How to Measure GitHub Actions Minutes Usage

You cannot cut what you do not measure; GitHub reports minutes per runner OS in the billing UI and via the billing API.

Start with the org or account billing page for a summary, then pull the machine-readable numbers from the /settings/billing/usage REST endpoint so you can trend them over time.

Steps

• Open Settings to Billing and licensing to Usage this month for a summary by runner OS.
• Download the CSV usage report for a per-workflow, per-repo line-item breakdown.
• Call the billing REST API to pull the same numbers into a dashboard on a schedule.

Pull usage from the API

# Enhanced billing usage for an org (minutes, by product and SKU)
curl -sS -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GH_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.github.com/organizations/my-org/settings/billing/usage?year=2026&month=6" \
  | jq '.usageItems[] | select(.product=="actions")'

Gotchas

• The token needs admin/billing scope; a plain repo token returns 403.
• Minutes are metered by runner OS, so macOS and Windows lines look large even at low usage.
• Included minutes reset monthly and do not roll over; unused free minutes are lost.

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