Saudi Post Address Validation

Saudi Post was established in 1926 as one of the oldest national establishments in the region. The postal service celebrated its new identity by emerging as “SPL” on April 29, 2021, to align itself with a transformation strategy and Saudi Vision 2030. In Q4 2024, Saudi Post delivered around 48 million parcels in the country. But how do they ensure deliverability throughout the Kingdom? How do Saudi businesses avoid delays, misdelivery, and return mail? 

Saudi Post solves these concerns with its latest national address system, which creates an official database with uniform address formats. This system helps businesses and government agencies improve mail deliverability, marketing campaigns, urban planning, and location intelligence. How does this new system work? Can you rely on it before dispatching mail or packages to Saudi addresses? This blog provides complete insights into Saudi Post address validation, its limitations, a better alternative, and the official Saudi Arabian address format.

Key Takeaways 

• Saudi Post provides multiple APIs to share its official address database for commercial and governmental uses. 
• It is a valuable tool for improving deliverability, user experience, location intelligence, and city planning. 
• The National Address System is a push towards modernizing and standardizing the postal infrastructure. 
• Foreign companies must register their business address with the Saudi authorities. 
• Saudi Post address verification system helps you find whether the recipient has registered with the postal service. 
• Businesses should consider the National Address System to verify electronic national address proofs. 
• Saudi Post’s address shortener service converts traditional addresses into four letters and numbers. 
• You cannot expect automation correction for address errors with Saudi Post’s solution. 
• Language differences could be a barrier for some when using Saudi Post address validation.

You Have an Incorrect or Invalid Address 

Individuals and businesses can make mistakes while writing Saudi Arabian addresses. The use of Arabic and English languages to address mail could be confusing to some users. It is common to make typos while mentioning street names, districts, or cities in the postal address. Saudi Post’s postal workers can have difficulty figuring out these mistakes and ensuring deliverability. The mail delivery is more likely to fail or be delayed if you don’t get the postal address right. 

The Delivery Location is Present in a Remote Location 

Saudi Arabia’s civilization is built on deserts, villages, and mountainous regions. Your delivery location can be remote. Saudi Post highly depends on Post Offices and Parcel Stations for successful deliveries. Postal workers might face challenges if the rural address is not registered with the official National Address System. Many rural addresses don’t have proper street addresses; they rely on landmarks instead. 

You Are Using an Invalid Postal Code 

Saudi Arabia’s new postal code system uses a numbering and coding system for all business sectors and even individuals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The codes depend on the divisions of the primary and subsidiary streets that flow through them. Using the correct postal code to deliver your mail or package to the proper location is vital. Even minute mistakes in the code may send the mail to another district, region, sector, department, or individual in the country. 

The Recipient has moved to a new Location 

It could be the most unfortunate event that your recipient moves to another address. In this case, postal workers will try to deliver the mail or package to their previous address, leading to failed and returned mail. Businesses should periodically update their address database to avoid misdeliveries and failures. Saudi residents must request a change of address to the Saudi Post. Only then will the postal service update the KSA National Address System.

• Language: Arabic is the official language of Saudi Arabia and is used to address domestic mail. English is acceptable for international mailings or packages. 
• Alignment: All Saudi addresses should be right-aligned if you are using Arabic. They will be left-aligned if you choose to use English. 
• Postal Codes: Saudi Post uses a five-digit postal code system. The first digit represents the region, the second the sector, the third the sub-sector, the fourth the division, and the fifth the individual area or building. 
• Short Addresses: Some addresses in Saudi Arabia use a shortened version to make them easier to remember. These addresses typically comprise four letters based on the postal code and four digits representing the building number. 
• Capitalization: Always capitalize Saudi Arabian addresses for better readability and postal processing.

Typical Saudi Arabian addresses have five lines, making it easier for individuals and businesses to write the complete address. You should begin writing the recipient’s full name with the appropriate title. 

Next, mention the house number and street name sequentially without using commas to separate them. We also need to add information about the dependent locality, if applicable, on the following line. The following line should have the administrative area and the respective postal code. This description level is enough to write a domestic address in Saudi Arabia. However, write “SAU” in all caps to represent Saudi Arabia for international mail. 

Here is what the format should look like: 

Your sample address would look like this: 

Restrictions with API Access 

Saudi Post address validation APIs are not publicly available for free. To get started with address validation, geocoding, and parsing, you need to consider their business, development, or unlimited plan. The postal service also caps API calls per month and second, which could be a huge barrier for companies looking for high-volume address data validation at low prices. The approval process from the Saudi Post’s side is also strict and may not allow everyone to use the API. 

Limited Coverage 

Saudi Post address validation primarily works with addresses within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Global businesses operating in multiple countries cannot expect one unified solution for address validation and standardization with Saudi Post’s API. The postal service can’t help you validate international addresses. 

No Automatic Correction for Address Errors 

KSA’s National Address System is an innovative measure to validate address information across the kingdom. It precisely describes the location, building number, secondary number, short address, district, city, and postal code. 

The secondary number provides accurate location coordinates when your address has no street or district name. However, Saudi Post doesn’t help you with autocorrection if you make typos or formatting mistakes while inputting data into their system. Anyone unfamiliar with Saudi Arabian addresses might make these errors while trying to validate addresses. In such cases, the Saudi Post address validation system might reject your entries instead of suggesting a valid correction. 

Lack of Real-Time Change of Address Updates

The National Address System requires individuals and businesses to provide accurate postal address information to communicate with government agencies and improve delivery speeds. However, the verification process takes time and involves paperwork from the officials. Businesses looking for the most recent address changes won’t be able to obtain the latest data. Saudi Post address validation could be unreliable for people who have recently moved to another location. We must rely on multiple credible sources to gather updated address information.  

Language Inconsistencies 

Language could be another barrier to Saudi Post address validation. International mailings predominantly use English to write the addresses, but domestic mail widely relies on Arabic. The native script of Arabic letters is entirely different from English. It might lead to language inconsistencies or confusion while validating Saudi Arabian addresses. Your results also depend on your inputs when using Saudi Post’s system. 

 Also Read: Top Bulk Batch Address Verification Services

As you’ve read, the Saudi Post’s National Address System is a remarkable system that makes traditional addresses uniform, helping individuals and businesses validate addresses. However, it only covers Saudi Arabian addresses and doesn’t provide auto-correction suggestions. People unfamiliar with the country might make mistakes when typing the input to validate addresses. Businesses also have a limited scope of validation with their official APIs. It would be unfair to wait for a company to wait for the postal service to update the change of address information data in its database. They demand higher accuracy, flexibility, and functionality for complex use cases like marketing or location intelligence instead of only mailing operations. 

PostGrid’s Address Verification API is a comprehensive, scalable solution for businesses to validate, standardize, parse, and update addresses according to local postal standards. It gives you more freedom to use APIs in different business applications, including CRMs, ERPs, ecommerce platforms, websites, mobile apps, and more. The transliteration feature is also available to make converting English characters into Arabic script easier for maximum validation accuracy. Integrate the API with your favourite tool and forget about correcting inputs; we provide real-time, validated suggestions to make the validation process easier. 

Talk to our sales team for more details on how to use PostGrid’s Address Verification API to validate Saudi Arabian addresses!