The study translated and validated the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) in Arabic to help healthcare providers in Algeria identify individuals with social media addiction. A cross-sectional study involving 757 Algerian university students (485 females, mean age = 21.41 years) completed the BSMAS, the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D). Confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch analysis supported a unidimensional factor structure for the BSMAS, with acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.74, ω = 0.78) and adequate factor loadings and item-total correlations. The Arabic BSMAS was found to be measurement invariant across gender and significantly associated with the CES-D and SWLS. The study demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties of the Arabic BSMAS, highlighting its utility for assessing problematic social media use in Arabic-speaking populations.The study translated and validated the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) in Arabic to help healthcare providers in Algeria identify individuals with social media addiction. A cross-sectional study involving 757 Algerian university students (485 females, mean age = 21.41 years) completed the BSMAS, the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D). Confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch analysis supported a unidimensional factor structure for the BSMAS, with acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.74, ω = 0.78) and adequate factor loadings and item-total correlations. The Arabic BSMAS was found to be measurement invariant across gender and significantly associated with the CES-D and SWLS. The study demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties of the Arabic BSMAS, highlighting its utility for assessing problematic social media use in Arabic-speaking populations.