Last updated: 4 January 2025
When you are going on a trip to Saudi Arabia, be sure to pack the appropriate travel plug adapter that fits the local sockets. But what do those electrical outlets look like? In Saudi Arabia, type G plugs and sockets are the official standard. Like the rest of the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia has standardized on the British plug and outlet system.
Just like the rest of the Middle East, the voltage in Saudi Arabia is 230 volts, but for historical reasons, the frequency is 60 Hz, instead of 50 Hz.
An ungrounded plug with plastic earth pin.
Type G plugs and sockets started appearing in Britain in 1946 and the standard was first published in 1947. By the end of the 1950s, it had replaced the earlier type D and type M outlets (BS 546) in new installations in the UK, and by the end of the 1960s, most earlier installations had been rewired to the new standard.
Almost all of the UK’s former colonies have adopted one of Britain’s plug and socket standards: either the obsolete types D and/or M, or the current type G. In many cases, the countries that became independent before the introduction of the type G standard (e.g. India, Nepal, South Africa, Namibia) still use types D or M. The ones that gained their independence after 1947 (e.g. the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Kenya) were already using the type G standard and of course they simply kept the system.
Saudi Arabia was never a British colony and initially, when electricity first started making its way into people’s homes, the country standardized on American plugs (type A and B), voltage (120 V) and frequency (60 Hz). The history of development in Saudi Arabia in the 20th century is closely tied with the oil industry, and in particular with the Standard Oil Company and its former subsidiary, Aramco. It was Aramco that originally began the development of Saudi Arabia’s electrical power grid, and as it was a subsidiary of an American company at the time, Aramco used American equipment that operated at 120 volts and 60 Hz.
The problem with this was that it made Saudi Arabia a bit of an outsider: its neighbouring countries (Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq) had historical ties to Britain, so their electrical supply mostly followed British standards (230 V, 50 Hz and type G plug and socket system). In order to bring itself in line with the rest of the Middle East, Saudi Arabia decided in 2010 to switch to 230 V domestic supply and the type G plug and socket system. Since it is very costly to change the frequency as well, the decision was made to keep it at 60 Hz.
Type G wall sockets almost always include switches for extra safety. UK plugs are no doubt among the safest in the world, but also among the most hulking and cumbersome. That’s why people often make fun of them saying that a British plug is mostly bigger than the appliance it is connected to… Moreover, the bottom-heavy design of the plug makes it a perfect caltrop.
The type G standard requires use of a three-wire grounded and fused plug for all connections to the power mains. Two-wire appliances are not earthed, but they have a plastic grounding pin which only serves to open the shutters of the outlet. The lack of such an earth pin on a type C plug makes it impossible to connect it to a type G receptacle, although it can actually be forced into the socket by sticking a pointy object into the centre hole of the power outlet, which opens up the two other holes. Just to be perfectly clear, this is not a piece of advice; it’s simply an observation…
Click here for a global map showing the spread of the different plug types used around the world.
Click here for a detailed list of the countries of the world with their respective plug and outlet types, voltage and frequency.
