Jenkins software is free and open-source. But a production Jenkins setup costs $45-210/month in infrastructure (EC2 instances for controller + agents) plus 5-10 hours/month in engineering maintenance time. At $75/hour loaded cost, that is $375-750/month in staff time. Jenkins makes financial sense at high build volumes (50,000+ minutes/month) where cloud CI would cost $300+/month.

What is the cheapest CI/CD for a startup?

For a startup doing under 10,000 build minutes/month: GitHub Actions (2,000 free minutes on Free plan, 3,000 on Team at $4/user/month). For 10,000-20,000 minutes: consider CircleCI Performance ($15/month flat plus credits) or start evaluating self-hosted runners on a cheap VPS. For open-source projects, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and CircleCI all offer generous free tiers.

At what build volume does self-hosting become cheaper than GitHub Actions?

With the March 2026 platform fee, the break-even for GitHub Actions self-hosted runners is approximately 13,000-16,000 minutes/month vs a t3.medium at $30/month. Formula: server cost / ($0.006 - $0.002) = break-even minutes. For GitLab CI self-managed (no platform fee), break-even is even lower as you only pay for the server.

CI/CD Pricing 2026: CodeBuild, GitHub Actions, CircleCI, GitLab

Q: Which CI/CD platform is cheapest?

For public repos, GitHub Actions offers unlimited free minutes. For private repos with under 2,000 minutes/month, GitHub Actions free tier wins. For 2,000-10,000 minutes, compare GitHub Actions Team ($4/user/mo) vs CircleCI Performance ($15/mo flat). Beyond 20,000 minutes/month, self-hosted runners on cheap VPS (Hetzner from $5/mo) often cost less.

Q: How much does GitHub Actions cost per month?

GitHub Actions costs $0.006/min for Linux, $0.010/min for Windows, and $0.048/min for macOS after the January 2026 price reduction. Free tier: 2,000 minutes/month (Team: 3,000). A 5-person team using 15,000 minutes/month (90% Linux) pays approximately $72/month in compute. From March 2026, self-hosted runners in private repos also incur a $0.002/min platform fee.

Q: What changed in GitHub Actions pricing in 2026?

Two significant changes: (1) January 2026 - GitHub reduced hosted runner rates: Linux dropped from $0.008 to $0.006/min (-25%), Windows from $0.016 to $0.010/min (-37.5%), macOS from $0.080 to $0.048/min (-40%). (2) March 1, 2026 - GitHub added a $0.002/min platform fee for self-hosted runners used on private repositories. Public repositories and GitHub Enterprise Server are exempt from the platform fee.

See what CI/CD actually costs at your scale across AWS CodeBuild, GitHub Actions, CircleCI, GitLab CI, Buildkite, and Jenkins. Updated April 2026.

2026 GitHub Actions Pricing Changes

January 2026: Linux dropped to $0.006/min (-25%), Windows to $0.010/min (-37.5%), macOS to $0.048/min (-40%). March 2026: New $0.002/min platform fee for self-hosted runners on private repos. Full details

Platform Pricing Comparison

Hosted runner rates. Prices as of April 2026.

Platform	Free Min/Mo	Linux/min	Windows/min	macOS/min	Concurrent	Self-Hosted	Best For
GitHub Actions *$0.002/min platform fee March 2026	2,000 min/mo	$0.006	$0.010	$0.048	20 (Free)	Yes*	GitHub users, OSS projects
GitLab CI	400 min/mo	$0.010	$0.010	$0.010	400 (Free SaaS)	Yes (free)	No OS multipliers, self-managed
CircleCI 30,000 free credits/month	~3,000 min/mo	$0.006	$0.012	$0.12+	1 (Free)	Yes	Predictable compute needs
Buildkite	500 min/mo hosted	Self-hosted free	Self-hosted free	Self-hosted free	3 agents (Free)	Yes (core model)	Large teams, custom infra
AWS CodeBuild	100 min/mo	$0.005	$0.020	N/A	Configurable	N/A	AWS-native deployments
Bitbucket Pipelines	50 min/mo	$0.010	N/A	N/A	1 (Free)	Limited	Atlassian/Jira teams
Drone CI	Unlimited (self-hosted)	Infra cost only	Infra cost only	Infra cost only	Unlimited	Yes (required)	Open-source, budget teams

*GitHub Actions added a $0.002/min platform fee for self-hosted runners on private repos from March 1, 2026. Always verify current pricing on the vendor website before purchasing.

Monthly Cost Estimator

Enter your build profile to see estimated monthly costs across all platforms.

Build minutes/month

Linux %

Windows %

macOS %

Team size (for per-user pricing)

CircleCI

Free: 30,000 credits (~3,000 min Medium Linux)

$42/mo

Cheapest

Jenkins (self-hosted)

~$45/mo infra (1 agent). Free compute minutes.

$45/mo

GitHub Actions

Free tier: 2,000 min/mo (Team: 3,000)

$48/mo

AWS CodeBuild

No macOS. general1.small rate shown.

$70/mo

GitLab CI

SaaS: no OS multipliers, flat $0.010/min

$96/mo

Bitbucket Pipelines

Standard $3.30/user, no macOS runners

$97/mo

Buildkite

Self-hosted agents free, $30/user/mo Pro

$226/mo

Estimates only. Excludes storage, egress, and enterprise features. Prices as of April 2026. Get precise calculations at cicdcalculator.com

Platform Deep Dives

Key Findings for 2026

GitHub Actions prices dropped (but self-hosted got pricier)

January 2026 brought a welcome price cut: Linux down 25%, Windows down 37.5%, macOS down 40%. But March 2026 added a $0.002/min platform fee for self-hosted runners on private repos, eroding the savings for teams that had switched to self-hosting.

Full GitHub Actions pricing analysis

CircleCI credits: what you are actually paying

CircleCI charges per credit, not per minute. 1 credit = $0.0006. A Medium Linux machine (the default) uses 10 credits/min = $0.006/min, identical to GitHub Actions Linux. The credit model adds confusion but the maths is the same at the default tier.

CircleCI credits explained

The self-hosted break-even point (recalculated)

With the March 2026 platform fee, a t3.medium self-hosted runner ($30/mo) on GitHub Actions breaks even at approximately 16,000 minutes/month. Switch to GitLab self-managed CE and break-even drops to around 5,000 minutes.

Full break-even analysis

Cost Guides

Cheapest CI/CD by Team Size

Solo dev to 100-person org. The cheapest option changes as you scale.

Self-Hosted vs Cloud CI: Break-Even Analysis

When does self-hosting actually save money? With the 2026 platform fee recalculated.

12 Ways to Cut Your CI Bill

Caching, path filtering, Arm runners, fail-fast ordering. Real savings estimates.

Build Minute Costs Explained

How minutes are counted, OS multipliers, hidden costs, and cost per deployment.

Jenkins: Is It Really Free?

Infrastructure and maintenance cost breakdown. When Jenkins makes sense.

Enterprise CI/CD Pricing 2026

GitHub Enterprise Server, GitLab Ultimate, CircleCI Scale compared.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which CI/CD platform is cheapest overall?

For public repos, GitHub Actions is cheapest with unlimited free minutes. For private repos under 2,000 minutes/month, GitHub Actions Free tier costs nothing. At 2,000-10,000 minutes, compare GitHub Actions Team ($4/user/month) with CircleCI Performance ($15/month flat). Beyond 20,000 minutes/month, self-hosted runners on cheap VPS (Hetzner from $5/month) typically cost less than any hosted option. See our cheapest CI by team size guide for a full breakdown.

How much does GitHub Actions cost per month?

After the January 2026 price reduction: Linux $0.006/min, Windows $0.010/min, macOS $0.048/min. Free tier: 2,000 minutes/month (Team plan: 3,000). A 5-person team using 15,000 minutes/month (90% Linux, 10% Windows) pays approximately $77/month. From March 2026, self-hosted runners on private repos add $0.002/min. See our GitHub Actions pricing guide.

Is Jenkins really free?

Jenkins software is free and open-source. But running Jenkins in production costs real money. A minimal setup with 1 build agent on AWS: ~$45/month in compute. A standard 3-agent setup: ~$210/month. Add engineering maintenance time (5-10 hours/month at $75/hour): $375-750/month in staff cost. Jenkins makes financial sense for teams doing 50,000+ build minutes/month where cloud CI would exceed $300/month. Read our full Jenkins cost breakdown.

What changed in GitHub Actions pricing in 2026?

Two significant changes happened in early 2026. January 2026: GitHub reduced hosted runner rates: Linux from $0.008 to $0.006/min (-25%), Windows from $0.016 to $0.010/min (-37.5%), macOS from $0.080 to $0.048/min (-40%). March 2026: GitHub added a $0.002/min platform fee for self-hosted runners on private repositories. Public repos and GitHub Enterprise Server are exempt. Teams that self-hosted to avoid GitHub compute charges now face this platform fee, changing the break-even analysis.

What are the hidden costs of CI/CD?

Beyond the per-minute rate: (1) Artifact storage overages - GitHub Actions charges $0.008/GB/day beyond free tier. (2) macOS runner costs - at $0.048/min, a 15-minute iOS build costs $0.72; heavy iOS CI costs thousands per month. (3) Concurrent job limits forcing tier upgrades. (4) Data egress from pulling large Docker images. (5) SSO and enterprise security features requiring expensive tier upgrades. See our full guide on CI/CD hidden costs.

Need to calculate your exact cost?

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