GitHub Actions runner prices compared

Linux x86

Prices checked 11 November 2026.

GitHub’s 2-vCPU runner is its standard runner, free in public repositories; its 4-vCPU runner is a larger runner, which needs a Team or Enterprise Cloud plan and is billed in public repositories too. Namespace sets prices in unit minutes and charges $0.006 for a 2-vCPU runner beyond a plan’s included usage; its $100 Team plan covers 25,000 minutes on 2-vCPU, 8-GB runners. Depot’s plans are $20 for one user and $200 for unlimited users. Ubicloud’s premium x86 runners cost $0.002 for 2 vCPU. RunsOn bills nothing per minute: you pay AWS for the instance, and RunsOn’s own calculator puts a 4-vCPU spot instance at $0.0014 a minute in us-east-1, before its licence and control plane.

Linux ARM

Avrea’s ARM runners are Apple M5 Max machines and cost more per minute than the server-processor ARM runners in the table. WarpBuild also sells Linux ARM runners on Apple silicon, from 6 vCPU at $0.08 a minute, and Namespace has them in early access. Blacksmith’s 4-vCPU ARM runner has 12 GB and its 2-vCPU ARM runner 6 GB, as does Ubicloud’s 2-vCPU ARM runner. Namespace charges the same for ARM as for x86. The build results further down show what the different hardware does to job time.

macOS and Windows

Ubicloud and RunsOn have no macOS runners, and Depot’s macOS 14 and 15 runners use M2. For Windows on 2 vCPU, Avrea and Blacksmith (in public beta) charge $0.008 a minute and GitHub $0.010; WarpBuild’s smallest Windows runner is 4 vCPU at $0.016. Namespace counts Windows minutes at twice its Linux unit rate and offers Windows from the Team plan, and Ubicloud has no Windows runners.

Sources: Avrea pricing, Blacksmith pricing and runner specifications, Depot pricing and runner types, WarpBuild pricing, Namespace pricing, Ubicloud pricing, RunsOn pricing, GitHub runner rates and included usage.

What one build costs

RunsOn, a runner vendor that also appears above, runs a public benchmark that builds the same projects on every provider’s runners, with its workflows and method published. Its 4 November 2026 run built the Rust project spotify-player and PostHog’s production Docker image from a cold start on 4-vCPU, 16-GB runners. The table multiplies each median build time by the provider’s 4-vCPU rate from the tables above.

On x86, Avrea, Blacksmith, Namespace and WarpBuild all charge $0.008 a minute for 4 vCPU, so only time separates them: the Rust build cost 1.1 cents on Avrea, 1.2 on Namespace, 1.3 on Blacksmith and 1.7 on WarpBuild. GitHub’s 4-core runner costs half as much again per minute and took 1.7 to 2.8 times as long, so the same build cost 4.3 cents and the Docker image 15.5, against 3.7 to 6.0 on the $0.008 runners. Ubicloud’s standard runner was slower than every other runner except GitHub’s, but at $0.0025 a minute it built both projects for the least.

On ARM, rates differ more than times do. Avrea’s Apple M5 Max runner finished both builds first, but at $0.024 a minute for 4 vCPU its Docker image cost 11.4 cents, the most of any provider, and its Rust build cost more than every server-ARM runner except Namespace’s. What the higher rate buys is time: the Docker image was ready 5 to 9 minutes sooner than on the other ARM runners.

The cost covers the build steps only. Queueing and runner start-up are measured separately, and GitHub rounds each job up to a whole minute, which adds to its short jobs; Avrea and Depot bill by the second. Blacksmith’s 4-vCPU ARM runner has 12 GB, and Ubicloud’s rows are its standard runners. RunsOn’s cost depends on the instance type and AWS pricing, and Depot is not in the benchmark, so neither is in the table.

Data: RunsOn, benchmarks, CC BY 4.0. We selected the 4-vCPU rows and multiplied them by the published rates.

What the rates leave out

• Cache and storage. Avrea and Blacksmith include 25 GB of cache per repository and Ubicloud 30 GB; WarpBuild bills its own cache’s storage and operations separately.
• Remote Docker builders, which Depot ($0.04 a minute) and WarpBuild ($0.06 a minute) bill on top of runner minutes.
• Add-ons such as static IPs and persistent disks, and enterprise terms.
• Plan fees and included usage, which each provider converts into minutes at its own ratio. Avrea’s monthly credit is equivalent to 3,000 minutes on 2-vCPU Linux x86 runners and is shared with other metered usage.

Common questions

Which GitHub Actions runner is cheapest?

Per minute, Ubicloud’s standard runners: $0.00125 for 2 vCPU on x86 or ARM. With your own AWS account, RunsOn on spot instances can cost less, plus its annual licence. Per build, in RunsOn’s 4 November run, Ubicloud’s standard runner also cost least on all four builds, though only GitHub’s runners were slower on x86.

Are third-party runners cheaper than GitHub-hosted runners?

On x86, yes, per minute and per build. Avrea, Blacksmith and WarpBuild charge $0.004 for 2 vCPU against GitHub’s $0.006, and $0.008 or less for 4 vCPU against $0.012. In RunsOn’s run the same x86 Rust build cost 4.3 cents on GitHub’s 4-core runner and 1.1 to 1.7 cents on Avrea, Blacksmith, Namespace and WarpBuild, because those runners also finished sooner. On ARM it depends on the provider: GitHub’s 4-core ARM runner, at $0.008 a minute, cost less per build than Avrea’s and Namespace’s.

How do I compare costs on my own workflow?

Run the same commits on two providers and multiply the billed minutes by each rate, including a cold run, a repeat of the same commit and a typical change. On Avrea, change one job’s runner label, for example to avrea-ubuntu-latest, or let the console’s migration wizard open the pull request.

Related reading

• GitHub Actions pricing: GitHub’s own rates, included usage and how to lower the bill.
• All runner comparisons: head-to-head comparisons with each provider.
• Blacksmith alternatives, Depot alternatives, WarpBuild alternatives and Namespace alternatives.

Try one job on Avrea

Connect a repository with the setup guide, then change one job’s runner label. Run the same commits on both providers and compare duration and cost.

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