CI cost · GitHub prices read on 1 November 2026
GitHub bills hosted runners by the minute. A rented machine costs the same whether it builds for one hour or all month. Here is where the two lines cross, using GitHub's own price list.
Quick answer
Is a rented dedicated server cheaper than GitHub-hosted runners for CI?
Yes, a rented dedicated server is cheaper than GitHub-hosted runners for CI once your builds run for thousands of minutes a month. GitHub bills per minute: $0.006 for a 2-core Linux runner and $0.042 for a 16-core one (GitHub Docs, 1 November 2026). Lumenfer's Lumen 16, with 16 cores / 32 threads, costs a flat $205.27 per 30 days, paid in crypto with no KYC.
| GitHub Linux 2-core runner, private repositories | $0.006 a minute; 2 CPU, 8 GB RAM, 14 GB SSD |
|---|---|
| GitHub Linux 16-core larger runner | $0.042 a minute; 16 vCPU, 64 GB RAM, 600 GB SSD |
| GitHub Linux 32-core larger runner | $0.082 a minute; 32 vCPU, 128 GB RAM, 1,200 GB SSD |
| How GitHub counts | Each job is rounded up to the next whole minute |
| Included each month on GitHub | $12 of compute on Free, $18 on Pro and Team, $300 on Enterprise Cloud |
| Self-hosted runner fee on GitHub | None listed: GitHub's billing docs class self-hosted runners as free usage |
| Lumen 16 | AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (2024, 16 cores / 32 threads), 128 GB DDR5, 2 × 1.92 TB NVMe in RAID 1, 60 TB a month at 1 Gbit/s, 1 IPv4 and an IPv6 /64 |
| Price | Lumen 6 $91.65, Lumen 8 $109.37, Lumen 16 $205.27, Lumen 24 $356.25, Lumen 32 $749.67 per 30 days |
| Payment | Crypto only: BTC, USDT, USDC, ETH, SOL, LTC; no KYC |
| Setup | Up to 72 hours from the moment your payment is confirmed |
A GitHub-hosted runner costs its per-minute rate times your job minutes, and GitHub rounds each job up to a whole minute. The price list read on 1 November 2026 starts at $0.002 a minute for a 1-core Linux runner. Larger runners need a Team or Enterprise Cloud plan, and they are billed even in public repositories.
The table multiplies GitHub's Linux x64 rates by four monthly volumes. 43,200 minutes is one runner kept busy around the clock for 30 days. Every figure is before included compute.
| Runner (GitHub's spec) | Per minute | 5,000 min | 10,000 min | 20,000 min | 43,200 min |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2-core standard (2 CPU, 8 GB) | $0.006 | $30.00 | $60.00 | $120.00 | $259.20 |
| 8-core larger (8 vCPU, 32 GB) | $0.022 | $110.00 | $220.00 | $440.00 | $950.40 |
| 16-core larger (16 vCPU, 64 GB) | $0.042 | $210.00 | $420.00 | $840.00 | $1,814.40 |
| 32-core larger (32 vCPU, 128 GB) | $0.082 | $410.00 | $820.00 | $1,640.00 | $3,542.40 |
| 64-core larger (64 vCPU, 256 GB) | $0.162 | $810.00 | $1,620.00 | $3,240.00 | $6,998.40 |
Prices checked on
Divide the server's 30-day price by the per-minute rate of the runner it replaces: above that many minutes, the server is cheaper. The server's price does not move with usage. Quiet weekends cost the same as release week.
Against 2-core standard runners, the crossover sits much higher, because $0.006 a minute is cheap. Short jobs on small runners rarely justify a server on price alone. Long builds, big test matrices and many parallel jobs are where a flat price wins. A 3-, 6- or 12-month term lowers the server side further.
No: GitHub's larger-runner table counts vCPUs, while Lumenfer plans list physical cores and their threads. GitHub's 16-core Linux runner has 16 vCPU, 64 GB of RAM and a 600 GB SSD. Lumen 16 has 16 cores / 32 threads, 128 GB DDR5 and 2 × 1.92 TB NVMe.
Two other differences often matter more than the core count:
The flip side is isolation. GitHub notes that self-hosted runners do not need a clean instance for every job. That speeds builds up, and it also lets one job see what an earlier job left behind. Our guide to choosing build server hardware covers sizing in detail.
Mostly your time: GitHub makes you responsible for the runner machine's operating system, software and security. GitHub's docs call self-hosted runners free to use with Actions. The machine, its upkeep and its risks are yours.
The step-by-step runner setup on a rented server shows the hardening GitHub asks for.
Stay on GitHub-hosted runners for public repositories, small volumes, macOS or Windows builds, and short bursts of heavy parallelism.
The cheapest setup is often a mix: heavy Linux builds on a rented machine, everything else on GitHub. One label in runs-on decides where each job lands. For the wider picture beyond CI, read whether bare metal is cheaper than the cloud.
In Lumenfer's check of 30 October 2026, a no-KYC crypto server with 8+ cores, 64 GB and 1 TB had a median price of $291.52. With a 2022-or-newer CPU and NVMe only, that median rose to $356.07, 22% more. Newer CPUs cost extra almost everywhere; our plans aim to remove that premium.
Mainstream hosts stay cheaper on older hardware. Hetzner's server auction started at €37.70 a month plus an IPv4 address on 30 October 2026, but Hetzner takes no crypto. Every plan and term is on the Lumenfer pricing page. If you are unsure how many cores to rent, start with how many CPU cores a rented server needs.
| Server | Specs | Price per month |
|---|---|---|
| Lumenfer Lumen 16 | AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (2024, 16 cores / 32 threads), 128 GB DDR5, 2 × 1.92 TB NVMe in RAID 1, 60 TB a month at 1 Gbit/s, 1 IPv4 and an IPv6 /64 | $205.27 |
| AbeloHost: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (PL) | AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, 16 cores / 192 GB / 2 x 2 TB NVMe | €244.99 ($273.70) |
| MonoVM (second cheapest) | Comparable 16-core server | $356.07 |
| Median of 8 hosts | Comparable 16-core servers | $430.21 |
| Lumenfer Lumen 32 | AMD EPYC 9354 (2022, 32 cores / 64 threads), 384 GB DDR5 ECC, 2 × 3.84 TB NVMe in RAID 1, 150 TB a month at 1 Gbit/s, 1 IPv4 and an IPv6 /64 | $749.67 |
| MonoVM: EPYC 9354/384/2x3.84TB NVMe | EPYC 9354, 32 cores / 384 GB / 2x3840 GB | $999.57 |
| 1Gbits (second cheapest) | Comparable 32-core server | $1038.02 |
| Median of 6 hosts | Comparable 32-core servers | $1476.45 |
Prices checked on
Crypto-paying hosts with no ID check at signup; 2022+ CPU, NVMe only, monthly billing. 1 EUR = 1.1172 USD (ECB, 30 October 2026). MonoVM and 1Gbits accept crypto through several processors, including Cryptomus/Heleket, a processor the UK designated for sanctions on 8 October 2026.
Each plan is a whole machine for one customer, billed per 30 days, 3 months, 6 months or 12 months from a crypto balance. Amsterdam (Netherlands), Reykjavik (Iceland), Zurich (Switzerland) and Bucharest (Romania): all five plans in all four cities, one price everywhere.
8 cores · 64 GB DDR5
$109.37
3 months $295.29 (−10%)6 months $524.97 (−20%)1 year $918.70 (−30%)
Flagship
16 cores · 128 GB DDR5
$205.27
3 months $554.22 (−10%)6 months $985.29 (−20%)1 year $1,724.26 (−30%)
24 cores · 256 GB DDR5
$356.25
3 months $961.87 (−10%)6 months $1,710 (−20%)1 year $2,992.50 (−30%)
32 cores · 384 GB DDR5
$749.67
3 months $2,024.10 (−10%)6 months $3,598.41 (−20%)1 year $6,297.22 (−30%)
In every plan: 2022+ CPU · DDR5 · NVMe only · RAID 1 · Dedicated IPv4 · No KYC
Yes, on GitHub's side. Its billing docs, read on 1 November 2026, list self-hosted runners among usage that stays free and does not draw on included compute. GitHub announced a $0.002-per-minute platform charge for them in December 2025, then postponed it without a new date. You still pay for the machine.
GitHub now states the allowance in dollars, not minutes: $12 a month on Free, $18 on Pro and Team, $300 on Enterprise Cloud. GitHub's own example: $300 covers 50,000 minutes of a standard Linux runner at $0.006. Standard runners in public repositories are free and leave that allowance untouched.
Yes. Register several runners on the machine, each in its own folder with its own service, and each takes one job at a time. Size them so your heaviest jobs fit in memory together. With 16 cores / 32 threads, four runners of eight threads each is a common split.
No. Linux images only: Debian, Ubuntu, AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux, plus Proxmox VE for running virtual machines on the hardware. Windows is not offered. Keep macOS and Windows jobs on GitHub-hosted runners and move only Linux builds and tests to the rented machine. GitHub lists $0.010 a minute for a 2-core Windows runner and $0.062 for macOS.
GitHub cancels a job that has waited in the queue for 24 hours. A runner that does not connect for more than 14 days is removed from GitHub and must be registered again. Our servers come without a remote console, so keep a second SSH session open during risky changes.
Servers are prepared by a person once your payment is confirmed, within 72 hours rather than instantly; the dashboard shows progress and then the IP address when the machine is ready. You pay from a crypto balance in BTC, USDT, USDC, ETH, SOL, LTC, with a minimum top-up of $25. No KYC: we never ask for an ID, a selfie, documents, a card or a phone number.
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