GitHub Actions vs Buildkite: what the same workload costs
GitHub Actions and Buildkite both publish per-minute prices for hosted machines, but they wrap them in different plans. Buildkite's Pro plan charges per user and meters compute to the second; GitHub gives an allowance of minutes and rounds each job up. This page prices the same workloads on both with the calculator. It compares list prices only.
How Buildkite's Pro plan is priced
| Item | Free plan | Pro plan |
|---|---|---|
| Price per active user | no charge | $30 per month |
| Users | up to 5 | up to 50 |
| Hosted Linux vCPU minutes per month | up to 2,000 | 4,000 included |
| Self-hosted agents | not listed here | 10 included, then $3.50 per agent per month |
Enterprise prices are listed as custom, so they are not compared here.
Hosted agent rates
Buildkite prices hosted agents per vCPU minute: $0.004 for Linux and $0.02 for Mac. Its page says usage is metered to the second, with no minimums and no rounding. The shapes on the price list work out as follows.
| Hosted agent shape | Rate per minute |
|---|---|
| Linux Small (2 vCPU, 4 GB, AMD64) | $0.008 |
| Linux Medium (4 vCPU, 16 GB, AMD64) | $0.016 |
| Linux Large (8 vCPU, 32 GB, AMD64) | $0.032 |
| Mac M4 Medium (6 vCPU, 28 GB) | $0.12 |
| Mac M4 Large (12 vCPU, 56 GB) | $0.24 |
For reference, the GitHub standard runners closest in kind are below. The machines are not the same size, so the rates are not like for like.
| GitHub standard runner | Rate per minute |
|---|---|
| Linux 2-core (x64) | $0.006 |
| Windows 2-core (x64) | $0.01 |
| macOS 3-core or 4-core | $0.062 |
The price list read for this site has no Windows hosted shape, and says ARM64 and shapes larger than Large are available on request for Enterprise customers without giving a price. In the calculator, a GitHub runner with no match stays "not compared" and is named in the result.
Three differences that move the bill
- Users. Buildkite Pro charges every active user. GitHub's Actions bill has no per-user line; its plan seat prices exist but are not in this site's data, so the GitHub figures below are compute only.
- Rounding. GitHub rounds each job up to a whole minute. Buildkite does not round, so many short jobs cost relatively less there.
- What is included. GitHub Team includes 3,000 minutes on standard runners. Buildkite Pro includes 4,000 Linux vCPU minutes, which is 2,000 minutes on a 2 vCPU shape.
How the calculator prices Buildkite
- Usage = your un-rounded minutes times the per-minute rate of the shape you match to each GitHub runner.
- The Pro plan's included Linux vCPU minutes are taken off the Linux usage. A shape's vCPU count is its rate divided by the per-vCPU-minute price.
- Every active user is charged the per-user price.
Worked example 1: a small team
40 jobs a day, exactly 6 minutes each, 22 working days, all on Linux in a private repository, 5 active users: 5,280 minutes a month, matched to the Linux Small shape.
| Service | Compute per month | Users per month | Total per month | Total per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Actions, GitHub Team | $13.68 | not in the data | $13.68 | $164.16 |
| Buildkite Pro, Linux Small | $26.24 | $150.00 | $176.24 | $2,114.88 |
The Buildkite compute figure is $42.24 of usage less $16.00 for the included vCPU minutes: the workload uses 10,560 Linux vCPU minutes and 4,000 are included. With one active user instead of five, the Buildkite total is $56.24 a month. On these list prices the per-user charge, not the compute, decides the Buildkite total for a small team.
Worked example 2: jobs that do not end on the minute
Same team, but the jobs average 5.2 minutes. GitHub bills each as 6 minutes, so the GitHub side is unchanged: 5,280 billed minutes and $13.68. Buildkite is priced on the 4,576 minutes really used: $36.61 of usage, $20.61 of compute after the included minutes, and $170.61 a month with five users. Buildkite's compute drops with the shorter jobs; GitHub's does not until a job crosses a whole-minute boundary.
Worked example 3: a busier team
120 jobs a day, 8 minutes each, 22 working days: 21,120 minutes a month, 5 active users.
| Service | Compute per month | Users per month | Total per month | Total per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Actions, GitHub Team | $108.72 | not in the data | $108.72 | $1,304.64 |
| Buildkite Pro, Linux Small | $152.96 | $150.00 | $302.96 | $3,635.52 |
As usage grows, the included amounts matter less on both sides and the per-minute rates take over: $0.006 on GitHub's Linux 2-core runner against $0.008 on Buildkite's 2 vCPU shape.
What this comparison cannot tell you
- Speed. A 2 vCPU machine on one service is not the same machine on the other. The examples assume a job takes the same time on both, which you should test before deciding.
- Self-hosted agents. Many Buildkite users run their own agents. That cost is your own infrastructure plus the per-agent price beyond the included ones, and it is not part of these examples.
- GitHub seats. Add your own GitHub plan cost to the GitHub rows for a full total.
- Anything beyond compute and users. Storage, test analytics, package registries, discounts and taxes are outside both estimates.
Compare your own workload. The free calculator gives the GitHub Actions side. The full version prices the same workload on Buildkite's Pro plan with hosted agents, with the shape for each runner chosen by you.