A method, system, and program for automating responses by grid providers to bid request indicating criteria for a grid job are provided. A bid controller grid service of a grid provider receives a job request from a client for processing a job within a grid environment of the grid provider, wherein the job request specifies at a least one criteria required for the grid provider to handle a particular grid job. The grid service determines whether the grid environment includes the hardware platform class, software platform class, and network bandwidth required by the job request. If the grid service determines that the grid environment includes a sufficient hardware platform class, software platform class, and network bandwidth, then a total required workload for the job request is calculated. Next, a total cost for the total required workload is estimated and the grid service automatically returns a bid response to the client system, where the bid response includes an identifier for the grid provider and the total cost for the job request.In addition, the bid response may include a total time for performance of the grid job described by the job request.