Prices and rules on this page last verified: 27 August 2026
The Rawdah permit is free and booked through Nusuk. The question almost everyone arrives with is simpler than the guides make it: can I go once a year, or as often as I like?
You will find both answers stated confidently online. Both are correct. They describe two different routes, and most guides pick one without telling you the other exists.
The two doors into the Rawdah
| Route | Rule | Where you book it |
|---|---|---|
| Advance permit | Once every 365 days. Book it from home, before you travel. | Nusuk, anywhere in the world |
| Instant Path | Repeatable throughout the year, subject to capacity | Nusuk, but only while you are physically in central Madinah |
The plain rule: book the advance permit from home as your guaranteed visit. Once you are in Madinah, use Instant Path to try for more. A guide that tells you “once every 365 days” is describing the first row. A guide that tells you “no limit” is describing the second. Neither is lying; both are half the picture.
When men and women can enter
| Men | Women | |
|---|---|---|
| Daily | 02:00 until Fajr, and 11:20 until Isha | After Fajr until 11:00, and after Isha until 02:00 |
| Fridays | Adds 09:20–11:20, plus after Jumu‘ah until Isha | After Fajr until 09:00; evening unchanged |
You get ten minutes — plan for less
The Rawdah is 330 square metres, roughly 22 by 15. That is the whole reason access is rationed this tightly. The official allocation is ten minutes per visitor.
Be realistic about that ten. Pilgrims report volunteers enforcing three to nine minutes during busy periods, and one reported a slot expiring after a two-minute delay in the queue. Arrive 15 minutes before your slot and be inside the Haram 30 minutes before.
One widely-read travel site currently states that Rawdah visits “last 30–45 minutes and are strictly enforced.” The official allocation is ten minutes. If you plan around the larger number you will be moved on well before you expect it.
“No permits available” usually does not mean sold out
This is the message that causes most panic, and it is usually misread. In most cases it means slots for that date have not been released yet, not that they have gone. Release is rolling. Check daily in the run-up rather than once, a fortnight out, and concluding it is hopeless.
Other things that look like failure and are not
- The permit vanishes after booking. Usually a display issue — check the bookings section before rebooking.
- The verification code never arrives. Most often a phone number entered without the full international dialling code.
- The app fails at the busiest moment. Around Friday prayers and the popular entry windows it is under load. Try outside those hours.
If you are travelling as a couple or family
Everyone needs their own permit, including children from around age five, and men and women are admitted at different times. Look at the table above: a husband and wife will frequently be inside many hours apart, one of them in the middle of the night. Agree where and when to meet before you are outside the mosque at two in the morning trying to phone each other.
Nobody should be charging you for this
The permit is free. Any agent charging a fee to “secure” a Rawdah slot is selling you something Saudi Arabia gives away, and cannot guarantee it in any case.
What we could not verify
We have not booked a Rawdah permit ourselves. The two routes, the timings and the ten-minute allocation come from the General Authority and Saudi Press Agency; the enforcement reports come from pilgrims and are inherently anecdotal. Timings in particular are changed through the year, so the app is the authority, not this page. We date every check so you can judge how stale it is.
Booked recently? Tell us what the app actually offered — dates, timings, how far ahead slots appeared — and we will publish the pattern and credit the correction.
For account setup, the visa steps and the rest of the platform, see our Nusuk app walkthrough.