The range you'll see
Ask five providers for a feasibility study and you'll get five very different prices. Published prices in the Saudi market start at around SAR 5,000 for fixed-package studies and run to SAR 150,000 or more for large industrial projects. Listings on classified sites go lower still.
The gap isn't only margin. A SAR 5,000 study and a SAR 150,000 study are usually different products, written for different readers. The useful question isn't "what does a study cost?" but "what does the study my funder will accept cost?"
What drives the price
1. Who will read it
A study for SIDF has to follow a detailed published guideline, with a separate Excel model, five-year projections and a quarterly liquidity plan. A study for an internal board, or for a small bank facility, can be shorter. The reader sets the standard, and the standard sets most of the effort.
2. How much primary research is needed
Desk research from trade statistics and published reports is relatively quick. Supplier quotations, interviews with distributors and customers, site visits and price checks in the market take longer, and they are what turn a plausible study into a credible one.
3. Sector and technical complexity
A café or a small workshop has a simple operating model. A glass plant, a pharmaceutical line or an aquaculture farm needs process, equipment, utilities and regulatory detail that takes specialist input.
4. Number of markets and scenarios
Each target market (local, GCC, export) needs its own demand and price work. Each extra scenario, such as a second site, a phased build or a make-or-import comparison, adds modelling and writing.
5. The financial model
A few tables in a document cost little. A working Excel model with linked assumptions, debt schedules, working capital, sensitivities and a clear audit trail takes real time, and it's the part lenders test hardest.
6. Language
Delivering in both Arabic and English, rather than one, adds translation and review time for the study and the model.
7. What you already have
Existing accounts, supplier quotes, a site, a licence or an earlier study all reduce the work. Starting from an idea and a budget means more of it has to be built from scratch.
8. Support after delivery
Funders come back with questions. Whether revisions and answers to the relationship manager are included in the price makes a real difference to the total cost.
When a cheap study costs more
A template study with generic market figures can look complete and still fail at the first review. The common outcome is a request for more evidence, a rewrite, and months lost on an application while the project's costs and the owners' patience run on. For a project borrowing several million riyals, the price of the study is a small share of the cost of getting it wrong.
That doesn't mean the most expensive option is right. A small project doesn't need an industrial-grade study. It needs one written to the standard its funder actually applies.
How to compare quotes
Ask each provider the same questions, so you're comparing the same product:
- Which funder's requirements will the study follow, and have you seen them?
- Is the financial model a working Excel file with live formulas, or tables in a PDF?
- How much primary research is included, and what are the sources for demand and prices?
- Who does the work, and how much of it is reused from earlier studies?
- How many rounds of revisions are included, and do you help answer the funder's questions?
- Which language or languages is it delivered in?
- What is the timeline, and what do you need from us to keep to it?
How we price
We don't publish a price list, because the drivers above vary too much from one project to the next. We agree the funder, the scope and what you already have on a short call, then send a fixed-fee proposal for that scope. Tell us about the project and we'll come back with the questions that decide it.