Are VPNs legal in Kuwait, and the rest of the Gulf? The six-country table
The previous version of this page said Kuwait blocks VoIP services and some social media, recommended checking a VPN's encryption, and left it there. The VoIP claim no longer holds, WhatsApp calls work in Kuwait, and the page never answered the question its own readers were typing, which the search data shows plainly: is a VPN legal in Kuwait, and in the neighbours. We also had two sibling pages asking the same question about Saudi Arabia and the UAE with the same generic answers. This page replaces all three with one table, statute by statute.
The short answer: using a VPN is legal in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain. Oman is the region's one exception. The famous UAE fine punishes hiding your IP address to commit a crime, not the VPN itself. The details, with a source per row, are below.
Are VPNs legal in Kuwait and the rest of the Gulf?
| Country | Using a VPN | The statute people fear | What it actually punishes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kuwait | Legal. No statute names VPNs, no authorization needed. | Cybercrime Law No. 63 of 2015, in force January 12, 2016 | Unauthorized access, fraud and prohibited content, whatever tool is used. The regulator CITRA orders internet providers to block websites; the duty sits on the providers. | Cybercrime Law No. 63, Council of Europe |
| Saudi Arabia | Legal. No VPN law, no penalty for use. | Anti-Cyber Crime Law of March 26, 2007 | What you do or access: hacking, fraud, and content against public order or morals. The filtering run by the CST blocks sites, including the websites of Tor and several VPN providers, but no rule reaches the user of a VPN. | Law text, MCIT, Freedom House |
| United Arab Emirates | Legal. Misuse is what is punished. | Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021, Article 10 | Using a false IP address "for the purpose of committing a crime or preventing its discovery": 500,000 to 2 million dirhams and possible imprisonment. Intent to commit or hide a crime is an element of the offense. | Law text, UAE Legislation, Gulf News |
| Qatar | Legal. The cybercrime law does not mention VPNs. | Cybercrime Prevention Law No. 14 of 2014 | Hacking, fraud, and content offenses. Filtering of adult content, gambling and some calling features is done by the operators under the regulator CRA. | Law text, Al-Meezan, CYRILLA, Comparitech |
| Bahrain | Legal, in a heavily filtered network. | None targeting VPNs | Since 2016 all operators must use a centralized website-blocking system run by the regulator TRA, aimed mainly at political and news sites. Some VPN websites are among the blocked; using a VPN is not an offense. | Freedom House |
| Oman | The region's exception: restricted without authorization. | Telecommunications regulatory framework, applied by the TRA | The TRA prohibits unauthorized VPN use and unlicensed encryption of telecom traffic; organisations can apply for approval. The regulator publicly warned against unauthorized VPN use again in July 2026. I found no published case of a visitor prosecuted for ordinary use. | Riyadh Al-Balushi, SAMENA |
Count the rows and the pattern is the opposite of the region's reputation. Five of the six states place no rule at all on the person using a VPN. The one headline number, the UAE's 2 million dirhams, sits in a provision whose offense is committing or concealing a crime behind a false IP address, and the one true restriction, Oman's, is an administrative authorization regime enforced by a telecom regulator, not a criminal ban with prison attached. A VPN is legal to use in five of the six Gulf states; what Gulf law regulates is almost never the tunnel, but what a person does through it.
Why does everyone in the Gulf use a VPN for calls?
The everyday driver of Gulf VPN use is not politics but the price of a phone call. Internet calling is a licensed telecom service in most of the region, and the licensing decisions differ sharply by country.
| Country | WhatsApp and FaceTime calls | The rule behind it | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kuwait | Work normally as of 2026 | No active block. A 2023 regulator tender for a national gateway drew criticism in parliament as a possible WhatsApp-blocking tool; the government withdrew it that October. | GDN |
| Saudi Arabia | Work since the ban was lifted | The regulator lifted the blanket VoIP ban on September 20, 2017 for apps meeting regulatory requirements. | TechCrunch |
| United Arab Emirates | Blocked | Voice over the internet is a regulated service under the TDRA's VoIP policy; only licensed operators and approved apps such as BOTIM may carry calls. | FreJun, Simology |
| Qatar | Calling features partly restricted | Since 2008 personal VoIP use is lawful, but only the two licensed operators may sell voice services, and operators filter some app calling features. | Internet in Qatar |
| Oman | Restricted | VoIP is limited to licensed services; the same authorization regime that covers VPNs applies. | TNW |
| Bahrain | Work | No standing ban on internet calls; Bahrain's filtering effort goes into websites instead, through the TRA's centralized blocking system. | Freedom House |
This table explains the search data better than any censorship story. The UAE, the Gulf state with the most expats calling home, is the one that still filters the calls, and that is why "VPN in Dubai" queries dwarf the rest of the region. Two of the six countries changed direction in the last decade, Saudi Arabia by opening calling in 2017 and Kuwait by quietly not building the block its regulator priced in 2023. A word of honesty the sales pages skip: using a VPN to place a call the operator filters does not change the licensing rules, and in the UAE the workaround everyone uses remains a workaround.
How did the Gulf's VPN rules get here?
| Date | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| March 26, 2007 | Saudi Arabia enacts the Anti-Cyber Crime Law, still the basis of its online enforcement. It never mentions VPNs. | MCIT |
| July 2008 | Qatar legalizes personal VoIP use while reserving the sale of voice services to its two licensed operators. | Internet in Qatar |
| 2010 | Oman's TRA sets out its restriction on private VPN use, with an approval route for institutions, the Gulf's only VPN-specific regime. | TNW, Riyadh Al-Balushi |
| September 15, 2014 | Qatar enacts the Cybercrime Prevention Law, No. 14 of 2014. | Al-Meezan, CYRILLA |
| January 12, 2016 | Kuwait's Cybercrime Law No. 63 of 2015 comes into force, criticised by rights groups for its content offenses. No VPN provision. | Cybercrime Law No. 63 |
| 2016 | The UAE raises the fine for fraudulent IP use to 500,000 to 2 million dirhams, and Bahrain's TRA orders all operators onto its centralized website-blocking system. | Al Tamimi, Freedom House Bahrain |
| September 20, 2017 | Saudi Arabia lifts its blanket VoIP ban for apps meeting regulatory requirements, ending the region's biggest calling block. | TechCrunch |
| January 2, 2022 | The UAE's Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021 takes effect, carrying the current Article 10 wording on IP-address fraud. | UAE Legislation, Legal 500 |
| September 2023 | Kuwaiti MPs criticise a CITRA tender for a national electronic gateway that could suspend WhatsApp calls and expand traffic inspection. CITRA denies a surveillance aim and the government withdraws the tender in October. | Arab Times, US State Department |
| 2024 | Freedom House documents Saudi blocking of the Tor website and major VPN providers' websites, while use of the tools stays routine. | Freedom House |
| June 1, 2026 | Oman enacts a new cybercrime law by Royal Decree 61/2026, the region's newest statute and the one to watch for changes to the VPN rule. | Royal Decree 61/2026, TechOman |
| July 2026 | Oman's TRA publicly warns against unauthorized VPN use, reaffirming the authorization regime. | SAMENA |
Twelve rows, and the direction of travel splits by decade. The 2007 to 2016 wave built the statute books, cybercrime laws in four countries, the UAE's IP-fraud fine and Bahrain's centralized filter. Since 2017 the region has mostly loosened where money pointed, Saudi calling opened, Kuwait declined to build its block, while tightening only at the edges. No Gulf state has moved toward an outright consumer VPN ban in the decade this table covers, and Oman, the strictest, has enforced with warnings rather than prosecutions of individuals.
What should a resident or visitor actually do?
Read the row for your country, then treat the VPN as what it is in Gulf law almost everywhere: an unregulated security tool whose legal risk comes from conduct, not connection. On public Wi-Fi in a mall or airport, the case for encrypting your traffic is the same as anywhere. For calls, the table above tells you which rules you are working around, and that the rules bind the operators and app providers rather than you, everywhere except Oman. Our country pages for Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cover the practical side per country, and our table of retention laws in 16 jurisdictions shows how data retention rules compare globally. Le VPN has server locations in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman and Bahrain among servers in more than 100 locations, with 10 simultaneous connections and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
What changes next?
- Oman's new cybercrime law. Royal Decree 61/2026 is the newest statute in the region. Whether its implementing rules restate, tighten or drop the VPN authorization regime is the open question for 2027.
- Kuwait's gateway. The 2023 national-gateway tender was withdrawn in October 2023 after the parliamentary criticism, but the regulator described the gateway as an existing and extended project. A re-issued tender would be the signal of a future VoIP block.
- UAE licensing. Every few years the TDRA adds apps to the approved calling list. A WhatsApp license would end the region's biggest VPN use case overnight; none has been announced.
- Saudi filtering lists. Freedom House's next report is the check on whether VPN provider websites move on or off the Saudi blocklist.
About the author
Le VPN Blog Editor
Alan Summers has been writing and editing for the Le VPN blog for years, covering online privacy, cyber security, and the best ways to get the most out of a VPN. He keeps a close eye on the news that affects internet freedom around the world and turns it into practical advice for Le VPN readers.
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