Every GitHub Actions pricing change in 2026, with dates and GitHub's own words
In 2026 GitHub cut its hosted-runner rates by up to 39% (January 1), never started the $0.002-a-minute self-hosted runner charge it had announced for March 1 (postponed on December 17, 2025), began counting Copilot code review's runner time against Actions on private repositories (June 1), began enforcing a minimum self-hosted runner version on GitHub Enterprise Cloud (September 29), and rewrote each plan's included minutes as a dollar amount (October 28). Every date below comes from GitHub's changelog, its community forum or its docs repository, read on November 9, 2026.
Skipbox publishes this post and sells a self-hosted runner, so it has a stake in what GitHub bills. The quotes below are GitHub's own, and each links under Sources.
The year at a glance
| Date | What changed | Does it change a bill? |
|---|---|---|
| December 16, 2025 | GitHub announces the January price cut and a self-hosted runner charge for March 1, 2026 | Not by itself |
| December 16, 2025 | The billing docs drop the minute multipliers (Windows 2, macOS 10) | No: each runner is priced by its own rate |
| December 17, 2025 | The self-hosted runner charge is postponed | No |
| January 1, 2026 | Hosted-runner rates cut by up to 39% | Yes, lower per minute |
| March 1, 2026 | The date the self-hosted runner charge would have started; it didn't | No |
| March 13, 2026 | The minimum self-hosted runner version's enforcement is paused | No |
| June 1, 2026 | Copilot code review starts using Actions on private repositories | Yes, if you use it |
| September 29, 2026 | The minimum runner version is enforced on GitHub Enterprise Cloud | No, but old runners stop |
| October 28, 2026 | The docs write the included minutes as dollars | No on ubuntu-latest; it changes how other runners count |
January 1, 2026: hosted-runner rates cut by up to 39%
GitHub's changelog that day: "Reduced costs for GitHub-hosted runners are now in effect." "GitHub users will see price reductions of up to 39% for GitHub-hosted runners, depending on the machines they use." It added: "Standard hosted runner usage in public repositories remains free."
The changelog gives no rates. GitHub's rates page before the announcement and today, per minute:
| Runner | Before | Now | Cut |
|---|---|---|---|
Linux 1-core (ubuntu-slim) | $0.002 | $0.002 | None |
Linux 2-core (ubuntu-latest on private repositories) | $0.008 | $0.006 | 25% |
| Windows 2-core | $0.016 | $0.010 | 37.5% |
| macOS 3- or 4-core | $0.08 | $0.062 | 22.5% |
| Linux 4-core | $0.016 | $0.012 | 25% |
| Linux 8-core | $0.032 | $0.022 | 31% |
| Linux 16-core | $0.064 | $0.042 | 34% |
| Linux 64-core | $0.256 | $0.162 | 37% |
| macOS 12-core | $0.12 | $0.077 | 36% |
What it does to a bill: the same minutes are billed at a lower rate on every runner in the table but the 1-core, and the plan's included compute covers more of them.
March 1, 2026: the self-hosted runner charge that never started
The December 16, 2025 changelog said: "On March 1, 2026, GitHub will introduce a new $0.002 per minute GitHub Actions cloud platform charge that will apply to self-hosted runner usage." The next day GitHub's community account posted "Updates to GitHub Actions pricing" (discussion #182186), and the changelog now opens with: "We're postponing the announced billing change for self-hosted GitHub Actions to take time to re-evaluate our approach."
As of November 9, 2026 GitHub hasn't given it a new date or withdrawn it, and its billing docs list self-hosted runners as usage that "remains free independently and does not reduce the included compute usage". The self-hosted runner fee guide has the full timeline and what the charge would have cost.
March 13 and September 29, 2026: the minimum self-hosted runner version
Not a price, but it decides whether a self-hosted runner can run at all. On March 13, 2026 GitHub wrote: "We're temporarily pausing GitHub Actions enforcement of the minimum self-hosted runner version requirement (v2.329.0)", which was to begin on March 16. On September 28 it gave the new date for GitHub Enterprise Cloud: "full enforcement now begins Tuesday, September 29, 2026", and:
- "Self-hosted runners below version 2.329.0 won't be able to register or reregister."
- "Existing runners below the minimum version required to execute workflow jobs (which is a higher version than the registration minimum) will stop running jobs, even if they were previously registered."
- "Enforcement already began for GitHub Enterprise Cloud with Data Residency on July 31, 2026." "GitHub Enterprise Server isn't impacted."
What it does to a bill: nothing directly. A runner you maintain yourself has to keep up, or its jobs stop.
June 1, 2026: Copilot code review starts using Actions
GitHub announced on April 27, 2026: "GitHub Copilot code review will start consuming GitHub Actions minutes on June 1, 2026." The review "runs on GitHub Actions using GitHub-hosted runners". On private repositories, its minutes come from the plan's included compute, "with any usage beyond your included minutes billed at standard GitHub Actions rates". "There are no changes to public repositories, where Actions minutes remain free." The review also "supports self-hosted runners and GitHub-hosted larger runners".
What it does to a bill: each Copilot review on a private repository adds runner minutes, on top of the Copilot charge itself. A team that turns on review for every pull request uses its included compute faster. Claude Code's GitHub Action bills the same way on GitHub's runners: what it costs.
October 28, 2026: included minutes become dollars
GitHub's billing page used to list minutes a month: 2,000 on GitHub Free, 3,000 on Pro and Team, 50,000 on Enterprise Cloud. On October 28, 2026, commit 8e7396e5e in GitHub's docs repository replaced them with "Included compute usage (per month)": $12, $18 and $300. The page now says: "The included compute usage is expressed as a monetary amount, not a fixed number of minutes or other usage units." No GitHub changelog entry announced it.
It came after an earlier docs change: on December 16, 2025, commit ce33310e removed the billing page's "Minute multipliers" table, in which a Windows minute counted as 2 and a macOS minute as 10.
What it does to a bill: on ubuntu-latest nothing, since $18 at $0.006 a minute is still 3,000 minutes. Other runners now take their own rate from the same dollars. How many minutes each plan's amount buys, by runner.
What GitHub said it would do and didn't
- The self-hosted runner charge. Announced for March 1, 2026; postponed on December 17, 2025; no date since.
- Self-hosted minutes in the free quota. GitHub's 2026 pricing FAQ said "Beginning March 1, 2026, self-hosted runners will be included within your free usage quota". That didn't happen either: self-hosted runners don't reduce the included compute.
- The minimum runner version on March 16, 2026. Paused on March 13, then enforced on GitHub Enterprise Cloud from September 29.
Pages that still carry the old text
- GitHub's 2026 pricing FAQ, 2026 pricing changes for GitHub Actions, opens with the postponement note, then keeps the original in its body: "This will impact self-hosted runner pricing starting March 1, 2026", and in its FAQ, "The new charge for self-hosted runners will apply beginning on March 1, 2026."
- The December 16, 2025 changelog keeps its original paragraph under the postponement note.
- Answers that give minutes with multipliers. "2,000 minutes, Windows 2×, macOS 10×" is what GitHub's billing page said until December 16, 2025 for the multipliers and October 28, 2026 for the minutes. GitHub's docs for GitHub Enterprise Server still show the minutes.
An answer built from any of these can say self-hosted runners are billed, or count a macOS minute as 10. GitHub's billing docs, which describe what is billed today, say neither.
What to check on your own bill
- Which runners you pay for. In Billing & Licensing → Usage, or the usage report CSV, each SKU is a runner type; how to read them.
- Your included amount, in dollars. $12, $18 or $300 a month, and what that is in minutes on the runners you use (by plan and runner).
- Copilot code review jobs on private repositories since June 1, 2026.
- Self-hosted runner versions on GitHub Enterprise Cloud: 2.329.0 or later to register.
Where Skipbox fits
GitHub's billing of self-hosted runners didn't change in 2026: their minutes are free and don't draw on the included compute. Skipbox runs self-hosted runners for private-repository Linux x64 jobs at a flat $39, $79 or $149 a month with unlimited minutes, and keeps the runner application current, so none of the changes above moves its price.
FAQ
Did GitHub Actions get more expensive in 2026?
Not per minute on GitHub-hosted runners: GitHub cut those rates by up to 39% on January 1, 2026 (Linux 2-core was $0.008 a minute before the cut and is $0.006 after it). The self-hosted runner charge announced for March 1, 2026 was postponed and hasn't started. What can add to a bill is Copilot code review, whose runner time counts against Actions on private repositories since June 1, 2026.
Does GitHub charge for self-hosted runners in 2026?
No. GitHub announced a $0.002-a-minute charge for March 1, 2026 on December 16, 2025 and postponed it the next day. As of November 9, 2026, its billing docs list self-hosted runners as usage that "remains free independently and does not reduce the included compute usage".
When did GitHub change Actions minutes to dollars?
On October 28, 2026, in its docs: commit 8e7396e5e in GitHub's docs repository replaced the plans' minutes (2,000, 3,000 and 50,000 a month) with included compute of $12, $18 and $300 a month. No GitHub changelog entry announced it.
When did Copilot code review start using GitHub Actions minutes?
On June 1, 2026, as GitHub announced on April 27, 2026. On private repositories each review's runner time draws on the plan's included compute, and usage past it is billed at standard Actions rates. Public repositories stay free.
What is the minimum self-hosted runner version in 2026?
On GitHub Enterprise Cloud, since September 29, 2026: "Self-hosted runners below version 2.329.0 won't be able to register or reregister." Registered runners below a higher run-time minimum stop running jobs. GitHub Enterprise Server isn't affected.
Sources
All read on 2026-11-09.
- GitHub Changelog, Update to GitHub Actions pricing (December 16, 2025, first titled "Coming soon: simpler pricing and a better experience for GitHub Actions"): the $0.002 charge, the postponement note, the 39% cut.
- GitHub Community, #182186 "Updates to GitHub Actions pricing" (December 17, 2025).
- GitHub Changelog, Reduced pricing for GitHub-hosted runners usage (January 1, 2026).
- GitHub Docs, Actions runner pricing: today's rates. github/docs, the same page before the announcement: the earlier rates.
- GitHub Changelog, Self-hosted runner minimum version enforcement paused (March 13, 2026) and Self-hosted runner version enforcement date has moved (September 28, 2026).
- GitHub Changelog, GitHub Copilot code review will start consuming GitHub Actions minutes on June 1, 2026 (April 27, 2026).
- GitHub Docs, GitHub Actions billing: included compute in dollars, what remains free.
- github/docs, commit 8e7396e5e (October 28, 2026) and commit ce33310e (December 16, 2025).
- GitHub Resources, 2026 pricing changes for GitHub Actions: the FAQ that keeps the March 1, 2026 sentences.
- GitHub Changelog, Actions entries.
Updated November 9, 2026