Compare CircleCI and GitHub Actions free tiers side by side. Pricing, limits, change history, and risk assessment for developers.

CircleCI vs GitHub Actions

Side-by-side free tier comparison. Catalogue dates here run to 2026-08-20.

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Verdict

Both CircleCI and GitHub Actions offer free tiers. CircleCI provides "Free" while GitHub Actions offers "Free".

A verdict here is not a fixed property of the vendor. A one-off pricing event demotes a vendor while its recorded date falls in the last 180 days and then lapses on its own, with nothing about the vendor having changed; a standing condition — a free tier withdrawn, a product retired — does not lapse with time. A badge carrying a date states the record it rests on; a badge with no date rests on no record in force.

CircleCI

Riskstable
CategoryCI/CD
TierFree
Verified2026-08-20
Last read2026-09-19
Changes1 recorded
The Free plan includes 30,000 credits/month, 5 active users, and options for different resource classes (Docker, Windows, Linux, Arm, macOS) with varying concurrency levels (30x for Docker, Linux, Arm, Windows VM, and macOS VM).

GitHub Actions

Riskstable
CategoryCI/CD
TierFree
Verified2026-08-14
Last read2026-09-16
Changes1 recorded
Free CI/CD for public repos (unlimited minutes). Private repos: 2,000 min/mo GitHub-hosted runners, 500 MB artifact storage, 10 GB cache/repo. Self-hosted runners remain free — planned $0.002/min charge was postponed indefinitely after community backlash (March 2026). Hosted runner prices reduced 39% (Jan 2026)

Pricing Change History

CircleCI

increased discovered 2026-09-03 · effective date unknown medium impact
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 ↗

GitHub Actions

postponed effective 2026-01-01 low impact
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 ↗

Watch Both Vendors for Pricing Changes

We do not push notifications. Every change we record is readable the moment it lands, and the JSON answer carries an ETag — send it back as If-None-Match and an unchanged answer costs one 304.

curl https://agentdeals.dev/api/changes?vendor=CircleCI curl https://agentdeals.dev/pricing-changes/feed.xml?vendor=CircleCI curl https://agentdeals.dev/api/changes?vendor=GitHub%20Actions curl https://agentdeals.dev/pricing-changes/feed.xml?vendor=GitHub%20Actions

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