Working hours in Saudi Arabia
Offices in Saudi Arabia typically run 08:00–17:00 local time, Sunday to Thursday, resting Friday and Saturday. That is about 45 hours a week across 5 working days. The working week runs Sunday to Thursday. Friday and Saturday are the weekend.
The week in Saudi Arabia
Working with Saudi Arabia
Hours shared with the hubs people work with most, measured from Riyadh and using each side's own office day rather than a blanket nine-to-five.
What this changes when you schedule
The weekend is not Saturday and Sunday. Saudi Arabia rests Friday and Saturday and works Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Nearly every calendar tool assumes otherwise, so an invite for Friday looks perfectly reasonable on your screen and lands on a day off on theirs — while Sunday is an ordinary working day there.
The day also runs earlier than the nine-to-five most tools assume: 08:00–17:00 rather than 09:00–17:00. On a single call that is a detail; on a recurring overlap it is up to 1 hours a day of difference between the real answer and the assumed one, which is why every overlap on this site is computed from these hours rather than from a default.
A note on what this is: a national convention, drawn from published labour rules and government working-hours guidance. Individual employers vary, shift work and retail do not follow it, and it describes offices rather than the whole economy. It is the right basis for "when is someone likely to be at their desk" and the wrong basis for a contract.
Sources and last check
Times, offsets and sun positions on this page are computed live from the IANA timezone database and the NOAA solar algorithm, so they do not depend on the review dates below.
- Working hours and weekend days for 55 countries
- Source: Published national labour conventions and government working-hours guidance. Last checked, reviewed every 12 months.
Not covered:A national convention, not any given employer. Countries not listed fall back to a nine-to-five, Monday to Friday default, and pages say so rather than implying we checked. - 141 countries: representative IANA zone and whether they observe DST
- Source: Generated by scripts/build-countries.mjs from Intl.DisplayNames and the tzdata shipped with Node. Nothing typed by hand.. Last checked, reviewed every 6 months.
Not covered:13 of them span more than one zone we hold; for those, `iana` is their largest city's zone rather than the whole country's.
FAQ
What are normal working hours in Saudi Arabia?
08:00–17:00 local time is the usual office day, about 9 hours. The working week runs Sunday to Thursday. Friday and Saturday are the weekend. This is the national convention rather than any one employer's hours.
What days is the working week in Saudi Arabia?
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. The rest days are Friday and Saturday. That differs from the Saturday-and-Sunday weekend most scheduling tools assume, so a meeting invite that looks harmless can land on a day off.
What time should I call Saudi Arabia from abroad?
Riyadh is UTC+3, so the working day there is 05:00–14:00 UTC. Aim for their mid-morning or early afternoon and you will catch someone at their desk.
How much of the day does Saudi Arabia share with other countries?
Berlin: 8 hours; London: 6 hours; Singapore: 5 hours; Sydney: 2 hours; New York: 1 hours. These use each side's real office hours, not a blanket nine-to-five.