Who regulates this now
The permit comes from the National Media Authority (NMA). Federal Decree-Law No. 11 of 2025 created the NMA and handed it the functions of the UAE Media Council, the National Media Office and WAM. The change was announced on 18 December 2025 and the law took effect on 1 January 2026. If an older guide, contract template or agency deck tells you to apply to the "UAE Media Council", read that as NMA. The NMA's own pages confirm the handover.
The rules underneath did not change with the name. The Media Law is Federal Decree-Law 55/2023, its executive regulation is Cabinet Resolution 68/2024, advertiser rules sit in Resolution 9/2024, fees in Cabinet Resolution 41/2025 and penalties in Cabinet Resolution 42/2025, as Bird & Bird and UAE Expert Hub lay out.
Who needs an Advertiser Permit
You need one if you are an individual who promotes a brand, product, service or event on social media from the UAE. Payment form does not matter. According to the NMA FAQ as summarised by UAE Expert Hub, the permit covers:
- paid posts, stories and reels;
- barter: a free dinner, a hotel night or a product in exchange for a post;
- promo codes and affiliate or commission links;
- free promotion of someone else's business;
- real estate brokers advertising their agency's listings, even as employees.
The grace period ended on 31 January 2026, so the permit has been mandatory since 1 February 2026. Pinsent Masons reported the same deadline.
Who does not need one
The same summary lists three exemptions:
- a business owner promoting their own business;
- an employee promoting their employer (brokers excluded, see above);
- a creator who publishes no advertising at all, for example purely educational or entertainment content.
Audience matters too. A UAE resident who advertises something only to a foreign audience is not required to hold the permit. If the audience is in the UAE, the permit applies.
What it costs: permit plus licence
The permit fee is the small part. For citizens and residents the NMA lists the permit as free for the first three years, then an AED 1,000 service fee. Pinsent Masons reports the same AED 1,000 from year four, with a caveat most guides drop: in its reading, the three free years were promised to citizens and residents who registered before the 31 January 2026 deadline. If you apply now, check the fee shown on the portal before you count on it.
The permit, however, has to sit on top of an economic licence for e-media activity, issued by a mainland authority or a free zone (UAE Expert Hub). That licence is the real annual cost. Prices published for 2026:
| Licence route | Published price | Notes | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| SHAMS (Sharjah Media City), media package, no visa | from AED 5,760 a year | up to 5 media activities, flexi desk; about AED 12,810 in year one with an investor visa | agency calculator |
| GoFreelance (Dubai Media City, Internet City, d3, Knowledge Park) | AED 7,520 (AED 7,500 + AED 20) | AED 14,542 in year one with establishment card and 2-year visa, before medical, Emirates ID and insurance | press and agency |
| Abu Dhabi freelance licence (ADDED via TAMM) | about AED 1,425 all lines | single small-outlet figure | low |
| RAKEZ Freelancer Permit | from AED 6,100 | media and education only | low |
| DMCC FreelanceUAE | AED 4,020 without visa | visa packages paused | low |
The prices above come from setup agencies and smaller outlets, not from the free zones' official tariff sheets. Use them to compare routes, then get a quote from the authority you pick.
The real first-year bill, worked out
Add the pieces nobody lists together. A resident creator who already has a visa through an employer or a spouse, going the cheapest widely available route:
| Item | AED |
|---|---|
| SHAMS media licence, no visa | 5,760 |
| Good conduct certificate, Dubai Police (AED 50 via MOI in other emirates) | 220 |
| NMA Advertiser Permit, years 1–3 | 0 |
| Total, year one | about 5,980 |
A creator who also needs the licence to carry a residence visa lands near AED 14,800 on the GoFreelance route (AED 14,542 plus the certificate) before medical, Emirates ID and insurance. From year four add AED 1,000 for the permit. These are sums of published figures, not quotes.
Two running costs come with the permit. The NMA's list of permit-holder duties includes registering for VAT and corporate tax where the law requires it (UAE Expert Hub), so once advertising income is regular, budget for an accountant too.
You may still see a figure of AED 15,000 for a "National Media Council" licence to earn money on social media. The National reported it in February 2025, before the current permit regime. Treat it as history.
How to apply
The process, as summarised from the NMA FAQ:
- Get the e-media trade licence first (mainland or free zone).
- Apply on the NMA e-services portal (the old uaemc portal). The form takes around 12 minutes.
- Upload your Emirates ID, passport, trade licence and a list of every social account you will advertise from.
- Complete the mandatory training.
- Wait for a decision, typically within 3 working days.
Eligibility: you must be 18 or older, have full legal capacity, have no convictions for fraud and owe nothing to the regulator. You also need a good conduct certificate: AED 220 from Dubai Police, AED 50 from the Ministry of Interior in other emirates.
After you get it
- The permit is valid for 1 year. If you do not renew within 30 days of expiry, it is cancelled.
- Report changes to your accounts within 10 working days.
- Show the permit number on your profile or in the ad, in the format "Ad Permit: 65834".
- Advertise only from registered accounts. You cannot hand the account to someone else.
Sources: UAE Expert Hub, Gulf News.
Visitors and minors
A creator visiting the UAE needs a Visitor Advertiser Permit. It lasts 3 months, costs AED 500 and can be extended to 6 at most. Our visitor permit guide covers the agency side in detail. The visitor cannot apply alone: an accredited agency files the application. At the start of 2026 there were four accredited agencies: Xpozed LLC, New Media Academy, Imfluence Digital Marketing LLC and The Agency 971 (UAE Expert Hub). The list may have grown since, so check with the NMA.
Children can appear in commercial advertising only with a permit and through a licence held in the guardian's name.
What brands and agencies must check
The permit is the influencer's obligation, but brands carry risk too. Pinsent Masons and Gulf News both say brands and agencies should verify the permit before a campaign. A practical checklist:
- ask for the permit number and the list of accounts it covers;
- write the permit number into the contract;
- check the expiry date against the campaign dates;
- for visitors, ask which accredited agency filed the visitor permit.
Pinsent Masons also flags that marketing agencies producing or managing ads may need their own licence. If you buy influencer campaigns through an agency, ask for its licence too.
Some sectors need a second approval before anything goes live. Article 33 of the Media Law executive regulation requires sector sign-off for healthcare, finance, real estate, education and food advertising. In Dubai that means, for example, a Trakheesi permit for property ads and DHA rules for clinics. The same article bans advertising for alcohol, tobacco and smoking; see our guide on alcohol, shisha and tobacco ads.
Fines, read from the resolution itself
The penalties sit in Cabinet Resolution 42/2025; the NMA hosts the Arabic original. Secondary sources disagree because they quote different rows of the same table. Here are the rows that matter to creators and brands:
| Row | Violation | 1st time | 2nd time | 3rd time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Advertising on social media without a permit (paid or unpaid) | written warning | AED 20,000 | AED 50,000, doubled on repeat |
| 12 | Advertising after the permit expired | AED 10,000 | AED 20,000 | doubled on repeat |
| 13 | Breaching the permit conditions (Chairman's Resolution 9/2024) | warning | AED 10,000 | |
| 14 | Ad without the sector authority's approval | AED 10,000 | doubled | |
| 15 | Breaching the Article 33 advertising conditions | AED 20,000 | AED 50,000 | doubled on repeat |
| 1 | Media activity without a licence | AED 10,000, 30 days to fix | AED 40,000 | closure until fixed |
| 2 | Activity not listed on the licence | AED 5,000 | AED 16,000 | closure until fixed |
| 3 | Licence not renewed 30 days after expiry | AED 150 a day, capped at AED 3,000 |
Gulf News quoted row 1 (AED 10,000, then 40,000) as the influencer fine; Bird & Bird quoted row 11 and gave AED 10,000 for Article 33, which in the text belongs to row 14. The full table, with the 20 content standards, is in our media fines guide.
For the overall ceiling, UAE Expert Hub puts the maximum at AED 1 million, or AED 2 million for a repeat within a year, plus closure for up to 6 months or licence withdrawal, and notes that the regime applies in free zones too. Bird & Bird lists content against religion at up to AED 1,000,000 and content against the state at up to AED 500,000.
Enforcement has started. On 12 October 2026 a small outlet reported that the regulator fined a group of influencers for advertising without a licence. It did not give amounts, and we have not seen the report confirmed elsewhere.
Related rules worth knowing
- Shooting an ad in Dubai on location needs a DFTC (now the Dubai Films and Games Commission) filming permit; see filming permits in Dubai.
- A Golden Visa for creators does not replace the trade licence or the Advertiser Permit (The National).
- If you hire creators, budget the permit check into your SMM process.
