Home › Saudi Nitaqat Band Checker
Saudi Nitaqat Band Checker
Enter your activity and workers. See your Saudization rate, your band, the limit for each band at your size and how many Saudi workers would move you up.
How Nitaqat bands work
Nitaqat is the Saudization programme of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (HRSD). It puts each entity in one of five bands by its Saudization rate: Red, Low Green, Medium Green, High Green and Platinum. Your band decides which Ministry services you can use, such as new visas, changing workers' occupations and renewing work permits.
An entity is all branches of one establishment that work in the same economic activity. An expatriate worker is a worker who is not a citizen of a GCC country.
The rate and the band limits
Your Saudization rate is your Saudi workers divided by your Saudi plus expatriate workers, times 100. The limit where each band starts depends on your activity and on how many people you employ: limit = m × ln(total workforce) + c, where m and c are fixed for each band and activity in Annex (1) of the Ministry's procedural guide. A larger workforce usually needs a higher rate.
HRSD launched a new phase of Nitaqat Mutawar on 19 February 2026, running from 2026 for three years. Annex (1) sets c for 2026, 2027 and 2028; the 2028 values also apply after 2028. In many activities c rises each year, so the same staff mix can drop a band without any change on your side.
Worked example: an Industries entity with 140 Saudi and 260 expatriate workers (400 in total) has a rate of 35.00%. ln(400) = 5.9915. In 2026 Medium Green starts at 1.87 × 5.9915 + 21.87 = 33.07% and High Green at 2.08 × 5.9915 + 23.97 = 36.43%, so the entity is Medium Green. In 2027 Medium Green starts at 36.07%, so the same entity falls to Low Green.
What the checker does not cover
The guide does not say over what period the Ministry averages worker numbers, whether some workers count with a different weight, or how nationals of other GCC countries are counted. Those points are marked “Being verified” and are not used. Your official band is the one the Ministry shows in Qiwa.
The Arabic guide governs. Activity names in English are our translation of the official Arabic names.
Frequently asked questions
How is the Nitaqat Saudization percentage calculated?
Saudi workers divided by Saudi plus expatriate workers, times 100, using the averages for all branches of the entity in the same activity (HRSD procedural guide, Definitions).
What are the Nitaqat bands?
Red, Low Green, Medium Green, High Green and Platinum. Each band starts at a limit worked out from your activity and the size of your workforce.
Why can my band drop in 2027 when my staff did not change?
Annex (1) of the guide raises the fixed value c for many activities each year from 2026 to 2028, so every band starts at a higher rate.
Do nationals of other GCC countries count?
The guide defines an expatriate worker as one who is not a GCC citizen, and its formula counts only Saudi and expatriate workers. It does not say how other GCC nationals are counted, so this checker leaves them out and marks the point as being verified.
Do you store what I enter?
No. Everything runs in your browser and nothing is sent to our servers.