Is GitHub free? What it actually costs in 2026

What the free tier actually includes

• —Unlimited public and private repositories
• —2,000 CI/CD minutes per month on private repositories
• —500 MB of Packages storage
• —Codespaces capped at a $0 spend limit
• —Community support only

Where the wall is

The team's review workflow, before the repositories. Repository rules, multiple required reviewers and code owners are Team features, and a growing team usually needs them before it runs out of Actions minutes.

After that: Team at $4 per user per month, the price GitHub lists for the first 12 months, adding 3,000 CI/CD minutes, 2 GB of Packages storage, repository rules, multiple reviewers, code owners and web-based support. Enterprise is listed from $21 per user per month.

Can you self-host GitHub? Paid plans only

Self-hosted GitHub is GitHub Enterprise Server — "for on-prem appliances or self-managed cloud tenants", in GitHub's words — an Enterprise product with no public list price. The Free and Team plans are hosted by GitHub; the free self-hosted forges compared on this page are the alternative.

What it actually takes to run one yourself

Real RAM against the documented minimum, monthly cost, setup time, and the one thing that catches people out.

What you are locked into

Repositories use standard Git, so code and history are portable, but issues, pull requests, Actions workflows, project boards, and the integration ecosystem are GitHub-specific and require conversion when moving. Enterprise governance features and the Copilot/Advanced Security add-ons deepen the tie to GitHub's platform and pricing.

If you would rather not pay: Forgejo