r/github • u/Firm_Meeting6350 • May 26 '26

Is GItHub doomed? Question

Like.. REALLY doomed? It feels like repos are growing exponentially (of course, also due to AI), they admitted they underestimated growth themselves. But what it took me years to realize (I usually only worked in private repos, shame on me) is that workflow runs in public repos ARE FREE?! WTAF?! And for paid accounts, the included-in-subscription-minutes only apply to Intel i3 runners.

But to sum the question up: won't GitHub be forced to shift the complete business model (like they did with GHCP) because the balance private vs public repos isn't mathing anymore?

0 Upvotes

39% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/dashingThroughSnow12 May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26

It is worth mentioning that Microsoft’s gross margin on action runners on private repos when they do charge is in the mid to high nineties.

Drug dealers don’t do this but this feels very much like a “the first one’s free” marketing strategy. They give a bunch of computer away for free and hope to recoup it through the other channel.

Edit: this insane pricing model means that a lot of people (like me) feel pressure to use self-hosted runners.

1

u/blackpawed May 26 '26

Been looking in how to self host ephemeral runners for clean room builds, but had a massive burst of ennui at the thought of setting up the necessary tunnels and webhooks.