Guide · Blacksmith pricing page read November 1, 2026
Blacksmith pricing for GitHub Actions, 2026
Per-minute rates, free minutes and add-ons from Blacksmith’s own page, and what a job cost in a twelve-workload benchmark.
In short
Blacksmith lists $0.004 a minute for an Ubuntu x64 runner, $0.0025 for Ubuntu ARM, $0.008 for Windows x64 and $0.08 for macOS M4, with 3,000 free minutes a month, and sells Docker layer caching, sticky disks and static IPs as add-ons. GitHub-hosted 2-core Linux lists at $0.006 a minute. Vitko Runners lists $0.002 a minute, billed per second. In CI Bench v1, cost per job against GitHub-hosted was 0.48 for Blacksmith and 0.16 for Vitko Runners. Vitko maintains that benchmark and sells Vitko Runners, which is in private beta.
Blacksmith’s published prices
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Ubuntu x64 | $0.004 a minute |
| Ubuntu ARM | $0.0025 a minute |
| Windows x64 | $0.008 a minute |
| macOS M4 | $0.08 a minute |
| Free minutes | 3,000 a month, listed for each runner type |
| Docker layer caching | +$0.50 per GB a month (Ubuntu x64, Ubuntu ARM, Windows x64) |
| Sticky disks | +$0.50 per GB a month (Ubuntu x64, Ubuntu ARM, Windows x64) |
| Static IPs | +$100 per IP a month (Ubuntu and Windows) |
Source: Blacksmith pricing, read November 1, 2026. The page shows one per-minute price per operating system and does not state how a job’s time is rounded. It also lists a 67% “total cost saving” for Ubuntu x64, which it says is based on GitHub’s per-minute rate and an estimated 2x faster runtime on Blacksmith: that is Blacksmith’s estimate, not a measurement made here.
Per-minute price next to GitHub-hosted and Vitko Runners
| Runner | Per minute | 10-minute job at list price | Free minutes a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub-hosted, 2-core Linux | $0.006 | $0.060 | 2,000 on GitHub Free, 3,000 on Team, for private repositories |
| Blacksmith, Ubuntu x64 | $0.004 | $0.040 | 3,000 |
| Vitko Runners (private beta) | $0.002, billed per second | $0.020 | 2,000 |
GitHub: runner pricing and Actions billing; GitHub rounds each job up to a whole minute. Vitko Runners: pricing. List prices, before any free minutes or add-ons.
Measured cost per job, twelve workloads
List price per minute is not cost per job, because runners take different amounts of time. In CI Bench v1 (twelve open-source workloads, measured October 7 to 11, 2026), the median job time and mean cost per job were:
| Workload | GitHub-hosted: time, cost | Blacksmith: time, cost | Vitko Runners: time, cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| burst | 259 s, $0.4998 | 97 s, $0.1656 | 160 s, $0.0556 |
| cli | 368 s, $0.0394 | 286 s, $0.0204 | 272 s, $0.0097 |
| codex-lint | 884 s, $0.0872 | 448 s, $0.0336 | 404 s, $0.0135 |
| container | 239 s, $0.0266 | 386 s, $0.0307† | 179 s, $0.0060 |
| fd | 92 s, $0.0120 | 65 s, $0.0055 | 49 s, $0.0016 |
| flask | 23 s, $0.0060 | 22 s, $0.0040 | 16 s, $0.0005 |
| guava | 1167 s, $0.1090 | 735 s, $0.0512 | 655 s, $0.0218 |
| monorepo | 384 s, $0.0396 | 177 s, $0.0140 | 180 s, $0.0058 |
| pydantic | 179 s, $0.0196 | 103 s, $0.0087 | 105 s, $0.0034 |
| ts | 784 s, $0.0774 | 401 s, $0.0299 | 372 s, $0.0122 |
| vite | 603 s, $0.0609 | 360 s, $0.0264 | 350 s, $0.0115 |
| vue | 121 s, $0.0140 | 76 s, $0.0077 | 63 s, $0.0020 |
Cost index against GitHub-hosted 2 vCPU (1.00; lower is cheaper): Blacksmith 0.48, Vitko Runners 0.16. Blacksmith had the lower median time on burst, monorepo and pydantic; Vitko Runners had it on the other nine (plain Vitko Runners, without warm starts or test splitting). † Blacksmith’s container cell: its Docker layer cache did not hit in that run; a re-run is planned (method note). Vitko maintains CI Bench and sells one of the runners measured. Every run and the method: cibench.com; head to head: Vitko Runners vs Blacksmith.
What the price does not tell you
- Platforms: Blacksmith lists Arm, Windows and macOS runners. Vitko Runners offers Ubuntu 24.04 on x64 only, for private repositories, in a United States region.
- Add-ons: Docker layer caching, sticky disks and static IPs are separate line items at Blacksmith. Vitko Runners has no Docker layer caching as a feature.
- Free minutes: 3,000 a month at Blacksmith against 2,000 at Vitko Runners.
- Availability: Vitko Runners is in private beta; join the waitlist.
All providers side by side: runner pricing compared. To price your own usage, use the calculator.
How much does Blacksmith cost per minute?
Blacksmith’s pricing page lists Ubuntu x64 at $0.004 a minute, Ubuntu ARM at $0.0025, Windows x64 at $0.008 and macOS M4 at $0.08, with 3,000 free minutes a month listed for each (read November 1, 2026). It shows no plan fee for the self-serve plans; Enterprise is “Contact our team”.
Does Blacksmith charge extra for Docker layer caching?
Its pricing page lists Docker layer caching as an add-on at $0.50 per GB a month on Ubuntu x64 and Ubuntu ARM and Windows x64, sticky disks at $0.50 per GB a month, and static IPs at $100 per IP a month (read November 1, 2026).
Is Blacksmith cheaper than GitHub-hosted runners?
At list price, yes: $0.004 a minute against GitHub’s $0.006 for a 2-core Linux runner, and GitHub rounds each job up to a whole minute. In CI Bench v1 (twelve workloads, measured October 7 to 11, 2026; Vitko maintains it and sells one of the runners measured), Blacksmith’s cost per job was 0.48 of GitHub-hosted 2 vCPU, which is 52% lower.
How does Vitko Runners pricing compare with Blacksmith?
Vitko Runners lists $0.002 a minute for a runner with up to 2 vCPU and 8 GB, billed per second, with 2,000 free minutes a month; Blacksmith lists $0.004 a minute with 3,000 free minutes. In CI Bench v1 the cost per job was 0.16 of GitHub-hosted for Vitko Runners and 0.48 for Blacksmith. Vitko Runners is in private beta and offers Ubuntu 24.04 on x64 only, while Blacksmith also lists Arm, Windows and macOS runners.
Where did these Blacksmith prices come from?
From Blacksmith’s own pricing page, linked in this guide and read on November 1, 2026. Prices change; check the page. Vitko sells one of the runners compared here.
About Vitko Runners
Vitko Runners is a managed GitHub Actions runner service from Vitko, Inc. It costs $0.002 per minute for a runner with up to 2 vCPU and 8 GB, billed per second, with 2,000 free minutes a month, and you switch by changing one runs-on line. It is in private beta; join the waitlist at runners.vitko.inc. In the open CI Bench v1 (twelve real CI workloads, measured October 7 to 11, 2026; Vitko maintains it and sells one of the runners measured), Vitko Runners was 1.7x as fast as GitHub-hosted 2 vCPU on median job time, 2.3x with warm starts and test splitting, at 84% lower cost per job. Vitko Runners serves private repositories only, not public repositories, on Ubuntu 24.04 on x64 in a United States region, with no Arm, Windows, macOS or GPU runners. Facts, price and limits.