How to start a business in Saudi Arabia: the official steps, in order

Before you register anything: make sure the idea has a market

Registering costs time and money and commits you to confirming your details every year. Before you do, check three things: do people pay today for a solution to this problem? Who competes with you in your city? And how much do you need to start? Our guide to sizing your market explains how to answer with official figures.

Step 1: choose the legal form

Sources: Freelance document service card, Ministry of Human Resources, SPA: commercial register renewal abolished (17 September 2024), SPA: conditions for a sole proprietorship’s annual confirmation (22 May 2025), Companies Law, Umm Al-Qura.

Step 2: reserve the trade name

• Under the Trade Names Law in force since 3 April 2025, a name may be in Arabic, Arabised or English words, or made up of letters or numbers. (SPA)
• A name can be reserved before registration for a set period that can be extended once, and a name similar to one already reserved or registered is not allowed. (text of the law, Umm Al-Qura)
• Reservation fee: we found no official page we could read, and unofficial sources disagree. Go by what the platform shows before you pay.

Step 3: registering in the commercial register (if you chose it)

• It is done through the Saudi Business Center.
• One register per business for the whole Kingdom, covering all its activities; branch registers are no longer issued. (SPA, 3 April 2025)
• No expiry date and no renewal. Instead you confirm the register’s details every year. (SPA)
• If you do not confirm within 90 days of the due date, the registration is suspended, and it is struck off if the suspension lasts a year. (text of the law, Umm Al-Qura, SPA)
• Fees: the law leaves them to its implementing regulations. Unofficial sources give different figures and we could not open the official fee schedule, so we do not publish a number. The platform shows the fees before you pay.

Step 4: the chamber of commerce

New businesses are exempt from the chamber of commerce subscription for their first three years in the commercial register, under the implementing regulations of the Chambers of Commerce Law as the ministry announced them (SPA, 2021), and the ministry confirmed the exemption in a package of measures for small businesses (Sabq, 7 April 2026). We have not verified the subscription tiers or their cost after that.

Step 5: if you will sell online

The E-Commerce Law requires the following of a store, and your website should be ready for it from day one:

• Show its name or distinguishing mark, its address (unless it is authenticated with an authentication body), its contact details, and its register name and number if it is registered. (Article 6)
• Before the contract: the contract terms, the seller’s details, the product’s characteristics, the total price including fees, taxes and delivery, and the payment, delivery and warranty arrangements. (Article 7)
• After the contract: an invoice showing the cost of each item, the total price, and the delivery date and place. (Article 8)
• The consumer may cancel the contract within 7 days of receiving the product, with exceptions that include made-to-order products. (Article 13)
• If delivery is more than 15 days late, the consumer may cancel the contract and get back what they paid. (Article 14)
• Penalties reach a fine of one million riyals, and the business may be suspended or the store blocked. (Article 18)

Authenticating the store: the Saudi Business Center’s business platform is the approved platform for authenticating online stores, in place of Maroof, and authentication requires a valid commercial register or freelance document and a business bank account (SPA, 6 April 2023). The official statement “invites” store owners to authenticate and does not call it mandatory, and we found no official text that settles the question.

Step 6: tax, zakat and e-invoicing

• VAT registration is mandatory if your taxable supplies exceed SAR 375,000 in 12 months, and optional above SAR 187,500; registering is free. (Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority)
• For a new business the threshold is based on its expected sales over the next twelve months, and it must register within 30 days of reaching it. (A statement by the authority reported by Ajel, 31 January 2026)
• Zakat: when a business is set up with the Ministry of Commerce it is given a unique number, and after the initial registration on the authority’s portal it is registered for zakat automatically. (Zakat taxpayer journey, ZATCA)
• E-invoicing (Fatoora) applies to resident taxpayers. Wave 25 of the integration phase covers anyone whose taxable revenue exceeded SAR 187,500 in any year from 2022 to 2025, starting on 1 February 2027, and the authority notifies each business of its wave at least six months ahead. (ZATCA, SPA)

Step 7: the trademark

A trade name does not protect your brand. Registering a trademark with the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property: the application fee is SAR 1,000, publication SAR 500, and registration with the certificate SAR 5,000, so SAR 6,500 if the mark reaches registration (the total is our own sum, and the page does not say whether the fees are per class). Examination takes up to 90 days, and the publication period is 60 days.

What we could not verify