GitHub Is Going To Start Charging You For Using Your Own Hardware

GitHub will begin charging $0.002 per minute for self-hosted Actions runners used on private repositories starting in March. '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,'' reports The Register. 'Self-hosted runner usage on public repositories will remain free.' From the report: Regardless of the public repo distinction, enterprise-scale developers who rely on self-hosted runners were predictably not pleased about the announcement. 'Github have just sent out an email announcing a $0.002/minute fee for self-hosted runners,' Reddit user markmcw posted on the DevOps subreddit. 'Just ran the numbers, and for us, that's close to $3.5k a month extra on our GitHub bill.'

'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.' The move, GitHub said, will align costs more closely with usage. Like many similar changes to pricing models pushed by tech firms, GitHub says 'the vast majority of users... will see no price increase.'

GitHub claims that 96 percent of its customers will see no change to their bill, and that 85 percent of the 4 percent affected by the pricing update will actually see their Actions costs decrease. The company says the remaining 15 percent of impacted users will face a median increase of about $13 a month. For those using self-hosted runners and worried about increased costs, GitHub has updated its pricing calculator to include the cost of self-hosted runners.

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