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Spend controls

Use your included GitHub minutes first, then switch to your own machines before you pay overage.

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A busy month, or a few agents pushing all day, can use up a plan’s included minutes well before the month ends. After that, GitHub either bills overage or stops starting jobs. This guide keeps CI running without either.

1. Order the runners

Section titled “1. Order the runners”

On the Router page, set:

  1. GitHub-hosted, while under 80%
  2. Self-hosted
  3. GitHub-hosted

Jobs use GitHub while the account is under 80% of its included minutes. Past that, they go to your machines. If no machine is free, the last step still sends them to GitHub, so nothing stalls.

Drop step 3 if you’d rather a job fail than ever bill overage. A job that finds no free machine then fails fast with the reason.

2. Pick the limit

Section titled “2. Pick the limit”

The limit is a share of the plan’s included minutes for the month. 80% leaves room for jobs you haven’t routed.

Each GitHub account is checked on its own. One org going over its limit doesn’t move another org’s jobs.

3. Have somewhere to go

Section titled “3. Have somewhere to go”

The limit only helps if there’s a next step. Connect at least one machine, share it with the workspace if teammates push too, and route the jobs that use the most minutes. The Usage page shows which repos those are.

Cap other providers too

Section titled “Cap other providers too”

Blacksmith, Depot, WarpBuild and Ubicloud steps can have a monthly dollar limit the same way. See Spend limits.

Watch it

Section titled “Watch it”
  • Router: each account’s minutes used this month, next to the limit.
  • Activity: jobs that passed GitHub by, marked with the account’s usage at the time.
  • Usage: minutes and cost per repo, and how much went on jobs that finished in seconds but billed a whole minute.

Cut minutes you don’t need

Section titled “Cut minutes you don’t need”