$ ~/cicdcalculator
Interactive calculator · Verified June 2026independent / no vendor sponsorship

CI/CD Cost Calculator 2026
Buildkite, GitHub Actions, GitLab, CircleCI

By Oliver Wakefield-Smith, Founder, Digital Signet·Verified June 2026

Stop reading vendor pricing pages. Plug in your builds per day, average build minutes, parallelism, and team size, and see real monthly costs across GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, Buildkite, Bitbucket Pipelines, and self-hosted Jenkins.

Looking for the deep cost guides (pricing math, hidden taxes, vendor breakdowns)? See cicdcost.com.

~/cicdcalculator/run --compare
live
presets:
$ compute = 20,160 build mins / month$ assumes 21 working days / month

Monthly cost comparison

sorted ascending by monthly spend / linked to vendor pricing pages

cheapest: GitHub Actions / $183/mo
GitHub ActionsPASS / cheapest
Team plan ($80) + 17,160 mins @ $0.006/min
# rate: $0.006/min Linux 2-core all-in
# 3,000 free Linux mins on Team plan
$183
/ month
Linux 2-core baseline. Rates cut up to 39% in Jan 2026; the $0.002/min platform charge is included in the meter price. Self-hosted runners free.
Bitbucket Pipelines
Premium ($145) + 16,660 extra mins @ $0.010/min
# rate: $7.25/user + $0.01/min Linux
# 3,500 mins / month per workspace on Premium
$312
/ month
Tightly coupled with Jira. Best value if your stack is already Atlassian. No hosted macOS runners.
CircleCI
Performance ($240 incl users) + 171,600 extra credits @ $0.0006
# rate: $15/25K credits + $15 per extra user
# 30,000 credits + 5 active users / month
$343
/ month
Medium resource class. Larger machines burn proportionally more credits.
GitLab CI
Premium ($580) + 10,160 extra mins @ $0.010/min
# rate: $29/user + $0.01/min over allowance
# 10,000 CI mins / namespace / month on Premium
$682
/ month
Premium tier baseline. Included minutes are per namespace, not per user. Self-hosted runners run free.
Buildkite
20 seats @ $30 ($600) + 8 agents @ ~$30 ($240)
# rate: $30/user + your own infrastructure
# Personal plan free for 1 user, 3 concurrent jobs
$840
/ month
Bring-your-own-compute. No per-minute fees on self-hosted agents. Agent cost = your AWS / GCP bill.
Jenkins (self-hosted)
Controller + 8 agents (~$310) + admin allowance (~$800)
# rate: Free software + your infra
# Software is open source (MIT). Everything else costs.
$1,110
/ month
Software free. Infra estimate uses public AWS on-demand rates. Admin time is typical, not vendor-quoted.

$ Estimates use vendor-published pricing (re-verified June 2026). Enterprise discounts, regional rates, and resource-class choice will move the numbers. Use this as a starting point, not a quote.

Build-time profiler

Where do your build minutes actually go?

Type your average build profile. We'll plot the time-share per phase and rank phases by best-payback optimisation — the cheapest investment that takes the most minutes off your bill.

Clone + checkout · 5%
Dependency install · 20%
Compile / type-check · 18%
Test suite · 32%
Docker image build + push · 18%
Deploy / cleanup · 7%
Clone + checkout
Shallow clone (depth=1), partial checkout, blob:none filter, runner-local cache
0.6 min
Phase cost / mo
$8
−60% reducible
Payback
—
4h work
Dependency install
Lockfile hash → cache key; cache restore-before-install; consider runner pre-warmed images
2.2 min
Phase cost / mo
$32
−70% reducible
Payback
25.7 mo
6h work
Compile / type-check
Turbopack / SWC / Bazel remote cache; incremental compilation; pre-built base images
2.0 min
Phase cost / mo
$29
−50% reducible
Payback
—
24h work
Test suite
Parallelise + shard; flake quarantine; selective testing (Nx affected, jest --findRelatedTests)
3.5 min
Phase cost / mo
$51
−55% reducible
Payback
—
32h work
Docker image build + push
BuildKit cache mount; multi-stage; depot/buildjet remote builders; layered base images
2.0 min
Phase cost / mo
$29
−65% reducible
Payback
—
16h work
Deploy / cleanup
Async deploy notifications; skip artifact upload for non-main branches
0.8 min
Phase cost / mo
$11
−40% reducible
Payback
—
6h work
Best optimisation to ship first · 25.7 mo payback
Dependency install — ~6h of work to claw back $22/month. Lockfile hash → cache key; cache restore-before-install; consider runner pre-warmed images
Total reducible across all phases: $92/month · $158/month total today.
Optimisation references ↓
Compute-class explorer

Bigger runner = cheaper? Sometimes.

A 16-core runner costs 8x as much per minute but only finishes 3.5x faster — so the bill goes UP. Except, your developers stop waiting. We plot raw cost AND developer-time value across all GitHub Actions tiers.

TierBuild minsCompute / moDev-time valueNet / mo
Standard 2-core
2 vCPU · 7 GB · $0.006/min · raw 1x → realised 1.00x
12.0 min$173−$0$173
Larger 4-core
4 vCPU · 16 GB · $0.012/min · raw 1.7x → realised 1.33x
9.0 min$260−$778$-518
Larger 8-coreBest net
8 vCPU · 32 GB · $0.022/min · raw 2.5x → realised 1.56x
7.7 min$406−$1k$-728
Larger 16-core
16 vCPU · 64 GB · $0.042/min · raw 3.5x → realised 1.75x
6.9 min$691−$1k$-658
Larger 32-core
32 vCPU · 128 GB · $0.082/min · raw 4.2x → realised 1.84x
6.5 min$1k−$1k$-157
Larger 64-coreFastest
64 vCPU · 256 GB · $0.162/min · raw 4.6x → realised 1.89x
6.4 min$2k−$1k$996
Pricing + model assumptions ↓
  • Per-minute rates: GitHub Actions runners (Linux x64), official docs, re-verified June 2026. Rates reflect the January 2026 price reduction and include the $0.002/min platform charge.
  • Raw speedup (1.0/1.7/2.5/3.5/4.2/4.6x): medians from Depot and BuildJet independent benchmarks on real workloads (Rust compile, Jest matrix, Docker build). Real numbers vary ±15% with codebase shape.
  • Amdahl's law: realised speedup = 1 / ((1-p) + p/raw). The p coefficient (CPU-parallel fraction) is 0.85 for compile-heavy down to 0.4 for IO-bound. Reference: original 1967 Amdahl paper + AWS Compute Optimizer guidance.
  • Developer-time value: wallclock minutes saved × loaded hourly × reclaim % (the fraction of saved wait time that actually turns into productive work). 5-15% is realistic — most teams overestimate this. Set to 0 to see raw compute cost only.

Vendor build-minute rates / 2026 reference

# Linux 2-core baseline. Source: each vendor's public pricing page.

PlatformLinux rateFree / includedSeatNotes
GitHub Actions$0.006/min all-in3,000 mins (Team)$4 / userRates cut up to 39% Jan 2026
GitLab CI$0.01/min over allowance10,000 mins (Premium)$29 / userSelf-hosted runners free
CircleCI10 credits/min Linux med30,000 credits + 5 users$15 / extra userCredits at $0.0006, org-level pool
Bitbucket Pipelines$0.01/min over included3,500 mins / workspace$7.25 / userBundled with Jira
Buildkiten/a (you bring compute)Personal plan: 1 user free$30 / userOptional hosted agents per-minute
Jenkins$0 softwareUnlimited self-hosted$0Pay infrastructure + ops time

Deep dives

/comparison
Platform comparison

All 6 platforms side-by-side at 5, 20, and 50 dev team sizes. Feature matrix, ecosystem fit, hidden costs.

/optimization
Cost optimization

10 proven techniques to cut CI/CD spend: caching, test splitting, conditional jobs, right-sizing runners.

/migration
Migration estimator

How much does it cost to switch CI/CD platforms? Calculator for engineering hours and timeline by team size.

/self-hosted
Self-hosted vs cloud

Where the break-even point sits. Real infrastructure costs for self-hosted Jenkins, GitLab Runner, Drone CI.

/github-actions
GitHub Actions deep dive

Free tier limits, the January 2026 rate cuts, runner pricing, and how to keep your bill under $500.

/jenkins
Jenkins TCO

Free software, real costs. AWS / GCP estimates, plugin maintenance, when CloudBees is worth it.

Cost by build-minute tier

# Every platform priced at exactly your monthly volume.

/ci-cd-cost-for-2000-build-minutes
2,000 mins / mo

Solo dev or 2-3 person team. GitHub Actions Free covers it.

/ci-cd-cost-for-25000-build-minutes
25,000 mins / mo

Typical 25-dev team. The crossover zone.

/github-actions-free-tier
Is GitHub Actions free?

Public repos unlimited; private repos get 2,000 free Linux minutes + 500 MB.

/free-ci-cd-platforms
Free CI/CD options

Every free tier side-by-side, with the catches.

Per-platform pricing deep dives

# What each platform actually costs once you read past the marketing page.

/buildkite-pricing-per-user-unlimited-builds
Buildkite per user, unlimited builds

How $30/user plus your own compute compares to per-minute platforms.

/buildkite-agents-cost
Buildkite agent cost math

AWS, GCP, Spot, Mac mini and Kubernetes per-agent monthly figures.

/bitbucket-pipelines-pricing
Bitbucket Pipelines pricing

$3.65-$7.25/user with 2,500-3,500 included build minutes per workspace.

/drone-ci-pricing
Drone CI total cost

Open-source self-hosted at $30/mo for a small team setup.

/teamcity-pricing
TeamCity (JetBrains) pricing

Free Professional with 3 agents, $2,399/yr Server, or $45/committer Cloud.

/bitrise-pricing-mobile-ci
Bitrise mobile-CI cost

Flat plans (Starter $99, Pro $218/mo) plus pass-through Mac compute and iOS economics.

Head-to-head comparisons

# Direct X-vs-Y, with real numbers at three team sizes.

/buildkite-vs-github-actions
Buildkite vs GitHub Actions
/github-actions-vs-gitlab-ci
GitHub Actions vs GitLab CI
/github-actions-vs-jenkins
GitHub Actions vs Jenkins
/circleci-vs-github-actions
CircleCI vs GitHub Actions
/buildkite-vs-circleci
Buildkite vs CircleCI
/gitlab-ci-vs-jenkins
GitLab CI vs Jenkins
/jenkins-vs-bamboo
Jenkins vs Bamboo

CI/CD cost by language stack

# Build duration and resource needs vary by language. So does the bill.

/ci-cd-cost-for-ios-apps
iOS apps

Why every macOS minute costs 10x Linux. Mac mini fleet math saves 90%.

/ci-cd-cost-for-android-apps
Android apps

Gradle cache, emulator overhead, and Linux-runner pricing across platforms.

/ci-cd-cost-for-java-jvm
Java / JVM

Where the build minutes go in Spring Boot pipelines, and how to claw them back.

Frequently Asked Questions

# click any question to expand

How much does CI/CD really cost?>
For a 20-developer team running 100-150 builds per day at 8 minute average, expect $300 to $1,500 per month on hosted CI/CD platforms. The cheapest option is usually self-hosted Jenkins on small cloud VMs (around $200-400/mo for infra) but that excludes engineering time, which is rarely cheap. Hosted SaaS gets you out of plumbing work, costs more, and scales linearly with build minutes.
Which CI/CD platform is cheapest?>
It depends on usage shape. For low-volume Linux builds, GitHub Actions on the Team plan is usually cheapest because the free 3,000 minutes per month covers most small teams. For high-volume builds with consistent throughput, Buildkite or self-hosted Jenkins beat per-minute platforms once you cross roughly 100,000 build minutes per month (a higher bar since GitHub's January 2026 rate cut). CircleCI gets pricey on macOS, GitLab CI is competitive at any scale if you stay inside the included allowance.
Why does runner OS matter so much?>
Linux is the baseline price on every platform. Windows runners cost about 2x as much. macOS runners cost 10x. If you're building iOS or macOS apps, your CI bill will dwarf your colleagues' Linux pipelines. Self-hosted macOS runners (a Mac mini in a closet) are often the only way to avoid burning money on cloud macOS minutes.
Are these prices accurate?>
Numbers come from each vendor's public pricing page, re-verified June 2026. Real spend depends on your resource class, region, enterprise discounts (often 10-30% off list at six-figure ARR), and how often jobs queue or fail. Use the calculator as a sanity-check before sales calls, not a quote.
Should I move to self-hosted runners?>
Self-hosted runners save money once you exceed 80,000-100,000 build minutes per month consistently. Below that threshold the engineering time to run them rarely pays back. The right answer for most mid-size teams is hybrid: hosted runners for the long tail of slow jobs and PR checks, self-hosted for hot paths and macOS.
What about Jenkins vs everyone else?>
Jenkins is free software, but free software still runs on servers and needs operators. A typical mid-size Jenkins setup costs $200-500/month in infrastructure plus 4 to 20 hours per month of admin time. If your team already runs Kubernetes and treats Jenkins as cattle, total cost is competitive. If a single engineer is babysitting plugin upgrades, you're paying more than GitHub Actions in salary alone.