Procurement term
IDIQ (Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity)
A US contract that provides for an indefinite quantity of supplies or services over a fixed period, ordered through task or delivery orders.
What is IDIQ?
An Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract is one of the indefinite-delivery vehicle types in FAR Subpart 16.5. It is used when the government cannot predetermine the precise quantities of supplies or services it will need during the contract period. The IDIQ sets the terms, pricing structure, and scope, but actual work is procured later through individual task orders (for services) or delivery orders (for supplies).
An IDIQ must state a guaranteed minimum quantity that the government commits to order — enough to constitute consideration — and a maximum ceiling that orders may not exceed in total. The ordering period is fixed. IDIQs are frequently awarded to multiple vendors (a Multiple-Award IDIQ), in which case order-level competition (fair opportunity) among the awardees generally applies. Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) and many large agency vehicles are structured as IDIQs.
For vendors, winning a seat on an IDIQ is access, not guaranteed revenue: beyond the small guaranteed minimum, work flows only through subsequent orders. On multiple-award IDIQs, the real competition continues at the task-order level. Vendors weigh the bid investment against expected order volume and the number of awardees sharing the ceiling.
Example
An agency awards a five-year multiple-award IDIQ for IT support to eight vendors with a $50 million ceiling and a $2,500 guaranteed minimum each; specific projects are then competed as task orders among the eight.
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