Enterprise Cloud: standard hosted jobs capped at ~120-190 concurrent instead of the documented 500, still after support removed a 180 limit

[viniciussucupira]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Actions Runner

Discussion Details

Our enterprise is on GitHub Enterprise Cloud. The Actions limits documentation lists 500 concurrent jobs for standard GitHub-hosted runners on Enterprise. Our public repository solrenning-llc/marktmorgen uses only standard ubuntu-latest runners, and under load we never see more than about 120 to 190 jobs running while hundreds of runs wait in "Waiting for a runner to pick up this job".

Measurements (UTC):

• 2026-11-07 ~20:00: 120 jobs running, 451 runs queued.
• 2026-11-10 03:00: 192 jobs running, 143 jobs queued.
• 2026-11-10 03:47: 128 jobs running across 85 runs, 161 runs queued.
• 2026-11-11 02:20: 125 jobs running across 82 runs, 101 runs queued.

On 2026-11-09 GitHub Support (ticket 4969751) confirmed an effective limit of 180 concurrent standard hosted jobs on our account and said it was removed. The cap kept showing afterwards (2026-11-10 and 2026-11-11 above). The ticket has had no reply since then, and our merge queue now holds 75 pull requests with about 20 merges a day.

Questions for the community and GitHub staff:

1. Has anyone else on Enterprise Cloud seen standard hosted concurrency stay well below 500 after support lifted a lower limit?
2. Is there any enterprise, organization or runner-group setting that silently caps standard hosted concurrency?
3. Could a GitHub Actions staff member please look at ticket 4969751?

Thank you.

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[viniciussucupira]

Live update, 2026-11-11 14:45 to 14:53 UTC: 210 to 212 workflow runs queued (oldest waiting about 15 minutes) while only 133 to 140 standard ubuntu-latest jobs were running across 80 to 95 runs. Our workflows have no limit that explains it (concurrency groups are per branch and event, cancel-in-progress for pull requests). Example of a run waiting for a runner: https://github.com/solrenning-llc/marktmorgen/actions/runs/43042502224

If anyone from the GitHub Actions team can look at support ticket 4969751, we would be grateful.

[viniciussucupira]

Another live reading, 2026-11-11 16:37 to 16:40 UTC, same day and same pattern: 172 workflow runs queued (oldest created 16:30:10 UTC) while only 133 jobs were running across about 90 in-progress runs, with 13 more jobs inside those runs still waiting for a runner. Example of a queued run: https://github.com/solrenning-llc/marktmorgen/actions/runs/43060210050 -- Full context so this comment stands on its own: enterprise "Solrenning" on GitHub Enterprise Cloud, organization solrenning-llc, public repository solrenning-llc/marktmorgen, standard ubuntu-latest hosted runners only. The Actions limits documentation lists 500 concurrent standard hosted jobs for Enterprise. What we actually get under load: 120 jobs with 451 runs queued (11-07), 163 with 340 (11-08), 192 with 128 (11-10), 125 (11-11 02:20 UTC), 133 to 148 jobs with 176 to 212 runs queued (11-11 14:45 to 15:11 UTC), and now 133 with 172. On 11-09 GitHub Support confirmed an effective limit of 180 on our account and said it had been removed, yet the ceiling is unchanged. Our workflows do not explain it: concurrency groups are per branch and event, cancel-in-progress applies to pull requests only, and a single matrix uses max-parallel 1. Impact: about 75 pull requests sit in our merge queue and we land roughly 20 merges a day. What we are asking GitHub: (1) the exact concurrency limit applied to our enterprise right now; (2) removal of any limit below 500; (3) the cause and a date for the fix; (4) whether anything on our side could be restricting concurrency; (5) escalation today to the Actions engineering team and a support manager, with the name of the case owner (support ticket 4969751). If other Enterprise Cloud customers have seen the same ceiling, please share your numbers. Thank you. Vinicius Sucupira, Solrenning LLC