Saudi Arabia eSIM

Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries where your phone is part of the journey itself: Umrah and Rawdah permits live in the Nusuk app, so pilgrims need data the moment they land in Jeddah or Madinah. A Saudi eSIM installed at home also skips the branch visit and fingerprint registration that come with a local visitor SIM.

What a week of data costs in Saudi Arabia

Prices for 7 days of data, checked on 2 November 2026. Daily passes charge each day you use the phone abroad, per phone. Saudi Arabia isn't covered by European "roam like at home" deals.

For a family of four on Verizon, that's $336 for one week. Indian and Indonesian pilgrims should compare the total for their whole stay, since a 1 GB or 5 GB pack goes quickly on video calls home.

Landing at Jeddah (JED), Madinah (MED), Riyadh (RUH) or Dammam (DMM)

Most pilgrims arrive at King Abdulaziz International in Jeddah (JED), 19 km north of the city. It has three passenger terminals, including the Hajj Terminal, which handles pilgrims in the Hajj season. Terminal 1 links to the airport station of the Haramain railway. Madinah's airport (MED) takes charter flights in the Hajj and Umrah seasons, and pilgrims can enter through it or through Jeddah. King Khalid International (RUH) is about 35 km north of Riyadh, and King Fahd International (DMM) is 31 km north-west of Dammam and serves the Eastern Province.

Switch the kimsim line on as the plane taxis to the gate. You can tell your family you've landed and message your group leader while you queue.

Visas first. British citizens need a visa. The tourist e-visa is applied for at visa.visitsaudi.com or on arrival at Saudi international airports, is valid for a year with up to 90 days in the country, and the passport must be valid for 6 months after you arrive. Hajj needs a separate visa. Tourist visa holders can perform Umrah, but not during the Hajj season.

At JED, in order: turn on Data Roaming for the kimsim line only, walk to immigration, then collect your bags. stc, Mobily and Zain have counters in the arrival hall. With your eSIM working, you can walk past them.

Onward: the KAIA station is inside the main terminal building, with Haramain trains to Makkah and Madinah. In Riyadh, Metro Line 4 runs from King Khalid airport to the King Abdullah Financial District. Uber serves pickups at both JED and RUH.

Networks and coverage

Saudi Arabia has three mobile operators: stc (Saudi Telecom Company), Mobily, the trade name of Etihad Etisalat, and Zain KSA, part of Kuwait's Zain Group. Zain launched 5G in October 2019. Your phone shows the Saudi operator's name, such as STC, not kimsim.

The holy sites get special treatment. For Hajj 2026, the regulator said operators had more than 6,000 towers serving Makkah, Madinah and the holy sites, and reported mobile internet speeds of up to 351 Mbps and more than 202.6 million calls over the season. Even so, data slows in and around the two mosques at prayer times.

Expect strong coverage in Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah, Madinah, Dammam and along the main highways. It thins out in open desert, in the mountains of the south-west and in the Empty Quarter, the sand desert that covers much of the south. The networks your plan uses are listed above.

City by city

• Makkah: hotels around the Haram are well covered. Load your Nusuk permit at the hotel, not at the gate.
• Madinah: book the Rawdah slot in Nusuk before you arrive; the permit is free.
• Jeddah: the Corniche and Al-Balad are city-covered; the airport is a long drive north.
• Riyadh: the six-line metro and the big districts are well covered.
• AlUla: an oasis about 350 km north-west of Madinah, among canyons and desert. Download maps before day trips to the tombs and viewpoints.
• Asir and Abha: mountain roads can lose signal between towns.

This is general guidance, not a coverage map. If your signal is weak, check your network settings.

Trains, metro and taxis

The Haramain High Speed Railway links Makkah and Madinah via Jeddah, King Abdullah Economic City and Jeddah airport, at up to 300 km/h. Makkah to Madinah takes around 2 hours. Book on the official site, sar.hhr.sa, with your passport details. You can take one large suitcase of up to 25 kg plus a hand bag. Jeddah's Al-Sulimaniyah station and the airport station are different stops, so check which one you book.

The Riyadh Metro opened on 1 December 2024 and has run all six lines since 5 January 2025, with 85 stations. For desert drives, the UK Foreign Office advises travelling in convoy and in daylight.

Apps worth having

• Nusuk: the official app for Umrah permits and Rawdah slots. Create the account at home, where any text code reaches your usual number.
• Careem books rides in Saudi Arabia, paid by card, Apple Pay or cash. You sign up with your mobile number, so do it before you fly. Uber covers Riyadh, Jeddah and Makkah, and lets you book airport rides up to 30 days ahead.
• HungerStation delivers food and groceries across Saudi Arabia.
• WhatsApp is how groups, hotels and drivers reach you. Messages work over kimsim data. Keep your WhatsApp number working abroad.
• Absher is mainly for residents. Tawakkalna has not been needed as proof to enter places since June 2022.

Calling apps: what works

When Saudi Arabia lifted its ban on internet calling in September 2017, users could call on FaceTime, Skype, Snapchat, Line and Telegram, but WhatsApp and Viber stayed blocked. In March 2024 the regulator denied rumours of a change. In February 2025 users reported WhatsApp calls working, but no official announcement followed.

Plan on messages and voice notes, with FaceTime as the backup. Your eSIM is data only, with no phone number, so keep your home line on for normal calls and texts.

SIM and phone rules

A Saudi visitor SIM is a new Saudi number registered to you. Gulf News lists a copy of your passport, your visa or border number, and fingerprints for biometric registration. stc says you must visit a branch on arrival to activate a visitor number. Since 2025, pilgrims can also get a Saudi operator's eSIM in its app and verify themselves through Absher.

A travel eSIM installed at home skips the counter, the registration and the new number, and keeps your home SIM in the phone.

Common mistakes

• Counting on WhatsApp calls. They come and go. Agree a backup with your family before you fly.
• Leaving Data Roaming on for your home line. Saudi Arabia is in the dearest zones of many home carriers' price lists. Why roaming goes on for the kimsim line only
• Starting the plan on a stop-over. If you connect through Dubai, Doha or Istanbul, keep the kimsim line off until you land in Saudi Arabia. If your plan started early
• Booking Umrah in the Hajj pause. In 2026, Umrah permits in Nusuk were suspended from 18 April to 31 May. Check the dates before you book flights.
• Relying on a data-only line in an emergency. Call 911 for police, ambulance or fire; without a Saudi SIM, the UK Foreign Office says to call 112. A data-only eSIM can't dial either, so use your home line. Photographing government buildings, palaces or military sites is illegal.

More on Saudi Arabia

• eSIM for Umrah and Hajj: stay connected in Makkah
• How much data do I need for a week abroad?
• eSIM vs roaming: which is cheaper for your trip?

How we put this page together

We checked operators' own pages, the UK Foreign Office, the Saudi regulator's Hajj 2026 results, news reports of its statements on calling apps, carriers' roaming price pages and the other sources noted above on 1–2 November 2026, and we'll keep them up to date. We haven't measured speeds or coverage in Saudi Arabia ourselves, and we haven't tested calling apps on our plans there, so coverage notes are general guidance, not a map. kimsim sells the eSIMs on this page.