Commercial registration in Saudi Arabia: the 2026 guide to the new law

Commercial registration in Saudi Arabia is the Ministry of Commerce's central electronic record of every trader. Since 3 April 2025, the new Commercial Register Law gives each business one registration for the whole Kingdom, with no expiry date: instead of renewing it, you confirm its data online once a year through the Business Platform.

This guide covers who must register, how to register, what each step costs, what the law expects in the first 90 days and every year after, and the penalties. Every rule below is taken from the law, its Implementing Regulations and the Ministry's own service pages, checked on 14 October 2026. It is general information, not legal advice: for a specific case, confirm with the Ministry of Commerce.

What changed under the new Commercial Register Law?

The Commercial Register Law was issued by Royal Decree M/83 dated 19/3/1446H (22 September 2024) and published on 1/4/1446H (4 October 2024). It has 29 articles and replaced the previous law of 1416H, issued by Royal Decree M/1 [1]. Its Implementing Regulations, with a fee annex and a table of violations, sit alongside it [2]. The Ministry of Commerce brought both into force on 3 April 2025 (5 Shawwal 1446H), together with the separate Trade Names Law and its regulations [3].

The law defines the commercial register as a record of traders' data held in a central electronic database, and requires every application and procedure to be electronic [1]. In practice, that means the Business Platform at business.sa. As of 14 October 2026, business.sa redirects to the site of the Saudi Center for Competitiveness and Business, which hosts the Ministry's commercial registration services [5].

Who must register, and who is exempt?

Every trader must be entered in the commercial register, whether a natural person (a sole proprietorship) or a legal person (a company); "trader" carries its meaning under the Commercial Law [1]. Trading without registration is listed in the regulations' violations table, with a fine of SAR 5,000 [2].

Article 16 of the Implementing Regulations exempts four groups from registration [2]:

• people carrying on a temporary, seasonal commercial activity licensed by the competent authority;
• street vendors and mobile vehicles and carts licensed by the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing;
• productive families registered with the Social Development Bank;
• micro-enterprises trading through business incubators licensed by the General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises (Monsha'at).

The exemption covers registration only. An exempt trader still carries the obligations that other laws place on traders [2].

How to register a business: the steps on the Business Platform

For a sole proprietorship, the Ministry's service page sets the conditions: the owner is at least 18, is not a government employee and does not already own an active sole-proprietorship registration. Activities that need a licence before issuance need the licensing authority's approval, and e-commerce must be declared [6]. The service is open to Saudi and GCC nationals [5].

The steps, as the Ministry lists them [6]:

1. Log in to the Business Platform through the National Single Sign-On (Nafath).
2. Choose the commercial registration service and select "establishment" as the type.
3. Enter the owner's and contact details and the approved business address.
4. Choose the activities, enter any e-commerce details, set the capital and build the trade name.
5. Add the establishment's address and contact details and appoint a manager.
6. Review the summary, accept the declaration and submit; other parties approve where needed.
7. Pay the invoice through SADAD or by card. The registration is issued after payment.

After issuance, the establishment is registered automatically with the Ministry of Human Resources, the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority, the General Organization for Social Insurance, Saudi Post (national address) and the chamber of commerce [6].

Companies register through the company-formation services for each legal form; the Ministry's answer for a company's main registration is to pay the fee after the application is approved and the contract is notarised, then print the registration [7]. A foreign investor attaches proof of registration with the Ministry of Investment or another competent authority, with a certified Arabic translation of the documents the registrar requires (Regulations, Article 5) [2].

Whatever the form, the application carries the applicant's name, address and ID number, the trade name, the legal form, the capital, the managers or board members and their powers, and the head-office address (Law, Article 6) [1], plus the type of activity and contact details (Regulations, Article 3) [2]. The registrar decides on a complete application within 10 days. A rejected application can be corrected within 15 days of notice, or it lapses. A reasoned rejection can be challenged before the Ministry within 60 days [1][2].

What does commercial registration in Saudi Arabia cost?

The fee annex to the Implementing Regulations sets the Ministry's fees for commercial registration services [2]. The Ministry's service pages showed the same amounts on 14 October 2026 [6][8].

These are the Ministry's commercial registration fees only. Licences, trade-name services and other bodies' charges sit outside this table.

Illustrative example: first-year commercial registration fees for a limited liability company

Illustrative example. A trading LLC in Dammam registers in January 2026, adds a new activity in May, and its bank asks for a detailed extract in June.

A sole proprietorship following the same path would pay SAR 500 + 100 + 100 = SAR 700 in year one, then SAR 500 at its first confirmation. A new LLC also pays the Ministry's separate fee for publishing its articles of association at formation, which this example leaves out.

Your first 90 days after registration

The Implementing Regulations add three obligations that start the day the registration is issued:

• Bank account details within 90 days. The trader gives the registrar its bank account details within 90 days of registration, and reports any later change (Regulations, Article 3) [2]. The Ministry describes this as a requirement to open bank accounts linked to the business [3].
• Licences within 90 days. An activity that needs a licence must be licensed within 90 days of being recorded. Otherwise, the registrar strikes that activity off the registration, unless it extends the period (Regulations, Article 4) [2].
• Display the unified electronic code. The trader displays its basic registration data through the unified electronic code, issued by the Saudi Business Center (now part of the Saudi Center for Competitiveness and Business), in a clear place inside and outside the premises. An online seller shows it on its website (Regulations, Article 14) [2].

Missing the bank details or the code display each carries a fine of SAR 1,000 in the violations table [2].

How do you keep a commercial registration active?

Two duties replace the old renewal:

• Update within 15 days. Any change to the recorded data must be updated within 15 days of the change (Law, Article 10) [1], at SAR 100 per update [2].
• Confirm once a year. The trader confirms the recorded data to the registrar every year (Law, Article 11) [1]. The confirmation falls due one full year after the registration date, and can be submitted up to 30 days early (Regulations, Article 10) [2]. The Ministry runs it as an online service on the Business Platform [8].

If the confirmation is not made within 90 days of its due date, the registrar warns the trader and suspends the registration 14 days later. Suspension also suspends every licence issued for that registration (Law, Article 15) [1], and the Ministry's other services for it, except printing the registration in Arabic or English, printing a detailed extract, lifting the suspension and strike-off (Regulations, Article 11) [2].

A suspension lasts one year. It is lifted if the trader confirms the data and pays the fee and any fine. A sole proprietor who does not act within that year is struck off. A company or a foreign company's branch loses the right to ask for the suspension to be lifted, and the Ministry may ask its partners or shareholders to dissolve it or apply to court to do so [1].

One registration for the whole Kingdom: branches, cities and sub-registers

Article 6 of the Implementing Regulations states the rule plainly: a trader is registered once, however many activities and branches it has [2]. The new law dropped the city of registration, so one registration covers every region [4]. Activities recorded on the same registration do not need to be related to each other (Law, Article 9) [1].

Businesses that held sub-registers under the old law have five years from the law's entry into force, that is from 3 April 2025, to put them right; the remaining sub-registers are struck off when that period ends, under a mechanism the Ministry sets [1]. The Minister of Commerce described three routes when the law was approved [9]:

• assign a sole proprietorship's sub-register to another party, where it becomes that party's main registration;
• convert the sub-register into a new company;
• strike off the sub-register and move its assets and activities to the main registration.

The Ministry's published answer is direct: sub-registers not corrected within the five years are struck off [7].

Commercial registration in English, the certificate and the CR number

In English, the السجل التجاري is called the commercial registration, usually shortened to "CR", and the register itself is the "Commercial Register".

• The certificate. Since the new law, the CR certificate is a single page. A QR code on its left gives access to the full data: activities, registration date, annual confirmation date, approved address, managers and capital. The expiry-date field is gone, and the Ministry states that government bodies, private entities and banks accept the new format [10].
• Arabic and English copies. The regulations list printing the registration in Arabic and in English among the services that stay available even while a registration is suspended [2].
• The unified national number. Each establishment also has a unified national number, often called the "700" number because it begins with 7. The Ministry states that it is issued and activated automatically when the CR is issued [7].
• Public data. Anyone may view a registration's basic data: trade name, registration number, managers, legal form, registration date, annual confirmation due date, status, capital, contact details, addresses and activities (Regulations, Article 15) [2]. The Ministry's inquiry service is free and searches by establishment name or unified national number [11].
• The detailed extract. Anyone may request a detailed extract of a registration for SAR 100. The Ministry processes it within 72 hours, in Arabic or English [12]. If no registration exists, the law entitles the applicant to a certificate saying so [1].

Penalties, warnings and how to object

Article 21 of the law sets a fine of up to SAR 50,000. It applies to anyone who gives incorrect data for registration, and to a trader who fails to register, update, confirm or display the data. A repeat of the same violation within three years of a final decision may double the fine [1]. The regulations grade the violations as follows [2]:

The committee that reviews violations may also, or instead, warn the trader, order corrective steps or order the recorded data to be corrected (Law, Article 24). Anyone subject to a decision under the law may challenge it before the competent court within 30 days of being notified (Law, Article 25) [1].

A checklist for owners and finance teams

Use it as-is when you register, and again once a year.

1. Choose the legal form first: the fees and the confirmation amount follow it.
2. Prepare the data the law requires: ID, trade name, legal form, capital, managers and their powers, head-office address, activities and contact details.
3. Check which activities need a licence before issuance, and which within 90 days after.
4. Give the bank account details within 90 days of registration.
5. Put the unified electronic code at the entrance, inside the premises and on your website.
6. Note the annual confirmation due date shown on the certificate, and set a reminder 30 days before it.
7. Record every change within 15 days: address, managers, capital, activities.
8. If you still hold old sub-registers, choose one of the three routes well before April 2030.
9. Keep the mobile number and email on the registration current: the regulations count text messages and email to them as valid notification (Regulations, Article 20) [2].

If you are vetting a supplier rather than registering, the free inquiry service shows whether its registration is active. Our guide to choosing a software or app development company shows where that check fits before you sign. Consumers with a problem about a shop can use Dalni, O AI's consumer-rights guide, to see how to file a commercial complaint.

Your next step

Open your commercial registration in Saudi Arabia on the Business Platform today and check three things: the annual confirmation date, the mobile number and email on file, and whether every licensed activity has its licence. Fix any gap through the update service, and put the confirmation date in the calendar of whoever pays the company's government fees. For anything specific to your case, the Ministry of Commerce's call centre is 1900 [11]. If you are building internal tools to track dates like these, you can read about O AI, a software and AI company in Al Khobar, on our home page.