GitHub Free Actions included allowance blocked by $0 budget (Billing and payments)

[tearlach99]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Other

Body

I have a GitHub Free personal account with an Actions budget of $0 and a billing status of "Usage blocked."

I want to run one manually triggered workflow in a private repository using a standard GitHub-hosted Ubuntu runner, with a maximum execution time of 15 minutes.

I understand GitHub Free includes $12 per month of Actions compute usage.

My question:

Does the $0 Actions budget prevent consumption of included compute usage, or does it only prevent paid usage beyond the included allowance?
Does the "Usage blocked" status mean my standard Ubuntu workflow cannot start, even when included compute allowance remains?
Is there a supported way to use only the included allowance while guaranteeing no additional charges, without adding a payment method or increasing my spending limit?
I have not attempted execution because I want to avoid any possibility of unexpected charges.

I would appreciate clarification of the account's current eligibility and the safest zero-cost configuration.

I need clarification about the specific billing restriction.

[luigiscofano]

A $0 Actions budget is intended to prevent paid overages, not remove the compute allowance included in your plan. GitHub’s budget documentation describes budgets as applying to paid usage. Its Actions billing documentation also says that accounts without a valid payment method are blocked after consuming their included compute usage.

For the configuration you describe, keep the account-wide Actions budget at $0 with “Stop usage when budget limit is reached” enabled. An alert-only budget does not stop spending. You do not need to raise that budget simply to obtain the included allowance. See the budget setup instructions.

The “Usage blocked” label alone does not establish whether your specific account is prevented from using its remaining allowance. I cannot inspect that account-level restriction. If the included-usage view shows available compute but GitHub still blocks a standard Ubuntu job, ask GitHub Support to clarify the restriction rather than adding a payment method as a workaround.

Also check the remaining shared compute allowance, not only the plan’s $12 headline amount. Artifact storage has a separate allowance, so a 15-minute timeout by itself is not a complete cost control.

[ahmed33033]

hey, this seems to be an issue facing multiple users (including me). I made a discussion post linking some of the related issues like yours together: https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/212276

Hope to get this fixed!

[Fgaoxing]

Me too