GitHub to charge developers for self-hosted Actions runners

"GitHub customers, take notice: Come March, the Microsoft-owned repository host will begin charging for some uses of self-hosted Actions runners. The change comes in the form of a $0.002 per minute charge for self-hosted runners executing jobs on private GitHub repositories. At the same time, GitHub noted in a Tuesday blog post that it's lowering the prices of GitHub-hosted runners beginning January 1, under a scheme it calls "simpler pricing and a better experience for GitHub Actions." Self-hosted runner usage on public repositories will remain free, we note. Regardless of the public repo distinction, enterprise-scale developers who rely on self-hosted runners were predictably not pleased about the announcement."

"The powers-that-be at GitHub owner Microsoft seem to understand that the change to self-hosted runner billing would piss off a number of customers, as the very first question in the FAQ attached to Tuesday's blog post is "why am I being charged to use my own hardware?" To be fair to GitHub, it's not exactly free for the company to run the GitHub Actions infrastructure and services that self-hosted runners rely on, and that's the company's justification for the change. "Historically, self-hosted runner customers were able to leverage much of GitHub Actions' infrastructure and services at no cost," the repo host said in its blog FAQ. "This meant that the cost of maintaining and evolving these essential services was largely being subsidized by the prices set for GitHub-hosted runners.""

GitHub will impose a $0.002 per minute fee for self-hosted Actions runners executing jobs on private repositories beginning in March. Prices for GitHub-hosted runners will be lowered starting January 1, and self-hosted runner usage on public repositories will remain free. Some enterprise-scale developers expect substantial added monthly costs from the self-hosted change. GitHub notes that self-hosted runners historically leveraged Actions infrastructure at no cost and that maintaining those services carries expense. GitHub frames the pricing change as aligning infrastructure costs more closely with usage and shifting subsidies from hosted-runner pricing.

Read at Theregister