# How to set up Dynamic Bid Increments

This guide shows you how to set up **Dynamic Bid Increments**, which lets Handbid raise an item's bid increment automatically as its price climbs — instead of you editing increments by hand mid-auction.

A $10 increment makes sense on a $100 item. On a $5,000 item it doesn't. Dynamic Bid Increments handles that for you.

:::note
Dynamic Bid Increments is enabled per contract. If you don't see the option in Auction Settings, contact your Customer Success Manager to have it turned on for your organization.
:::

## How it works

You build a table of price ranges and the increment that applies to each one. As bidding pushes an item's price into the next range, Handbid switches to that range's increment automatically.

| From | To | Increment |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 100 | 10 |
| 101 | 500 | 25 |
| 501 | 1000 | 50 |
| 1001 | and above | 100 |

With the table above, an item at $80 takes $10 bids. Once it passes $100, bids go up in $25 steps. Past $500, $50. Past $1,000, $100.

:::caution
Dynamic increments apply to **straight bids only** — they do not change how MaxBids are processed. A bidder's MaxBid continues to work the way it always has.
:::

## Prerequisites

- Dynamic Bid Increments enabled on your organization's contract.
- Manager access to the auction.
- Set this up **before** bidding opens, so increments are consistent for every bidder.

## Steps

### 1. Open Auction Settings

In the Auction Manager, select the **Auction Settings** gear icon next to the auction name.

### 2. Go to the Bidders tab

Select the **Bidders** tab.

### 3. Enable the feature

Check **Enable Dynamic Bid Increments**. The increment table appears.

### 4. Build your table

Add a row for each price range:

- **From** — the bottom of the range. On each new row this fills in automatically as the previous row's **To** value plus one, so there are no gaps.
- **To** — the top of the range.
- **Increment** — the bid increment that applies inside this range.

Add as many rows as you need. Make the **last row** your open-ended one — set its upper bound high enough to cover anything an item could reach, so every price has an increment.

### 5. Save

Select **Update** to save the auction settings.

## Verify it worked

Open an item in the auction and check the bid amount Handbid suggests. It should match the increment for that item's current price range. Place a test bid that pushes the item past a threshold and confirm the next suggested bid uses the higher increment.

## Common issues

- **You don't see Enable Dynamic Bid Increments** — the feature isn't enabled on your contract. Contact your CSM.
- **An item's increment isn't changing** — check that the item's current price actually crossed into the next range, and that no gap exists between your rows.
- **Increments look wrong at the top end** — your last row's upper bound is probably too low. Raise it so high-value items are still covered.

:::tip
Keep the table simple. Three or four ranges usually covers an auction well; a long table is harder to reason about when an item is moving fast on event night.
:::

## Related articles

- [How to create an auction and update auction settings](/how-to-create-an-auction-update-auction-settings/)
- [How to set a MaxBid](/how-to-set-a-maxbid/)
- [How to use Extended Bidding in your auction](/how-to-use-extended-bidding/)
- [How to set a Buy Now price and best practices](/how-to-set-a-buy-now-price-and-best-practices/)