What are github actions minutes/month?

github github-actions
pebox11 picture pebox11 · Jul 4, 2020 · Viewed 8.4k times · Source

Can you please give a clear explanation, maybe with an example, as to what does github mean when saying that a plan includes 2000 actions minutes/month? If I execute a git pull does this count as one action? How actions connect to minutes? The time I take to pull some commits from a repo counts towards the minutes I have?

I am aware of SO answers (like this) that may tell someone how to calculate the time remaining but I don't really understand what an action is.

For example, say I have a repository with some python/js code and I start working on a new system. When I do a git pull to clone my repository in this new system are there any actions in the backstage that are consumed? Do I consume any time from my plan? This is what I haven't clarified and needed maybe some simple examples to demonstrate. Thanks!

Answer

Madhu Bhat picture Madhu Bhat · Jul 4, 2020

GitHub Actions is a feature provided by GitHub to create workflows which can run on triggering any GitHub event, for eg run the build of the project on creation of a pull request. GitHub actions can be configured by creation of a workflow in the form of a yaml file and placing it under .github/workflows directory in your repo. This documentation provides more info regarding creating workflows.

For example, say I have a repository with some python/js code and I start working on a new system. When I do a git pull to clone my repository in a new system are there any actions in the backstage that are consumed? Do I consume any time from my plan?

No, running a git pull to clone your repo doesn't use up any allocated action minutes.

GitHub actions only run if you have configured them to run by creating the workflows for specific GitHub events as mentioned here. When any actions are configured for a repo, the same can be viewed under the Actions tab as shown below. Every GitHub action triggered shows up here.

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Also, the current 2000 action minutes per month allocation is for the triggered workflows for private repos, not public repos. You can check your usage of the free action minutes for private repos at https://github.com/settings/billing, as mentioned in my SO answer here .

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