She spent the war as a flotilla leader, conducting raids and patrols in the narrow waters of the Adriatic Sea.

Saida was tasked with provoking a final fleet confrontation in June 1918, but the attack was called off after the dreadnought battleship SMS Szent Istvan was sunk by an Italian motor torpedo boat.

During the operation, Saida, her sister Helgoland, the cruisers Admiral Spaun and Szigetvár, and nine destroyers provided a screen against a possible Italian counterattack, which did not materialize.

[5] In late 1915, the Austro-Hungarian Navy began a series of raids against the merchant ships supplying Allied forces in Serbia and Montenegro.

On the night of 22 November 1915, Saida, Helgoland, and the 1st Torpedo Division raided the Albanian coast and sank a pair of Italian transports carrying flour.

[7] In May 1917, captain Miklós Horthy planned a major raid on the drifters of the Otranto Barrage, using a force composed of the three Novara-class cruisers.

As the sounds from the diversionary attack were heard, the drifters released their nets and began to head towards the Strait of Otranto.

They were intercepted shortly afterward by a stronger group of two British light cruisers, Bristol and Dartmouth, escorted by four Italian destroyers.

Dartmouth opened fire with her 6-inch (152 mm) guns at a range of 10,600 yards (9,700 m) and Horthy ordered his ships to lay a smoke screen several minutes later.

Horthy called for reinforcements that came in the form of the armored cruiser Sankt Georg, which sortied with two destroyers and four torpedo boats.

[10] The heavy smoke nearly caused the three Austrian cruisers to collide, but it covered them from the fire from the British ships as they closed the range.

Saida, Admiral Spaun, and four torpedo boats were to have attacked the seaplane base at Otranto to draw out the Allied fleet.

[14] On 3 November 1918, the Austro-Hungarian government signed the Armistice of Villa Giusti with Italy, ending their participation in the conflict.