2,000 minutes a month on standard GitHub-hosted runners and 500 MB of artifact storage for private repositories; standard runners are free in public repositories.
Verified ·Oct 15, 2026
Free allowance
What the free plan includes, as the provider states it.
- build minutes / month
- 2K min
- Private repositories on standard GitHub-hosted runners; public repositories and self-hosted runners are free, larger runners are always charged. Without a payment method, jobs are blocked once the quota is used.
- concurrent jobs
- 20
- Standard GitHub-hosted runners, of which at most 5 macOS jobs.
- artifact storage
- 0.5 GB
- Shared with GitHub Packages; Actions cache is a separate 10 GB per repository.
The fine print
Each verdict links to the quote it rests on.
- Free for
- As long as you stay within the limits
- At the limit
- Anything over the limit is refused until the next period
- Spending cap
- Built in: usage stops at the free limit
- Idle projects
- No pause rule documentedEach job on a GitHub-hosted runner can run for up to 6 hours. With a payment method on file, usage past the quota is billed unless a budget stops it. In public repositories, scheduled workflows are disabled after 60 days without repository activity.
- Data retention
- No deletion rule documented
- Card at sign-up
- Not documented
- Identity check
- An email address
- Commercial use
- Not stated
- Mainland China
- Partly reachableGreatFire rates github.com, where developers use the web UI and API, as mixed: https://github.com opens only sometimes, and tested github.com pages range from blocked to accessible. The API host https://api.github.com reads accessible on its own page.
- Sign-up regions
- No restrictions documented
- Quotas apply per
- Account
Alternatives
Other free plans for the same need, ranked by the same neutral rules.
Changes
- Correction
Better: Mainland China reachability corrected: not verified → partly reachable
- Correction
Worse: Spending cap corrected: cannot bill → stops at the limit
- Oct 15, 2026
- Awaiting review
- GitHub Free