Side-by-side comparison of 10+ CI/CD free tiers in 2026. Compare GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, Buildkite, Bitrise, Codemagic, Drone CI, and more — build minutes, concurrency, runners, and hidden costs.
Published 2026-03-31 · Reviewed 2026-09-30 · Figures compiled 2026-03-31, last checked 2026-09-30 · 5 of 5 figures in the “Pricing Change Timeline” table come from our records for 1,580 developer tools · 37 CI/CD services compared
Quick verdict: On public repositories, GitHub Actions' standard runners are free with no minute limit. For private repositories, GitHub Free includes 2,000 minutes a month. GitLab Free includes 400 compute minutes a month and a container registry. CircleCI Free gives 30,000 credits a month (up to 6,000 minutes on a small Docker resource class) and 30 concurrent jobs. Buildkite's Free plan includes 5 users, 10 concurrent jobs and 2,000 Linux vCPU minutes a month (1,000 minutes on its 2-vCPU agent).
The CI/CD landscape in 2026: GitHub announced a charge for self-hosted runners on 2025-12-16 and postponed it the next day, with no new date. GitLab Free has included 400 compute minutes a month since October 2020. Drone's free open-source edition runs on a single machine; Woodpecker CI is a community fork of Drone. For mobile CI, Bitrise's free Hobby plan gives 300 credits a month and Codemagic 500 macOS M2 build minutes.
Side-by-side comparison of the top 10 CI/CD free tiers.
| CI/CD | Free Minutes / Credits | Concurrent Jobs | Artifact / Cache | Runner Specs | Public vs Private | Self-Hosted | Always Free? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Actions Source ↗ | 2,000 min/mo (private) Unlimited (public) |
20 concurrent (public) 20 concurrent (private) |
500 MB artifacts, 10 GB cache/repo | 2 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (Linux, private repos); 4 vCPU, 16 GB (public) | Public: unlimited | Free (charge postponed) | Yes |
| GitLab CI Source ↗ | 400 compute min/mo | 500 jobs in active pipelines | 10 GiB per project (repo + LFS only); artifacts up to 1 GB each, 30 days | 2 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (default Linux runner) | Same rate; GitLab for Open Source projects get 50K minutes | Free (unlimited) | Yes |
| CircleCI CHANGED SEP 3 Source ↗ | 30,000 credits/mo | 30 jobs (Linux) | 2 GB-months storage + 1 GB transfer, then credits | Medium: 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM | Open source: up to 400,000 credits/mo (Linux, Arm, Docker) | Free runner time; 5 concurrent self-hosted tasks | Yes |
| Buildkite CHANGED SEP 5 Source ↗ | Unlimited (self-hosted) Hosted: 2,000 Linux vCPU min/mo |
10 | 50 GB/month artifact storage | Hosted Linux Small (2 vCPU, 4 GB) or your hardware | Same limits for all repos | Free (self-hosted) | Yes (Free plan, up to 5 users) |
| Bitbucket Pipelines Source ↗ | 50 min/mo | 10 steps at once (100 self-hosted) | 1 GB artifacts | 4 GB (1x step); 8 GB (2x, double minutes) | Same limits for all repos | Yes (no build minutes used) | Yes |
| Harness CI Source ↗ | 2,000 build credits/mo | Varies | 2 GB cache; 1 GB transfer | Cloud-hosted runners | Same limits for all repos | Free | Yes |
| Google Cloud Build Source ↗ | 2,500 min/mo (e2-standard-2) | 10-30 concurrent builds (default pool) | GCS storage (separate) | e2-standard-2 (2 vCPU, 8 GB) | Same limits for all repos | No (GCE-based) | Yes (promotional) |
| Bitrise Source ↗ | 300 credits/mo | 5 concurrent | 90-min build timeout | macOS Medium/Large, Linux Medium | 1 private app; unlimited public apps | Paid plans only | Yes (Hobby) |
| Codemagic Source ↗ | 500 min/mo | 1 concurrent | Build artifacts available | macOS M2 runners (Flutter) | Same limits for all repos | No | Yes |
| Drone CI Unconfirmed | Unlimited (self-hosted) | One machine (Community Edition) | Unlimited (your storage) | Your hardware | Same (self-hosted) | Fully self-hosted | Yes (Community) |
Four hosted CI/CD services with free tiers: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI and Bitbucket Pipelines.
| Provider | Free Tier | Config Format | Marketplace | Container Registry | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Actions Source ↗ | 2,000 min/mo + unlimited public | YAML (workflows) | 33,000+ marketplace actions | GitHub Packages (500 MB free) | Open source, GitHub-native projects |
| GitLab CI Source ↗ | 400 compute min/mo | YAML (.gitlab-ci.yml) | CI/CD catalog (growing) | Built-in (outside the 10 GiB limit) | All-in-one DevOps (code, CI, registry, deploy) |
| CircleCI CHANGED SEP 3 Source ↗ | 30,000 credits/mo | YAML + orbs | Orbs marketplace | No (external) | Complex workflows, parallelism, orbs |
| Bitbucket Pipelines Source ↗ | 50 min/mo | YAML (bitbucket-pipelines.yml) | Pipes (limited) | No (external) | Atlassian/Jira teams |
Newer platforms targeting developer experience, speed, and modern workflows. Often better self-hosted runner support.
| Provider | Free Tier | Self-Hosted Runners | Parallelism | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buildkite CHANGED SEP 5 Source ↗ | Free plan: 5 users, 10 concurrent jobs, 2,000 hosted minutes/mo | Up to 10 concurrent jobs on Free | 10 concurrent jobs | Fast builds, own infrastructure |
| Semaphore CI Source ↗ | Cloud: $15 monthly credit. Self-hosted Community Edition: free | Unlimited (Community Edition); $0.0025/min on Cloud | Configurable | Self-hosted teams |
| Buddy Source ↗ | 1 seat, 1 concurrent run, 300 pipeline GB-minutes/mo | Paid only | Limited | Visual pipeline builder, simple deploys |
| Harness CI Source ↗ | 2,000 build credits/mo | Free | Yes | Enterprise-grade CI with ML-powered insights |
Specialized for iOS/Android builds. Mobile CI/CD requires macOS runners for iOS and specific SDKs — general-purpose CI often struggles here.
| Provider | Free Tier | iOS Builds | Android Builds | Flutter | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitrise Source ↗ | 300 credits/mo, 5 concurrent | macOS runners | Linux runners | Supported | iOS, Android and cross-platform apps |
| Codemagic Source ↗ | 500 min/mo, 1 concurrent | macOS M2 runners | macOS M2 (Linux builds billed) | First-class (built by Nevercode) | Flutter apps |
| Appcircle Source ↗ | 20 builds/mo, 30 min/build, 1 concurrent | macOS runners | Linux runners | Supported | Enterprise mobile DevOps |
Niche CI/CD tools for specific use cases — monorepos, infrastructure-as-code, and cloud-native builds.
| Provider | Free Tier | Specialty | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nx Cloud CHANGED MAY 4 Source ↗ | Hobby plan: free for small teams | Monorepo build orchestration | Nx/monorepo projects (remote caching, task distribution) |
| Google Cloud Build Source ↗ | 2,500 build-min/mo (e2-standard-2) | GCP-native, container builds | GCP projects, container image builds |
| Codefresh FREE REMOVED Ended | No published free plan (now part of Octopus Deploy) | GitOps + Argo CD native | Kubernetes deployments, GitOps workflows |
| Terramate Unconfirmed | Free up to 2 users, 1,000 resources | IaC orchestration (Terraform, OpenTofu) | IaC orchestration inside your CI/CD |
| RunJob (formerly RunMyJob) | 400 vCPU-min, 800 GB-min, 10 concurrent | Smart scaling for GitHub Actions/GitLab CI | Cost optimization for existing CI pipelines |
Woodpecker CI and Drone's Apache 2.0 Community Edition are open source and run on your own servers with no build-minute limits. Drone's Community Edition runs on one machine.
| Provider | License | Config | Container-Native | Kubernetes | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drone CI Unconfirmed | Community (Apache 2.0) | YAML (.drone.yml) | Docker-native | Kubernetes runner (Beta; not in the Community Edition) | Docker-native CI, simple YAML config |
| Woodpecker CI Unconfirmed | Apache 2.0 | YAML (.woodpecker.yml) | Docker-native | Kubernetes backend | Drone CI fork with active community |
Unlimited free minutes for public repos on standard runners, 33,000+ marketplace actions, native GitHub integration. View GitHub Actions details →
GitLab CI: 400 min/mo, unlimited minutes on your own runners (up to 50 per project) and a built-in container registry. CircleCI: 30,000 credits/mo with powerful parallelism. GitLab wins on all-in-one; CircleCI wins on raw compute. CI/CD alternatives guide →
30,000 credits/month, 30 concurrent Linux jobs, orbs for reusable configurations, and built-in test splitting. The best free tier for compute-heavy pipelines. View CircleCI details →
500 free minutes/month with macOS M2 runners. First-class Flutter, iOS and Android support including code signing and App Store deployment. View Codemagic details →
400+ pre-built steps for mobile workflows. 300 credits/month, macOS runners for iOS builds, pre-configured steps for common mobile workflows. View Bitrise details →
Remote caching and distributed task execution for Nx-based monorepos. Free hobby plan skips tasks that already ran with the same inputs. Pairs with any CI provider (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, etc.).
Truly free and unlimited CI/CD on your own infrastructure. Docker-native, simple YAML config, no build-minute limits. Drone's Community Edition runs on one machine; Woodpecker is an Apache 2.0 community fork of Drone.
Free CI/CD tiers have several non-obvious limits that can catch you off guard. Here’s what to watch for.
Past the free quota, GitHub charges $0.006 a minute for Linux 2-core, $0.010 for Windows 2-core and $0.062 for macOS 3- or 4-core. Its docs no longer list multipliers but say usage totals include them. GitLab's cost factor multiplies job time: 1 on small Linux, 2 on medium, 6 on macOS M1 (paid tiers only).
GitHub Actions: 500 MB free artifact storage (shared with GitHub Packages). Artifacts auto-expire after 90 days (configurable). GitLab: each project's 10 GiB covers its Git repository and LFS only. Artifacts can be up to 1 GB each and expire after 30 days unless set otherwise. CircleCI: Artifacts stored for 30 days on free plan. No cache is unlimited: GitHub includes 10 GB per repository and drops entries unused for 7 days; GitLab-hosted runners drop caches not updated in 14 days; CircleCI keeps caches 15 days; Bitbucket caches are 1 GB each, kept 7 days.
Free tiers typically limit concurrent jobs: Bitbucket Pipelines Free runs up to 10 steps at once on cloud runners and 100 on self-hosted runners. Codemagic's free plan runs one build at a time; Bitrise Hobby allows 5. GitHub Free allows 20 concurrent jobs on standard runners (5 for macOS). For teams with multiple developers pushing frequently, concurrent job limits matter more than total minutes.
Google Cloud Build charges network egress at standard rates; its pricing page names no free allowance. CircleCI meters network transfer only to self-hosted runners: Free includes 1 GB, then draws from credits. GitLab publishes no data-transfer allowance for its Free tier. If you’re pulling large Docker images or datasets in CI, check whether data transfer counts against your free allocation.
GitHub and GitLab charge nothing for jobs on your own runners. Buildkite's Free plan allows up to 10 concurrent jobs on self-hosted agents. CircleCI Free runs at most 5 self-hosted tasks at once and draws credits for storage and network use past its allotments. You pay for the machines that host the runners.
Recent CI/CD pricing changes from our tracker. See the full timeline for all 424 tracked changes.
| Date | Provider | Change | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| discovered Sep 5, 2026 · effective date unknown | Buildkite | Between the Internet Archive's captures of 2026-06-14 and 2026-09-01, Buildkite replaced its $0 Personal plan (1 user, 3 concurrent jobs, 500 Linux vCPU minutes and 50k test executions a month, 90-day build retention) with a $0 Free plan: up to 5 users, 10 concurrent jobs, 2,000 Linux vCPU minutes and 250k test executions a month, and 30-day build retention. Source ↗ | MEDIUM |
| discovered Sep 3, 2026 · effective date unknown | CircleCI | CircleCI's plan table began listing the (x86) Docker (Gen 2) Small, Medium, Medium+ and Large resource classes as available on the Free plan, between the Internet Archive's captures of 2026-08-29 and 2026-09-01. The Free plan's 30,000 credits a month, up to 5 active users and 30x concurrency did not change. Source ↗ | MEDIUM |
| discovered Aug 28, 2026 · effective date unknown | Stategraph | Terrateam's free tier went from unlimited users, runs, concurrency and private runners to 50 runs a month, 3 users and 1 private runner, between the Internet Archive's captures of its pricing page of 2026-06-16 and 2026-08-28. Source ↗ | MEDIUM |
| effective May 4, 2026 | Nx Cloud | Between the Internet Archive's captures of nx.dev/nx-cloud of 2026-04-23 and 2026-05-04, Nx Cloud's free Hobby plan began listing "5 complimentary contributors"; on 2026-04-23 the contributor allowance was listed on the Team plan only. Its 50,000 monthly credits did not change. Source ↗ | MEDIUM |
| effective Jan 1, 2026 | GitHub Actions | Self-hosted runner per-minute fee ($0.002/min) announced for March 2026 was postponed indefinitely after community backlash. Self-hosted runners remain free. Separately, hosted runner prices were reduced up to 39% (Jan 2026) Source ↗ | LOW |
A source check reads each cited page for that service's name and a price. The figures in the tables above are from our own records, except for the services whose entry below dates them to a read of the vendor's own page.
Compare CI/CD free tiers, track pricing changes, and plan your DevOps stack — all from your AI coding assistant.
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We publish no ranking of these. Nothing we record measures popularity or generosity, so naming a best or a top few would be our preference rather than our data. We hold 38 CI/CD services in our catalogue, each with the free tier terms. This page compares them on free tier limits, what each charges past them, and lock-in risk; the table above carries the figures side by side. Our ranking rule is published at /criteria.
We name no most generous free tier here, because generosity is not one quantity: the columns above measure different things and a tier that leads one trails another.
Each provider structures free tier limits differently — some cap storage, others cap requests or compute hours. Our comparison table provides exact numbers for each provider. See Hidden Costs and Gotchas for what you pay past the free limits.