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Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

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GitHub Actions Has Free CI/CD — 2,000 Minutes/Month for Every Repository

#devops #ci #github #automation

A solo developer was paying $50/month for CircleCI. For running tests on push and deploying on merge. That is $600/year for something GitHub gives away.

GitHub Actions provides 2,000 free CI/CD minutes per month for every public and private repository. Build, test, deploy - all from your repo.

What GitHub Actions Offers for Free

  • 2,000 Minutes/Month - Free for private repos (unlimited for public)
  • Workflow Automation - CI/CD, issue triage, release automation
  • Matrix Builds - Test across multiple OS/language versions simultaneously
  • Marketplace - 15,000+ pre-built actions
  • Secrets - Encrypted environment variables
  • Artifacts - Store build outputs
  • Caching - Speed up builds with dependency caching
  • Self-Hosted Runners - Use your own machines for unlimited minutes

Quick Start 

# .github/workflows/ci.yml
name: CI
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with: { node-version: 20 }
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test
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Push this file. CI runs automatically on every push.

Website: github.com/features/actions - 2,000 free minutes/month

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