What Are GitHub Actions Minutes?
Actions minutes are how GitHub bills hosted runners: job wall-clock time multiplied by an OS factor, counted against your plan.
GitHub-hosted runners are not free past a point. They are metered in minutes, and the math has a twist: not all minutes cost the same, because operating systems carry different multipliers.
What they are
A minute is one minute of job execution time on a GitHub-hosted runner. Each account gets a monthly free allotment on private repos; beyond that, minutes are billed.
How they are counted
Minutes are rounded up per job and multiplied by an OS factor: Linux counts at 1x, Windows at 2x, and macOS at 10x. So a 10-minute macOS job consumes 100 minutes of quota. Larger runners cost more still.
- Linux: 1x multiplier.
- Windows: 2x multiplier.
- macOS: 10x multiplier.
Controlling usage
Caching, concurrency cancellation, path filters, and trimming matrices all cut minute usage. Public repositories generally do not consume minutes on standard runners.
Why it matters
Minutes are where CI cost adds up fast, especially Windows and macOS. Latchkey managed runners run the same workflows at a lower effective per-minute cost, so heavy pipelines get cheaper without changing your YAML.
Related concepts
Minute usage is driven by runner choice, matrix size, caching, and concurrency settings.
Key takeaways
- Minutes bill GitHub-hosted runner job time.
- OS multipliers: Linux 1x, Windows 2x, macOS 10x.
- Caching, concurrency, and filters cut usage and cost.