Prince Albert is the third largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada, after Saskatoon and Regina. It is situated near the geographic centre of the province on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River. Often simply referred to as P. A., the city is also known as the "Gateway to the North" since it is the northernmost major urban centre in the province and serves as somewhat of a hub between Saskatchewan's northern communities and larger communities in the south. Prince Albert National Park is located 51 kilometres (32 mi) north of the city and contains a wealth of lakes, forest, and wildlife. The city itself is located in a transition zone between the aspen parkland and boreal forest biomes. Prince Albert is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Prince Albert No. 461, of which it is the seat, but is politically separate.

The area was named kistahpinanihk by the Cree, which translates to "sitting pretty place", "great meeting place" or "meeting place".

The first trading post set up in the area was built in 1776 by Peter Pond. James Isbister, an Anglo-Métis employee of the Hudson's Bay Company, settled on the site of the current city in 1862. He farmed there until 1866, and had been joined by a number of families who called the site Isbister's Settlement.

The community received a boost in 1866 when Reverend James Nisbet, a Canada Presbyterian Church minister arrived to establish a mission for the Cree. Nisbet named the mission after Albert, Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria, who had died in 1861, from whom the present city derives its name. In 1879, the Presbyterian Church brought out Lucy Margaret Baker to run the local mission school. During the same year, the local Freemasons established the first lodge in what is now the province of Saskatchewan: Kinistino Lodge No. 1, which still exists. "The Mission", the settlement centrally located, and "Porter Town", located to the west, were the two communities that would come together to form what is now Prince Albert. The settlement east of Prince Albert was termed Goschen before finally amalgamated, however East Prince Albert still appears on a 1924 map.

In 1884, Honore Jaxon and James Isbister were involved in the movement which brought Louis Riel back to Canada. Riel returned from the United States following a political exile resulting from the Red River Rebellion that had occurred in 1869–1870. Five hundred people gathered to hear Riel speak one month after his return.

In the North-West Rebellion of the 1885, Prince Albert Volunteers bore the heaviest casualties of the fighting at the Battle of Duck Lake. Surrounding settlers took refuge with the North-West Mounted Police in a hastily improvised stockade at Prince Albert, fearing an attack by Gabriel Dumont, which never came. After the Battle of Batoche, Major General Frederick Middleton marched to Prince Albert to relieve the town. Prince Albert, with a population of about 800 people, was incorporated as a town the same year under its first mayor, Thomas McKay. In 1904, the settlement was incorporated as the City of Prince Albert. Its government is of a council-mayor type.

Prince Albert was the capital of the District of Saskatchewan, a regional administrative division of what then constituted the North-West Territories. The District of Saskatchewan was formed on May 8, 1882, and named Prince Albert as its capital. This ended in 1905 when Saskatchewan became a province and Regina was designated the new provincial capital.

Prince Albert was one of the rival candidates to house either the University of Saskatchewan or the Saskatchewan Federal Penitentiary. The university was built in Saskatoon and the penitentiary was built in Prince Albert in 1911.