GitHub Actions vs GitLab CI: Cost Per Minute

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GitHub Actions vs GitLab CI: what a minute costs on each

GitHub Actions vs GitLab CI is not the feature comparison it is usually written as, because both define pipelines in YAML and both run them on hosted or self-managed machines. The difference that shows up on an invoice is arithmetic: GitLab multiplies each job minute by a cost factor tied to the machine size, and GitHub publishes a flat per-minute rate for each size instead. The cost of one job minute at matched core counts, using GitLab's published cost factors at $10 per 1,000 compute minutes against GitHub's per-SKU rates. Quotas are excluded here and covered in the body. GitLab.com measures instance runner usage in compute minutes, and its formula is published: job duration in seconds divided by 60, multiplied by a cost factor. The default Linux runner has a cost factor of 1; a four-core runner has a cost factor of 2, and a 32-core runner has a cost factor of 12. GitHub sells the same ladder as separate SKUs with their own rates: $0.006 a minute for Linux at 2 vCPU, then $0.012, $0.022, $0.042 and $0.082 as the core count doubles. Nothing is multiplied; the rate is the rate. Which of those is cheaper depends on where you are relative to your included quota, and the two quotas are very different sizes. Every figure below was read from GitLab's compute minutes documentation, the GitLab pricing page, GitLab's hosted runner documentation and GitHub's billing and limits references on 21 September 2026, with GitHub's included allowance read again on 12 November 2026. Comparison GitHub Actions GitLab CI How usage is measured Runner minutes, rounded up to the whole minute per job Compute minutes: job duration / 60 multiplied by a cost factor set by runner type and machine size Included allowance $12 of included compute a month on Free, $18 on Team, $300 on Enterprise Cloud, a dollar amount since 28 October 2026: 2,000, 3,000 and 50,000 minutes on the 2 vCPU Linux runner at $0.006 400 compute minutes a month on Free, 10,000 on Premium, 50,000 on Ultimate Cost of the next minute $0.006 at 2 vCPU Linux, rising by SKU to $0.082 at 32 cores $10 per 1,000 compute minutes, which is a cent a compute minute before the cost factor is applied Bigger machines Larger runners are available on Team and Enterprise Cloud only, and draw on the same dollar allowance at their own higher rate The large, xlarge and 2xlarge Linux runners are available on Premium and Ultimate only Open source terms Standard GitHub-hosted runners are free and unlimited on public repositories A cost factor of 0.5 for public projects in the GitLab for Open Source program, and 0.008 for public forks of them, which is one compute minute per 125 minutes of job time Getting onto the free tier Nothing to do Credit or debit card verification is required to use GitLab.com shared runners, which GitLab attributes to abuse of free minutes for cryptocurrency mining. Not required if you bring your own runner Self-managed execution Self-hosted runners, or a managed vendor at $0.0025 a minute for 2 vCPU GitLab Runner with ten executors, including Docker, Kubernetes, Instance and Docker Autoscaler. Execution on your own runners does not consume compute minutes Config .github/workflows/.yml, one file per workflow .gitlab-ci.yml, with include for composition Self-healing or retries None on GitHub-hosted runners; transient failures diagnosed and retried inside the run on Latchkey Declarative retry on a job, which reruns it from the start Setup change required A file in the repository A file in the repository, plus a card on file or your own runner The same ladder, priced two ways Put GitLab's cost factors against GitHub's rate card at matched core counts and the pattern is consistent. GitLab charges a cent per compute minute for additional minutes, so multiply the cost factor by one cent to get the cost of a job minute at that size. Size GitLab runner and specs Cost factor GitLab per job minute GitHub SKU GitHub rate 2 vCPU saas-linux-small-amd64, 8 GB, 30 GB 1 $0.01 Linux 2-core (x64) ...

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