AWS is building its first cloud region in Saudi Arabia. For companies with customers in the Kingdom, and especially for those whose data has to stay there, it is the most important change in AWS's Middle East footprint since the UAE region opened. It is also not open yet, and plans made around it need to separate what AWS has said from what can be counted on today.
This guide sets out what AWS has announced about the region, how it will compare with the UAE and Bahrain regions most Saudi workloads use now, what it changes for data residency, and how to prepare so you can use it without a second migration.
What AWS has announced
- March 2024: the announcement. AWS said it would open an infrastructure region in Saudi Arabia, with three Availability Zones at launch, and planned to invest more than US$5.3 billion in the Kingdom.
- The purpose. AWS said the region would let organisations keep their content in the Kingdom while running applications on local infrastructure, which is the point for regulated sectors and the public sector.
- May 2025: the AI Zone. AWS and HUMAIN, the Saudi AI company, announced plans to invest more than US$5 billion in an "AI Zone" in the Kingdom, with dedicated AWS AI infrastructure and services such as Amazon SageMaker and Amazon Bedrock. It is separate from the region and builds on the region investment. AWS and HUMAIN have since said they aim to bring up to 50 MW of AI capacity online there by 2028.
- 2026: the date. AWS has said the region is on track to launch in December 2026.
AWS has not published a region code or a list of the services that will be available on the first day. Expect both to appear on AWS's own pages at launch, and treat any code you see before then as a guess.
How to tell when the region is live
Launch-date reports and partner posts run ahead of the facts. The region is live when AWS itself says so, and these are the places to check, in rough order of how quickly they change:
- AWS's announcement. AWS publishes a launch post on its What's New feed and its news blog on the day a region opens. It names the region, gives its code and lists the first services.
- The Regions and Availability Zones page. AWS moves the region from its announced list to its live list, with its code and number of Availability Zones.
- Your AWS account. As an opt-in region, it appears in the account's region settings, where an administrator can enable it. Until it is enabled, nothing can be created there.
- The regional services list and price pages. These show which services exist in the region and what they cost. Check them for each service your workload depends on before you plan a move.
We update this guide when the region opens. Until then, plan against what is live today and keep the Saudi region as a parameter in your infrastructure, so switching it on is a change, not a rebuild.
How it compares with the UAE and Bahrain regions
| Saudi Arabia | Middle East (UAE) | Middle East (Bahrain) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Status | Announced, targeted for December 2026 | Live | Live |
| Region code | Not yet published | me-central-1 | me-south-1 |
| Availability Zones | 3 at launch, as announced | 3 | 3 |
| Data stored in the Kingdom | Yes | No (cross-border transfer) | No (cross-border transfer) |
| Services | A core set at launch, growing over time | Broad | Broad |
| Prices | Published at launch | Published | Published |
The UAE and Bahrain regions are both opt-in: they have to be enabled on an AWS account before anything can be created there. Every region AWS has opened since 2019 has worked this way, so plan on enabling the Saudi region on your accounts too, and on updating any guardrails that limit which regions your accounts can use.
Services at launch
New AWS regions open with a core set of services, typically compute, storage, networking, the main databases and the security and management services around them, and add more over the following months and years. If your workload depends on a specific managed service, a particular instance family or a generative AI model, do not assume it will be there on day one. Check AWS's regional services list once the region is live, and keep the UAE or Bahrain region in the plan for anything that is missing.
Prices
AWS publishes a region's prices when it opens. Prices differ between regions: in our comparison for Egypt, common instances cost more in the UAE and Bahrain regions than in Europe or N. Virginia. Do not assume the Saudi region will cost the same as either Gulf region. Once prices are published, price your real architecture in the AWS Pricing Calculator before you commit to a move.
What it changes for data residency
Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL), overseen by the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA), allows personal data to be transferred out of the Kingdom only when its conditions are met: a permitted purpose and either an adequate destination or an appropriate safeguard, such as the Saudi standard contractual clauses, backed by a risk assessment. Government entities and critical infrastructure operators in scope of the National Cybersecurity Authority's cloud controls, and some sectors regulated by bodies such as the Saudi Central Bank, have stricter rules on where data can be hosted.
- If a rule requires in-Kingdom hosting, the Saudi region gives you a native AWS option for the first time, instead of keeping that data on separate local infrastructure.
- If you rely on a transfer safeguard today, keeping personal data in the Kingdom can remove the need for that transfer, and the paperwork and risk assessment that come with it. Your counsel should confirm what changes for your case.
- If your data is mostly non-personal, the residency case is weaker, and latency, services and price decide whether moving is worth it.
Our guide to migrating to AWS in Saudi Arabia covers the PDPL, the NCA controls and the sector rules in more detail.
Should you wait for the region or start now?
| Your situation | Recommended approach |
|---|---|
| A rule requires the data to be hosted in the Kingdom | Keep that data where it is until the region opens and the services you need are confirmed there. Prepare the landing zone and the move now. |
| Personal data, no in-Kingdom rule, a documented transfer basis | Start in the UAE or Bahrain region now, built so the move into the Saudi region is a planned change. |
| Mostly non-personal data, users across the Gulf | Start now in the region that suits your users and services. Move only if latency or a customer requirement calls for it. |
| A new product launching in 2027 | Design for the Saudi region from the start, and confirm service availability before you commit to a managed service. |
How to prepare without migrating twice
- Classify your data. Know which systems hold personal or regulated data. That list is what may need to move, and nothing else has to.
- Define infrastructure as code with the region as a parameter. Terraform, AWS CDK or CloudFormation, with no region names, endpoints or ARNs hard-coded in templates or application configuration.
- Keep stateless and stateful parts separate. Compute and containers redeploy easily; databases and object storage need a replication and cutover plan, using tools such as AWS Database Migration Service and S3 replication.
- List the services you depend on and mark any that are new or niche. Those are the ones to check against the Saudi region's service list on launch day.
- Update your guardrails. If your organisation uses service control policies to restrict regions, plan the change that allows the Saudi region for the accounts that will use it.
- Measure latency from your users' networks once the region is live, rather than assuming it will be faster for everyone.
- Cost the move. A regional move is a migration: estimate the effort and the new monthly bill, and check whether migration funding could cover part of it. Our guide to MAP for companies in Egypt and Saudi Arabia explains how that works.
What it means for companies in Egypt
AWS has no region in Egypt, so Egyptian companies already host abroad, usually in the UAE, Bahrain or Europe. The Saudi region adds a candidate, and it matters most to Egyptian companies with Saudi customers whose contracts or regulators want data kept in the Kingdom. For everyone else it is one more option to price and measure. Our guide to choosing an AWS region in Egypt compares the options and covers Egypt's data protection rules on hosting abroad.
Next steps
If you are planning an AWS migration in Saudi Arabia, we can review your current setup and show what would move into the Saudi region and when. To see which AWS funding could offset the cost, compare the AWS funding programmes or take the free credit eligibility check. To test one workload in the new region before you commit, read how AWS POC funding works.