Messaging automation for businesses in Saudi Arabia

Meta prices messages to +966 numbers on its Saudi Arabia line and publishes a rate card in SAR. That does not change Slide's billing: the plan is in US dollars and per-message charges come from the prepaid wallet, where the exact price for your account is shown.

Businesses outside the Kingdom need to watch one rate in particular. When a business based abroad sends authentication templates, such as one-time passwords, to Saudi numbers at high volume (750,000 outside the service window in a rolling 30 days), Meta charges a higher authentication-international rate. Cost sign-in and verification flows for Saudi customers on that rate if they are sent from abroad.

Templates can be written in Arabic, the Kingdom's official language, or in English, and Meta approves each one before it can be sent. Inside the 24-hour window you and your customers can write in any language. The AI agent answers in Arabic only when its instructions say so. Slide includes WhatsApp business calling, but how calls behave for Saudi consumers has not been verified for this page, so it is not offered here.

The Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST) publishes Regulations for Curbing Spam Messages and Calls (Decision 493/1444, 2022). Their consent and sending-hour details were not read in full for this site and are not summarised here; read them, or ask your adviser, before running promotional campaigns. Market detail is on WhatsApp automation in Saudi Arabia.

No Saudi rule specific to Instagram messages was verified, so Instagram in Saudi Arabia is answered here rather than on its own page. The PDPL covers the people who become contacts through Instagram, as it does on every channel.

What Slide does on Instagram: reply to comments on chosen posts with a public reply and one private DM within Meta's 7-day limit, answer DMs, story replies and live comments with keyword rules or an AI agent, ask quick-reply questions, and capture an email address into the contact. What it does not do: story-mention triggers, broadcasts, or any message after the 24-hour window.

One route Slide supports is moving a buyer from an Instagram comment into a WhatsApp conversation, where templates can follow up later; the published Newport case study describes that workflow, though it says nothing about Saudi customers. See Instagram automation for setup.

This site has not verified the Saudi rules that apply specifically to marketing email. What the PDPL's Article 25 and the CST spam regulations require of a promotional email could not be read from the official texts, so there is no Saudi email automation page yet, and this section does not tell you what those rules demand.

What is verified is how Slide handles email anywhere. You send from your own authenticated domain; campaigns add a one-click unsubscribe and suppress hard bounces and complaints; sequences carry an unsubscribe line and skip unsubscribed, suppressed and bounced addresses. The automation "send email" step does neither, so it suits receipts and confirmations only. Check the Saudi rules with an adviser before you send marketing email to Saudi addresses; email automation covers the setup.

Slide charges for the plan, not for the market: a workspace created with a Saudi or other non-Indian number pays in US dollars. Plans and prices are on the pricing page, every paid plan starts with a 14-day trial, and the Slide team should confirm the payment method before you subscribe.

Meta charges each WhatsApp message to a +966 number at the Saudi Arabia rate for its category, and Slide takes it from your prepaid wallet. Marketing, utility and authentication templates are priced differently, and since 1 October 2026 service replies beyond the first 1,000 each month per number are charged at the utility rate. Authentication templates sent at high volume from abroad may fall under the higher authentication-international rate.