens to new suppliers at around 18 months into its four-year term, and again at around 36 months, so the next opportunity is a reopening rather than a new iteration of the framework.

I won a place on G-Cloud 15. When do buyers start buying?

Buyers can buy now. GCA’s RM1557.15 agreement page states that “G-Cloud 15 has replaced G-Cloud 14” and publishes the buyer guidance, both award routes and the access links for all five lots. Go-live was originally expected in mid-August and moved once, to the week commencing 7 September 2026. G-Cloud 14 remains available until it expires on 28 October 2026, so there is no gap in cover.

When does my Cyber Essentials evidence have to be in?

Within 12 months of the G-Cloud 15 framework award date. The framework was awarded on 6 August 2026, which puts the deadline in August 2027. Cyber Essentials is mandatory for every G-Cloud 15 supplier, subcontractors processing personal or OFFICIAL data are included, and suppliers who fail to provide a valid certificate in time are suspended from the framework until they do.

What happens to my G-Cloud 14 listing and contracts?

G-Cloud 14 expires on 28 October 2026. GOV.UK states that all call-off contracts under it must be in place (signed) by that date, and work cannot be transferred between frameworks, so anything delivered under G-Cloud 14 stays on G-Cloud 14 terms for its duration. A procurement that will not be signed by 28 October 2026 cannot be placed on G-Cloud 14 at all, and needs another route: G-Cloud 15, another framework, subcontracting through a supplier who holds a place, or engagement outside a framework altogether.

Can I change my prices or add new services before the reopening?

It depends which way the price moves. Framework Schedule 3 states that the Framework Prices “cannot be increased except as in accordance with this Schedule”, and that suppliers “will have the opportunity to update their pricing for the next framework … when the Open Framework is re-opened for competition”. A reduction or a discount does not wait: the same schedule sets out the mechanism, which is that the supplier “submit a written request” and GCA updates the Digital Platform, with the change taking effect only once the platform is updated. New services wait for the reopening, which is also when new suppliers can join. G-Cloud 15 runs as successive terms of 18, 18 and 12 months.

Sources, checked 21 September 2026: GOV.UK, G-Cloud relaunches with biggest upgrade in its history (10 August 2026); GCA, G-Cloud 15 agreement page (RM1557.15) and its go-live update; GCA, G-Cloud 14 agreement page (RM1557.14); GCA, G-Cloud 15 supplier information session (October 2025); Find a Tender, G-Cloud 15 tender notice 2025/S 000-067801 and contract award notice 2026/S 000-070505; on the Cyber Essentials requirement, Computer Weekly, UK government’s G-Cloud 15 framework: everything you need to know (19 December 2025), quoting GCA’s supplier email of 5 December 2025.