GitHub Actions announces pricing plan changes, but developers are outraged by the price hike and the changes are postponed
GitHub announced significant changes to the pricing and product model for
Pricing changes for GitHub Actions - GitHub Resources
https://resources.github.com/actions/2026-pricing-changes-for-github-actions/
Updates to GitHub Actions pricing · community · Discussion #182186 · GitHub
https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/182186
Under GitHub Actions' previous pricing model, customers using self-hosted runners could use GitHub's infrastructure and control plane services essentially free of charge. In contrast, GitHub's initially announced new pricing structure, which would reduce the price of GitHub-hosted runners by up to 39% depending on the machine type, while also introducing a new 'Actions Cloud Platform Fee' of $0.002 per minute for all workflows. This new fee will be included in the new pay-as-you-go pricing for GitHub-hosted runners, but will also be charged for self-hosted runners, and was scheduled to take effect on March 1, 2026.
Under the revised pricing plan, self-hosted runner usage would count against the free time allowance included with each plan, with any usage exceeding the free time allowance incurring the aforementioned platform fee. According to GitHub, this change was made to ensure fair cost sharing across the platform and maintain service quality. While 96% of customers will not be affected, 15% of affected customers are expected to see a median monthly increase of approximately $13 (approximately 1,990 yen). However, usage with public repositories and GitHub Enterprise Server will remain free, as before.
However, the announcement sparked outrage from the developer community on various platforms, including the social news site HackerNews.
throwaway150 criticized the current situation where companies have to pay to run their own software on their own hardware, arguing that it's time to consider moving to free, community-developed alternatives. Someone1234 pointed out the absurdity of GitHub charging only for orchestration, which it essentially does nothing for, and calculated that running it 24 hours a day would cost an additional $86.40 per machine per month.
'I'm seriously reconsidering my use of GitHub, because even though I use my own hardware and have built my own workflow and cache, this change will cost me over $140 a month,' said featherless , who is an entrepreneur. Others point out that although it took time since the acquisition by Microsoft, a major American IT company, this aggressive monetization has finally begun.
In response to this intense backlash, GitHub made a sudden change of course . In their latest announcement, GitHub took developer and customer feedback seriously and decided to delay the introduction of pricing changes to self-hosted GitHub Actions. They acknowledged that they 'missed the mark by not fully including the community in their planning,' and said they would take the time to interact more closely with developers, customers, and partners and reevaluate their approach.
On the other hand, the price reduction of up to 39% for GitHub-hosted runners scheduled for January 1, 2026 will continue as planned. GitHub has set up a discussion forum in the official community to collect direct feedback and is committed to improving the GitHub Actions roadmap based on that feedback.
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