How I Run 24/7 Automations for FREE Using GitHub Actions (No Servers Needed)

#github #devops #tutorial #automation

I got tired of paying for servers just to run simple scheduled scripts. Cron jobs on a VPS? $5-20/month. AWS Lambda? Complexity overhead and surprise bills.

Then I realized: GitHub Actions gives you 2,000 free minutes/month on the free tier. That's enough to run a script every 2 hours, 24/7, for $0.

The Setup (5 Minutes)

Create .github/workflows/automation.yml:

name: 24/7 Automation
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 */2 * * *'  # Every 2 hours
  workflow_dispatch:        # Manual trigger

jobs:
  run:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.11'
      - run: pip install requests
      - run: python your_script.py
        env:
          API_KEY: ${{ secrets.API_KEY }}

What I Automate

Price monitoring - Track competitor prices, get alerts
Content aggregation - Pull data from APIs, compile reports
Health checks - Ping my services, alert on failures
Data backups - Export from one service, push to another

The Limits (And How to Work Around Them)

Limit	Free Tier	Workaround
Minutes/month	2,000	Keep scripts under 5 min each
Concurrent jobs	20	Queue with workflow_dispatch
Cron minimum	5 min	Acceptable for most monitoring
Repo must be active	60 days	Add a keep-alive workflow

Notifications with ntfy.sh

I use ntfy.sh for free push notifications:

import requests

def alert(message):
    requests.post(
        "https://ntfy.sh/your-topic",
        data=message,
        headers={"Priority": "high"}
    )

Now I get mobile alerts whenever my automations detect something important.

Full Template Pack

I packaged my production-tested workflows into a template pack:

FREE starter (1 workflow + guide): gumroad.com/l/zheyl
Full pack ($79 - 3 workflows + Python scripts): gumroad.com/l/nvwulz

The free version is enough to get started. Grab it, modify it, ship it.

Questions? Drop them in the comments. I've been running this setup for months and happy to help troubleshoot.

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