A standard is a specification, not a law
SASO publishes thousands of standards. Only those adopted into a technical regulation are mandatory, and it is the regulation — never the catalogue — that binds your shipment.
SASO Standards List & Lookup Guide
The catalogue will not tell you which one
SASO publishes thousands of standards and most of them will never apply to you. The handful that do are named by a technical regulation, the regulation is selected by your Saudi HS code, and no amount of searching the catalogue by product name reproduces that chain reliably.
Send to identify your standards:
- Saudi HS code
- Product description
- Existing test reports
The Short Version
Six things about how the numbers work
Enough to read any SASO or GSO reference you are handed and know what you are looking at.
The prefix tells you the origin
“SASO 2870” is a Saudi-authored text. “SASO IEC 60335-1” is an adopted international one. “GSO” numbers come from the Gulf Standardization Organization and apply across the GCC. Read the prefix before the number.
Editions move, and the current one governs
Every standard carries a year. Conformity bodies assess against the edition in force at the time of assessment, not the edition your report happened to be written to.
GSO and SASO overlap deliberately
Many Saudi requirements are Gulf-wide texts adopted nationally. Where both a GSO and a SASO reference exist for the same subject, the technical regulation names which one applies.
Several standards per product is normal
Safety, electromagnetic compatibility, energy efficiency and marking are usually separate texts. A quotation citing a single standard usually means only one of them has been read.
A list is not a lookup
No catalogue of numbers can tell you which applies to you. The Saudi HS code selects the technical regulation, and the regulation names the standards. That chain is the only reliable route.
The Distinction
Standard, or regulation
Conflating these two is the single most common misunderstanding in Saudi certification, and it is the reason standards lists get bought when assessments were needed.
A SASO standard
- A technical specification: methods, limits, construction, marking
- Published in a catalogue that anyone can search
- Voluntary in itself — on its own it binds nothing
- Carries a number and an edition year
- May be Saudi-authored, GSO-adopted or an adopted IEC or ISO text
- Tells a laboratory what to test and how to test it
A Saudi technical regulation
- A legal instrument that makes named standards mandatory
- Selected by the Saudi HS code, not by the product’s name
- Sets the conformity assessment scheme and the evidence required
- Names the standards, their editions and any national deviations
- Decides whether a product certificate, a declaration or nothing applies
- This is what your certificate is actually raised against
By Family
Where the regulated standards cluster
Eight families cover most of what exporters meet. This is orientation rather than a lookup — your own schedule still comes from the regulation.
Electrical & electronic safety
Largely adopted IEC texts — the SASO IEC 60335 appliance series, 62368 for IT and audio-video, 60598 for luminaires, 61010 for laboratory and measurement equipment.
Electromagnetic compatibility
Adoptions of the CISPR and IEC 61000 families. Assessed separately from safety, on a separate report, and the single most frequently omitted item at quotation.
Energy efficiency
Saudi-authored texts with their own test methods and label artwork, covering air conditioners, refrigeration, washing machines, lighting and tyres.
Building & construction materials
Cement, reinforcing steel, insulation, glass, sanitary ware, cables and pipes — many carrying Saudi-specific durability and climate requirements not found elsewhere.
Vehicles & parts
Tyres, brake friction material, lighting, safety glass, batteries and filters, mostly GSO texts adopted nationally with their own marking and traceability rules.
Chemicals & petroleum products
Lubricants, paints, detergents and fuels, with composition and labelling limits that diverge sharply from other markets and are tested rather than declared.
Packaging, marking & labelling
Arabic content, units of measure, country of origin and shelf-life presentation, applied on top of whatever the product standard already requires.
Toys, PPE & child safety
GSO toy safety and personal protective equipment texts, with age grading and chemical migration limits established by laboratory test rather than by declaration.
The Lookup
Five steps from a code to a standards list
In this order. Skipping the first step and starting at the catalogue is what produces the lists we spend most of our time correcting.
Start from the Saudi HS code
Not the product name, and not the code used at origin. Saudi classification at the level the customs tariff uses is what the regulations are indexed against, and everything downstream inherits an error here.
Find the technical regulation
The code maps to a regulation, or to nothing at all. A product outside every regulation is non-regulated and needs no product certificate — a result worth holding in writing, because it settles arguments at the port.
Read the schedule of standards it names
The regulation carries its own schedule, with editions. That schedule is your standards list. A general catalogue search is not a substitute for it and regularly contradicts it.
Check the edition in force
Compare the schedule against the editions your existing reports were written to. A standard that has moved an edition is the most common reason perfectly good evidence stops being usable.
Confirm laboratory scope, standard by standard
Each named standard has to appear in an accredited laboratory’s scope. One standard nobody accessible is accredited for changes both the plan and the timeline, and it is far cheaper to learn now.
Verification
What to check on every reference
Eight checks on a standards list before anyone books a laboratory against it. Each one costs minutes now and weeks later.
- The reference carries a prefix — SASO, GSO or SASO IEC/ISO — and not a bare number
- The edition year matches the one the technical regulation names
- The standard is current, rather than withdrawn or superseded
- Where both a GSO and a SASO text exist, you are citing the one named
- National deviations to an adopted IEC or ISO text have been identified
- Every regulated aspect has a standard: safety, EMC, energy, marking
- Each standard appears in the accreditation scope of your chosen laboratory
- The standard’s own scope clause genuinely covers your product type
Worked Example
Eleven numbers, five that counted
A pump manufacturer arriving with a list of eleven SASO numbers collected from suppliers over three years.
The list was checked
Of eleven references, four had been withdrawn, two were GSO texts quoted under SASO numbers, and one did not correspond to any published standard at all.
The code was run instead
Two Saudi HS codes placed the range under a single technical regulation carrying a schedule of five standards — three of which had never appeared on the original list.
Editions reconciled
Existing reports covered three of the five at the correct edition. One had moved an edition since testing, and one had never been tested at all.
Scope confirmed
All five appeared in the accredited scope of one laboratory, which collapsed what had looked like three separate programmes into a single booking.
Certified
One product certificate raised against the regulation’s actual schedule, and the eleven-number list retired before it could mislead anyone else.
Avoid These
Where standards lists go wrong
Six failures that turn a confident-looking list of references into a wasted testing programme.
A withdrawn edition, quoted with confidence
A number pulled from an old report or a three-year-old supplier email. It reads as authoritative on a quotation and buys nothing whatsoever at technical review.
Searching the catalogue by product name
Standard titles are written by committees, not by marketers. The nearest-sounding title is regularly the wrong text, which is why the HS code is the only reliable index.
One standard treated as the whole requirement
Safety cited, EMC and energy quietly ignored. They are separate texts with separate reports, and the certificate needs each one the regulation calls for.
GSO and SASO references mixed in one file
The same requirement cited under both numbers on different documents, leaving the conformity body unable to establish which text was actually tested against.
An adopted IEC text assumed identical
SASO adoptions can carry national deviations. Testing to the base international text and reporting it as the Saudi standard leaves a gap that surfaces at review.
A standard nobody accessible is accredited for
The reference is right and no laboratory within reach holds it in scope. Found at classification this is a scheduling question; found after sampling it is a rebooking.
Keep Going
Related pages
The code that selects the regulation, the assessment that writes it down, and the file the standards ultimately produce.
FAQs
Standards questions
Numbering, editions, GSO overlap, and what to do when the catalogue comes back empty.
Where can I find the official SASO standards list?
SASO maintains a public standards catalogue, and the Gulf Standardization Organization maintains its own for GSO texts. Both are searchable, and neither will tell you which standards are mandatory for your product. That comes from the technical regulation selected by your Saudi HS code, which carries its own schedule of standards and editions. Use the catalogue to read a standard you have already identified, not to identify it.
How do I find the SASO standard for my product?
Work from the Saudi HS code to the technical regulation, then read the schedule of standards the regulation names. Searching the catalogue by product name is the common approach and the unreliable one — standard titles are written by technical committees and the nearest-sounding title is frequently the wrong text.
What is the difference between a SASO standard and a technical regulation?
A standard is a specification: test methods, limits, construction and marking requirements. It is voluntary in itself. A technical regulation is the legal instrument that makes named standards mandatory for a given range of HS codes, sets the conformity assessment scheme and states what evidence is required. Your certificate is raised against the regulation; the standards are what the laboratory tests to.
What does the SASO in “SASO IEC 60335-1” mean?
It marks a Saudi adoption of an international text. The technical content comes from the IEC standard, and the adoption may add national deviations reflecting Saudi supply conditions, climate or regulation. Testing to the base IEC text without reading the deviations is one of the more common ways a good report falls short.
Do GSO standards apply in Saudi Arabia?
Many do. GSO texts are Gulf-wide and are widely adopted into Saudi technical regulations, particularly for vehicles, toys, PPE and a range of consumer goods. Where both a GSO and a SASO reference exist for the same subject, the regulation names which one governs, and citing the other on your documents creates an avoidable query.
How often do SASO standards change?
Continuously, though not uniformly. Adopted IEC and ISO texts move when the parent standard moves, which for electrical safety can be every few years. Saudi-authored energy efficiency standards have historically been revised more actively than most. The practical rule is to verify the edition at the start of every certification cycle rather than assuming last year’s reference still holds.
How many standards will my product need?
Usually more than one. Safety, electromagnetic compatibility, energy efficiency and marking are separate texts with separate reports where each is regulated. A regulated electrical appliance commonly needs three or four. A single reference on a quotation is a reliable sign that only part of the regulation has been read.
Can I test to an equivalent international standard instead?
Only where the regulation permits it, and then only as evidence rather than as a substitute. Where the Saudi text is an adoption of the international one, existing testing usually covers most of it and the national deviations become a short delta. Where the Saudi text is authored locally — most energy efficiency requirements, for example — there is no equivalent to fall back on.
My product is not in the standards catalogue. Does that mean it is unregulated?
Not on its own. Absence from a catalogue search proves very little, because the search depends on the title you guessed. Non-regulated status is established from the HS code against the current regulations, and it is worth obtaining in writing — a shipment certificate is still raised for non-regulated goods, and the classification is what supports it.
Do I need to buy the standard itself?
You rarely need to. The laboratory testing to it holds it, and the conformity body assessing the report holds it. Buying a copy is useful when you are designing to the requirement rather than demonstrating against it — for construction detail, marking content or rating plate data that has to be right before tooling is cut.
Get the standards that actually apply
Send the Saudi HS code and a product description. We return the technical regulation, the standards it names, the editions in force and whether an accredited laboratory holds each one in scope.