Background: stress may be experienced by college students especially medical students because they have several psychological and academic stressors. Due to the increase in stress the depression prevalence increases. There are several factors for depression including gender. Assessing depression between medical students is very important for early treatment as a lack in treatment leads to poor outcomes.                                                                                                                Aim: To investigate the prevalence rate of depression in medical students in KSA. Methods: this study was performed on 1171 medical students from different years of college; the PHQ-9 questionnaire was used. Results: low rates were found for the depressive syndrome and depressive disorder with equal rates for moderate and severe symptoms, females expressed more depression severity than males. Conclusion: depression prevalence rate was low between medical students and females expressed more depression and depressive symptoms than males.