The Magic Keyboard is not the disaster the butterfly keyboard was.

Nope, nowhere near as prone — but it can still get gummed up.

If you’ve heard horror stories about Apple laptop keyboards failing from a single grain of sand, that was the butterfly keyboard (2016-2019 Macs). The Magic Keyboard (introduced in 2020 with the M1 Air) uses a scissor-switch mechanism with a rubber dome. It’s way more tolerant of dust and crumbs. You’d have to be pretty careless to actually break it.

That said, common sense still applies: don’t eat a bag of chips over your keyboard, and if you notice a sticky key, blast it with compressed air at an angle. I’ve used an M1 Air for years with zero issues. The fear is mostly lingering trauma from the butterfly era.

You really don’t need a keyboard cover or any special gadget. Just keep the lid closed when you’re not using it and you’ll be fine.