The GeM portal explained — what it is, who sells on it, and how to register

Updated 2026-09-18 · All guides

GeM is the Government e Marketplace: the government's own shopping site. A department that needs 200 office chairs, a housekeeping contract or a hired car does not float a tender for it — it logs into GeM and buys, the way you would buy from any online marketplace.

It is a 100% government-owned company under the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and the Allocation of Business Rules name it the National Public Procurement Portal. It was built out of the old DGS&D.

For a contractor or supplier, two things about GeM matter. It is where a large share of government buying of goods and services now happens. And it works on completely different rules from the tender portals — so what you have learnt about EMD, NIT documents and bid opening often does not apply.

Why a department uses GeM instead of floating a tender

Because the rules tell it to. Rule 149 of the General Financial Rules 2017 says procurement of goods and services by ministries or departments "will be mandatory for Goods or Services available on GeM".

That one line is why GeM grew so fast, and why searching only the tender portals now misses a large part of government demand. If what you sell is listed as a GeM category, the buying will usually happen there and never appear as a tender notice at all.

The three limits that decide how you get the order

This is the part worth knowing exactly, because it decides whether a buyer can simply pick your price or has to run a bid. Rule 149 sets these for purchases made through GeM:

Three things people get wrong about this table:

• The figures were raised. Older articles and even some training material still quote ₹25,000 and ₹5,00,000. The limits above are the ones in the GFR as updated to 31 January 2026, amended by the Department of Expenditure in July 2024.
• Scientific departments have a different lower band. For DST, DBT, DSIR, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space, Ministry of Earth Sciences, DRDO, ICAR, the Department of Health Research and ICMR, and post-graduate or doctoral research institutes, the middle band runs from above ₹1,00,000 to ₹10,00,000.
• A buyer may run a bid below ₹10 lakh anyway. The rule expressly allows the online bidding and reverse auction tools to be used for smaller purchases. So a ₹4 lakh requirement can still come to you as a bid.
• These ceilings apply only on GeM. For anything bought outside GeM, the ordinary GFR rules apply instead. Automobile purchases under the first band are allowed without a ceiling.

What a GeM bid is, and how it differs from a tender

Above ₹10 lakh the buyer must obtain bids, and GeM gives it two tools: online bidding, where sellers submit a price once, and reverse auction, where sellers can keep undercutting each other while the clock runs.

The invitation goes to every seller registered in that product or service category — you do not get invited personally, and there is no "we will send you the tender" list. You have to be registered, in the right category, with your catalogue live.

Compared with a works tender on a state portal or CPPP:

• The requirement is a category and specification, not a bill of quantities you price line by line.
• The comparison is normally on price alone, against a specification the buyer has already fixed. There is far less to interpret than in an NIT — and far less room to win on anything but price.
• A reverse auction is live. If you cannot keep working out your floor price while the auction runs, you should have decided it before you started.

GeM also runs forward auctions, which are the opposite transaction: the government selling something. Do not confuse the two.

Registering as a seller

Start at GeM's own signup page — seller registration. Two things are worth knowing before you begin.

It must be done by the right person. GeM states that registration should be done by an authorised person: a director of the organisation, or a key person or the proprietor. It is not something to hand to a cybercafé or an agent who registers in their own name — the account carries your firm's obligations.

The documents depend on what kind of firm you are. GeM asks for your business or organisation type first, and then shows the pre-requisites for that type. A proprietorship, a private limited company and a registered society are not asked for the same papers, so there is no single checklist worth printing here. Select your type on that page and read the pre-requisites document GeM shows you.

Registration itself is free. Anyone charging you a fee to "get you registered on GeM" is selling you a form-filling service, not access.

What GeM is not

It is not where construction work is tendered. Civil and electrical works still go out as tenders on CPPP, the state portals, CPWD and the PSU portals. If you are a works contractor, GeM is where you might supply materials or a service, not where you will find a road or a building contract.

It is not a place where registration alone brings orders. You are listed in a category with every other registered seller in it, and buyers below ₹50,000 can pick anyone who meets the specification. Being findable, priced and correctly catalogued is the whole game.

It does not replace the tender portals for you. Sellers of goods and services should watch both: GeM for the categories they are listed in, and the tender portals for anything bought outside GeM.

For how the two sit side by side, see GeM and the tender portals.