Actions storage charges dated after cleanup; cannot lower budget to $0 without a payment method

[MYZ8088]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Other

Discussion Details

Hi everyone, I am trying to understand an Actions storage billing discrepancy and how to prevent future paid usage on a personal GitHub Free account without adding a payment method.

What I have checked

• My saved cleanup audit records Actions being disabled and workflow runs containing artifacts being deleted on August 26, 2026 (UTC; August 27 in UTC+8). The post-cleanup verification reported zero remaining artifacts and caches for the affected experiment repository.
• However, the September billing breakdown attributes Actions storage charges to that repository on September 1–8. The account's September Actions billable usage is USD 10, from storage; the listed runner minutes are billed at USD 0.
• No additional storage charges are visible for September 9–29. I am asking about the earlier usage dates, rather than claiming that charges are still increasing now.
• A recent REST API audit of all 69 experiment repositories in my account found Actions disabled, zero artifacts, zero caches, and no active or queued/waiting runs. This check covers those experiment repositories, not every possible storage product on the account.

I understand from the Actions billing documentation that deleting artifacts does not erase charges already accrued. What I cannot reconcile is why the usage breakdown shows storage dates in September after the cleanup recorded in August. I am not assuming a billing error; I would like to know what else to check.

Payment method and budget issue

I recently removed my old payment method and currently cannot add a valid replacement. I tried to lower my existing Actions budget from USD 10 to USD 0 while keeping “Stop usage” enabled. The page reports:

Payment method is missing

Please set up a valid payment method before creating or adjusting your budget.

After attempting to save, the budget remained USD 10.

Questions

1. Has anyone resolved a similar mismatch between artifact deletion timestamps and later storage usage dates? What evidence or checks helped identify the billed storage?
2. Is there a supported way to reduce an existing Actions budget to USD 0 without adding a payment method, or does Support need to make that change?
3. What additional checks can confirm that no Actions storage is still accruing charges, while preserving the option to use the free Actions allowance later?

I have already opened a private billing support ticket. I am asking the community for similar experiences and diagnostic steps; I understand that account-specific billing corrections must be handled by Support.

I found related discussions about storage quota remaining full after deletion and the same payment-method warning when editing budgets, but I have not found a confirmed resolution covering this combination of circumstances.

Thank you for any practical experience you can share.

[kittimzhe]

Two mechanisms to reconcile here.

1. The September 1–8 dates. Artifact storage accrues hourly on what exists, and — as you noted — deleting artifacts stops future accrual but doesn't refund what already accrued. For charges to land on September 1–8, the billing system has to have seen billable storage during those days. Two candidates your audit may not have covered:

• Packages shares the Actions storage pool. Your REST audit covered Actions artifacts and caches across the 69 experiment repos, but Packages storage draws from the same pool — and packages are account-scoped, so they survive repo deletion. Worth checking Billing & Licensing → Usage filtered to storage, plus the Packages page, to rule out a package accruing during Sep 1–8.
• Late-recorded August usage. If neither artifacts nor packages existed then, the remaining explanation is August usage being recorded into September rows. I'm not aware of a documented reporting lag that long, so that part is worth putting to Support as a direct question: "what usage period do the Sep 1–8 rows actually represent, and were they recorded late?"

The evidence that settles it either way: the usage export (Billing & Licensing → Usage → export) lists repository, product, day, and quantity per row — comparing the Sep 1–8 rows against your audit timestamps shows exactly which product and which repo the charges belong to.

2. Lowering the budget to $0 without a payment method. The error you hit is the UI enforcing its own rule: budgets can only be created or adjusted with a valid payment method on file. So there's no self-serve path to $0 without one — that's a Support-side change. But note you may not need it: with no valid payment method on file, the documented behavior is that usage is blocked once you use up your quota — already the strongest "no surprise paid usage" state a Free account can be in. The $10 budget sitting there is a cap, not a commitment; without a chargeable payment method it cannot produce charges on its own.