Payouts for Apple's Butterfly Keyboard Lawsuits Are Finally in the Mail

Were you involved in a typing accident that left you with double keypresses or no keypress at all? Were your laptop keys sticky and/or unresponsive, in a way that left you with lasting trauma? If you were the victim of Apple's "butterfly" keyboard design on your MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro, you may be entitled to compensation. In fact, that compensation is now rolling out to victims' mailboxes-if you made a claim.

What's up with my MacBook's keyboard?

Let's clear something up quick: This situation has nothing to do with the MacBooks Apple has released in recent years. If you have a relatively new laptop from Apple, your keyboard experience is likely just fine, if not above average. However, for a period of time (roughly 2015-2019) Apple made some questionable design choices for their lineup of notebooks-namely, the butterfly keyboard.

These keyboards ditched the traditional scissor switch mechanism Apple used for its previously beloved MacBooks for a "butterfly switch," which reduced the travel distance necessary for each key press. This design allowed Apple to make all their MacBooks ultra thin, which looked good visually, but wasn't the best choice for an optimal computing experience.

But the issue with the keyboards wasn't necessarily their thinness; it was the flawed design in general. Butterfly keyboards were prone to failure, for one reason or another, that could eventually result in nothing happening when pressing the keys, repeated entries when pressing the key once ("AA" appearing when you only typed "A" one time), or the feeling of "sticky" keys, since the keys would grind against the keyboard and get stuck in place.

Apple tried fixing the keyboards with small changes, like a thin membrane underneath the keys to prevent dust and debris from getting stuck, but none of these changes worked: The design was simply too flawed. Apple even started a repair program, so affected customers could fix their keyboards for free. The problem was the repair program only lasted for four years following the retail sale of your computer, not even when you bought it. If Apple sold your computer in fall of 2016, but you bought it in 2018, the program ended in 2020 regardless.

How much can I get paid?

Enter the lawsuits: It wasn't just that Apple had sold customers a faulty keyboard; it was that the company knew the keyboards were doomed to fail, and continued to sell them anyway. Apple denies all wrongdoing, but did in the end agree to a settlement of $50 million.

If you qualify, your payment will depend on your exact situation: If you had to get your MacBook's top case replaced at least twice within that four year time period, you could get up to $395 in the settlement. If you replaced it once, you get $125. If you just had the keycaps themselves replaced, that's $50.

That said, if you didn't make a claim, you don't get anything. The deadline to make one was March 6 of 2023, so unless you stated your case back then, you're out of luck now.

Payments are now rolling out

If you qualified under the suit, and you did make a claim in time, good news: You have a check on the way. I know, because I got one, and MacRumors is reporting other affected customers are receiving theirs as well. It's a fitting farewell to the butterfly keyboard era. I always liked mine, even if I did have to get my top case replaced once.