GitHub Actions 2026 Pricing Changes (Self-Hosted Runners & More)
Introduction
It’s been ages since I last wrote an article — life, work, and everything in between pulled me away from blogging. But I finally sat down, dusted off the keyboard, and started writing again. In fact, I also published a post on my other blog about What Happens When You Power On a Linux System? last week.
Today, I want to break down GitHub’s newly announced pricing changes for GitHub Actions — especially around self-hosted runners, which has sparked quite a bit of discussion in our community.
About the GitHub Changes — What’s New?
GitHub recently announced changes to how GitHub Actions will be billed starting in 2026:
✔ Lowering prices on GitHub-hosted runners — The cost per minute for most GitHub-hosted runners will drop by up to ~39%, depending on machine type.
✔ New per-minute platform charge — GitHub is introducing a $0.002 per minute fee for the GitHub Actions cloud platform that applies to both hosted and self-hosted runners.
✔ Self-hosted usage will now be billable — Starting March 1, 2026, using your own self-hosted runners will no longer be completely free — GitHub will charge for the orchestration layer you rely on.
✔ No changes for public repos — Workflows in public repositories will continue to run for free.
✔ Enterprise Server unaffected — These changes don’t apply if you’re on GitHub Enterprise Server.
In short: GitHub is aligning pricing more closely to usage, reducing some runner costs while adding a base platform fee.
How It Affects You
🤔 Should you worry? That depends on how you use Actions:
Public open-source projects: No cost changes. Your CI will still be free.
Small teams with low CI usage: Likely minimal or no cost impact, because free minutes and quotas still apply.
Teams using self-hosted runners heavily: New costs will show up starting March 2026.
CI-heavy or enterprise teams: You might save on hosted runner costs, but the platform fee adds a predictable baseline expense.
GitHub estimates that 96% of customers won’t see a bill change; for those who do, most will see reductions, with only a small group seeing slight increases in cost.
Sample Pricing Calculations
💡 Important: These platform charges are on top of your compute, hosting, and networking costs — GitHub isn’t charging for your VM/servers, but for orchestrating CI/CD minutes.
Scenario 1: Small Team, Mostly Within Free Minutes
Assumptions
2,000 free Actions minutes/month
1,200 minutes on GitHub-hosted runners
600 minutes on self-hosted runners
Before 2026
Hosted minutes consume free quota
Self-hosted minutes were free
Total bill: $0
After 2026
Hosted + self-hosted = 1,800 minutes
Still within free quota
Total bill: $0
✅ No change
For most small teams, nothing breaks and nothing costs more.
Scenario 2: Self-Hosted Heavy Usage
Assumptions
2,000 free minutes
3,000 self-hosted runner minutes/month
No hosted runners
Before 2026
Self-hosted runners:
Did not consume free minutes
No GitHub Actions cost
Total GitHub bill: $0
After 2026
3,000 self-hosted minutes consume free quota
Billable minutes = 1,000
Cost calculation
1,000 × $0.002 = $2💡 Key takeaway: Self-hosted runners are no longer “free” from GitHub’s side, even though you own the machines.
Scenario 3: Mixed Usage (Hosted + Self-Hosted)
Assumptions
2,000 free minutes
1,500 hosted minutes (Linux)
1,500 self-hosted minutes
Before 2026
Hosted minutes: 1,500 → deducted from free
Self-hosted minutes: free
Free minutes remaining: 500
Total bill: $0
After 2026
Total usage = 3,000 minutes
Free quota = 2,000
Billable minutes = 1,000
Cost
1,000 × $0.002 = $2⚠️ Hosted and self-hosted runners now compete for the same quota.
Scenario 4: CI-Heavy Team Using Hosted Runners Only
Assumptions
5,000 hosted runner minutes/month
All free minutes already consumed
Before 2026 (example)
Linux hosted runner: ~$0.008/min
5,000 × $0.008 = $40After 2026
Linux hosted runner: ~$0.006/min (includes platform fee)
5,000 × $0.006 = $30🎉 Net result: Cheaper CI despite new pricing model.
Scenario 5: Large Org, Mostly Self-Hosted
Assumptions
50,000 self-hosted runner minutes/month
Free minutes already exhausted
Before 2026
GitHub Actions cost: $0
Only infra cost
After 2026
50,000 × $0.002 = $100
This $100:
Is predictable
Scales linearly
Is only for GitHub Actions orchestration
For large orgs, this is usually small compared to compute costs, but no longer zero.
Important Clarification: Free Minutes
Starting March 1, 2026:
Self-hosted runner minutes are deducted from your free Actions minutes
Hosted and self-hosted runners share the same free quota
Charges apply only after free minutes are exhausted
Impact on Different Types of Organisations
🧑💻 Small Teams / Individual Developers
You probably use less than your free minutes — no real change.
Self-hosted runners might still be effectively free if you stay under the quota.
🏢 Growing Teams / Startups
If you exceed free minutes often, you’ll benefit from the price cuts.
But self-hosting now has a baseline cost. Factor that into budgeting.
🏭 Large Enterprises
Likely see the most significant changes — both savings on hosted runner minute rates and new predictable charges on self-hosted CI.
It’s a good moment to re-evaluate CI cost optimisation, caching, and runner usage patterns, unnecessary rebuilds.
Conclusion
GitHub’s 2026 Actions pricing update brings a balance of lower hosted costs and new platform fees — modernising how Actions is billed and ensuring GitHub gets paid for the services that orchestrate CI/CD workflows.
🔹 For most users, the impact will be small.
🔹 For heavy CI users or those relying heavily on self-hosted runners, this is a good time to plan ahead.
🔹 This will encourage some users to move onto Github runners but it all depends on security needs and architecture specific to organisation.
🔹 Run the updated GitHub Actions pricing calculator to estimate your own future costs.
References
https://resources.github.com/actions/2026-pricing-changes-for-github-actions/
https://docs.github.com/en/billing/concepts/product-billing/github-actions
https://github.blog/changelog/2025-12-16-coming-soon-simpler-pricing-and-a-better-experience-for-github-actions/
Really solid breakdown of how the pricing changes shake out across diferent use cases. The scenario where self-hosted and hosted runners now compete for the same quota is something I dunno many teams have considered yet. We've been running mostly self-hosted to save costs, but at scale that $0.002/min orchestration fee starts feeling like a "hidden tax" for the conveneince GitHub's been providing all along.