When are US Treasury auctions held?

Drafted with AI assistance from official sources; checked against the sources listed below.

The US Treasury auctions new securities almost every business day, on a rhythm that hardly changes from year to year. Bills are sold every week, notes and bonds once a month. What changes is the amount, and that is announced only a few days before each auction.

The weekly rhythm of bill auctions

Treasury bills run on a weekly cycle. In the week of 28 September 2026 it looked like this, and most weeks look the same:

Bids for bills close at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time for competitive bids. A holiday moves an auction, usually by a day. Cash management bills are the exception: Treasury sells them when it needs cash for a few days or weeks, outside the weekly cycle, often with only a day or two of notice.

The monthly rhythm of note and bond auctions

Notes, bonds, TIPS and floating rate notes are auctioned once a month each, in two groups:

• Early in the month: the 3-year note, the 10-year note and the 30-year bond, auctioned on three days in a row and issued together on the 15th. In October 2026 they are auctioned on 6, 7 and 8 October, all announced on 1 October, all issued on 15 October.
• Late in the month: the 2-year, 5-year and 7-year notes and the 2-year floating rate note, issued at the end of the month. In September 2026 the 5-year note and a 2-year floating rate note were auctioned on 23 September and the 7-year note on 24 September, all announced on 17 September.
• Mid-month: the 20-year bond, and in the months that have one, a TIPS auction.

Bids for notes and bonds close at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time. Floating rate notes close at 11:30 a.m.

Refunding months

In February, May, August and November the early-month auctions are the quarterly refunding: the 10-year note and the 30-year bond are new issues, and Treasury publishes its borrowing plans for the quarter the same week (the guide to the quarterly refunding explains what it announces). In the other eight months those two auctions are reopenings: more of the security first sold in the last refunding month. The 10-year note of 7 October 2026, for example, is a reopening, which Treasury lists as a "9-Year 10-Month" note.

When the amount is known

Each auction has an auction announcement that sets the offering amount, the date and the closing times. It comes out a few days before the auction:

• Bills: the Thursday before a Monday or Tuesday auction, and the Tuesday of the same week for a Wednesday or Thursday auction.
• Notes and bonds: about a week before, usually on a Thursday.

Treasury also publishes a tentative schedule for each quarter, with dates but no amounts, at the quarterly refunding. The dates can still move; the amounts are never known in advance. 500metrics shows an auction as "Not yet held" from its announcement until its result is out, and never shows a result field before that. The Treasury auction schedule page lists the auctions announced so far and the tentative dates after them.

What this guide cannot tell you

• The size of an auction that has not been announced. Treasury sets each amount in its announcement.
• Whether a date in the tentative schedule will stay the same. A holiday, a change in borrowing needs or the debt limit can move or cancel an auction.
• Anything about the result. The Treasury auction results page has each result once Treasury publishes it.