Saudization Rates 2026: Nitaqat Bands and Profession Quotas

Saudization is not one rule. It is two systems running at the same time, and an entity can comply with one while breaching the other.

The first is Nitaqat (نطاقات), which grades your whole entity on the share of Saudi nationals in your workforce. The second is a set of profession-level decrees that fix a rate for specific job titles regardless of how your entity is graded. Most of the confusion in the market comes from treating them as the same thing.

This guide sets out what each one actually requires in 2026, with the ministry's own figures.

Nitaqat has five bands, not six

The bands in force under the 2026 procedural guide are:

A great deal of published commentary still lists six bands by including a Yellow band. It does not appear in the guide in force. If a source you are relying on says six, it is working from a superseded edition — worth checking what else in it is out of date.

Note what the table above does not say: Platinum, High Green and Mid Green carry the same services. The commercial cliff is between Mid Green and Low Green, and then again at Red. Climbing from Mid Green to Platinum buys reputation and procurement standing, not new operational rights.

How your required percentage is calculated

There is no flat quota. The ministry computes the threshold for each band with a logarithmic formula:

`` required rate = m × ln(total employees) + c ``

m is a curve constant that varies by economic activity and band. c is a Saudization constant that varies by activity, band and year — the current phase sets separate values for 2026, 2027 and 2028. ln is the natural logarithm; using base-10 by mistake shifts the answer by a factor of 2.3.

The coefficients for all 41 economic activities are published in annex 1 of the procedural guide. This is worth stressing, because it is widely assumed the figures live only inside Qiwa: they do not. You can compute your own threshold before you log in.

Two consequences of the formula are worth planning around.

Growing your headcount usually raises your required percentage. Because ln(x) rises with headcount, an entity that adds 50 foreign workers does not merely dilute its ratio — it also moves its own target upwards. Hiring plans built on today's percentage will undershoot.

In two activities, the opposite is true. Construction contracting and cleaning contracting and laundries carry a negative m (−0.37) in the Low Green and Mid Green bands, so their threshold falls as the entity grows. That is what the annex says, and it is not an error in transcription.

You can work your own figure with our Saudization calculator, which implements the published formula for all 41 activities across the three years.

The profession decrees run in parallel

This is the part that catches entities out. The procedural guides for the profession decrees state that penalties apply "regardless of the entity's Nitaqat band". An entity sitting comfortably in Platinum can be in breach of the engineering decree on the same day.

Three of these deserve comment.

Administrative support at 100%, from a single employee. This is the widest decree of the set, and the threshold is one worker — there is no small-entity exemption. The covered titles include roles most companies do not think of as administrative: translator and interpreter, storekeeper, secretary and executive secretary, cashier, security guard, receptionist, HR clerk, data entry clerk, customs broker, labour affairs manager, personnel relations manager. A second tranche, covering among others sign-language interpreter, CCTV operator, recruitment specialist, compensation specialist, public relations roles and recruitment office manager, carried a six-month grace period from issue, ending 5 October 2026.

If your HR or recruitment function is staffed by non-Saudis, this decree is about your own department.

Marketing doubled. It was 30% with a threshold of five workers. Since 19 January 2026 it is 60% with a threshold of three. An entity that was compliant in December 2025 and changed nothing is now short.

Engineering has conditions attached to who counts. The rate is 30% at entity level, from five workers in the covered professions — but a Saudi engineer only counts towards it if their GOSI-contributing salary is at least 8,000 SAR per month, and they hold professional accreditation from the Saudi Council of Engineers. An unaccredited Saudi engineer on your payroll does not move your percentage at all.

Marketing sets a floor of 5,500 SAR. The sales and administrative support guides set no salary floor — which is worth stating plainly, because "there is always a minimum salary" is a common and wrong assumption.

What the ministry checks, and how

Compliance monitoring is automated. The system applies the formula against the job titles registered in the GOSI database, checks the salaries recorded there, and confirms professional accreditation through technical integration with the supervising bodies. Sanctions follow ministerial decisions 75913 and 44558.

The practical implication: your compliance position is whatever GOSI says it is. A Saudi employee whose registered job title does not match the profession you are counting them under will not count, however the role is described in their contract.

Where verification comes in

For the foreign side of the workforce, accreditation now happens before the visa, not after.

Under Council of Ministers Resolution 195, workers arriving in the high-skill professions of SSCO groups 1–3 — engineering and health among them — have their qualifications verified before entering the Kingdom. Rollout is complete across 160 countries and covers 1,007 professions. For groups 4–9, a professional examination takes its place: 75 minutes of theory and practical, valid five years, and passing it is a precondition of the work entry visa. Home-country trade certificates are not accepted as equivalent.

Either way, the exposure sits with the employer. A candidate is selected, an offer is signed, mobilisation begins — and then the file stalls on a qualification that does not survive checking. Verifying identity, qualification and employment history before you commit is the cheapest point in the process to find a problem.

That is what Trust Agent does, and you can check three candidates on the free tier before deciding whether it belongs in your process.

Sources

All figures above come from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development:

• Nitaqat procedural guide 2026 — bands, formula, annex 1 coefficients
• Engineering professions decree guide
• Administrative support professions decree guide
• Marketing professions decree guide
• Sales professions decree guide

Rules change. Check the ministry and Qiwa for the position on the day you act; nothing here replaces your entity's own calculation in Qiwa.

Related: accreditation now happens before the visa, not after arrival.