GitHub Actions

Gotchas

• 2,000 free minutes/month (Free plan)

  GitHub Free accounts get 2,000 GitHub-hosted runner minutes per month for private repositories; resets at the start of each billing cycle.

• 500 MB artifact storage (Free plan)

  GitHub Free accounts include 500 MB of artifact and Packages storage shared across Actions and GitHub Packages; resets monthly.

• 10 GB cache storage per repo

  Each repository gets 10 GB of Actions cache storage included; usage beyond this is billed at $0.07/GiB/month.

• Private repo minutes are capped; public repos are free

  Minutes are unlimited and free for public repositories using standard runners; the 2,000-minute cap only applies to private repositories.

• Larger runners always billed

  GitHub-hosted larger (more powerful) runners are always charged even in public repositories or when free quota is available.

• macOS/Windows runners consume minutes faster

  Windows runner minutes cost ~1.67x and macOS runner minutes cost ~10x the Linux rate against the free quota, shrinking effective free compute significantly.

• Not an always-on server

  GitHub Actions is event/schedule-driven and cannot act as a persistent webhook listener or always-on HTTP server.

• Job queue delay on shared runners

  Jobs on free-tier GitHub-hosted runners are queued and may wait before execution; there is no guaranteed instant cold-start.

• Shared runner hardware (standard tier)

  Free standard runners use shared 2-core GitHub-hosted machines; performance is not dedicated and can vary under load.

• Card required to use quota beyond free tier

  If no valid payment method is on file, all Actions usage is blocked once the monthly quota is exhausted; no grace period.

• Artifact storage shared with GitHub Packages

  The 500 MB free storage allowance is pooled across Actions artifacts, Actions caches, and GitHub Packages — heavy Packages use eats into Actions storage.