Saudi gift cards: Google Play, iTunes and riyal values

Saudi Arabia is a short shelf, but it's the most finely sliced one we carry. Where most regions give you five or six sizes of a card, here you get twenty-five.

The shelf

iTunes runs SAR 50 up to SAR 2,500 across 25 different sizes, which is more than anything else in the shop. Google Play covers SAR 15 to SAR 1,000 in 18. Amazon.sa is SAR 50, 100, 250 and 500, Xbox SAR 50 to SAR 300, Netflix SAR 100, 200, 300 and 500, and Roblox SAR 20 to SAR 500.

See app stores and subscriptions.

A worked example

Say an App Store total comes to SAR 275. On a shelf with five sizes you'd buy SAR 300 and leave SAR 25 stranded. Here you buy the SAR 200 and the SAR 75 and land on it exactly.

Not every total works out that neatly, but with 25 iTunes sizes and 18 Google Play ones, most get close. It's a small thing that adds up over a year.

The riyal is pegged to the dollar

Like the UAE dirham, the Saudi riyal is pegged, so the dollar price of a SAR 100 card is steady month to month in a way a lira or rand card isn't. There's no rate to beat and no reason to rush a purchase.

Which accounts this fits

A Saudi Apple ID or Google account, a Microsoft account with Saudi Arabia as its country, or a Saudi Netflix account.

An Apple ID's country can't be changed while there's balance on it, so if yours is Saudi, riyal iTunes cards are the straightforward way to keep it funded. If you're unsure about the Microsoft side, find the country on your Microsoft account is quick, and much better done before you buy than after.

One gap

There's no PlayStation card for Saudi Arabia today. If that's what you need, PlayStation by region shows where it is stocked, and the Saudi Arabia page shows everything that's here right now.