this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2025

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Github has started charging me on the free tier? (piefed.social)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by mesamunefire@piefed.social to c/programming@programming.dev

26 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I had an interesting email come in about billing. GitHub thinks I owe them money...cents on the dollar but still $$. I am on the free tier on GitHub and have been the past 15+ years.
Up til recently, ive had no bills and im not an admin on any org. It looks like all my GitHub actions on my repos are accruing billing now. None of these repos are private. So im not 100% why this is occurring.

Has this happened to anyone else? Is there something im missing here?

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[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thanks @bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone

I went ahead and opened a support case. They fixed the issue on their side.

[–] bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 week ago

Awesome glad that worked out

[–] bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Did you ever adjust your budgets in your settings for your account: https://github.com/settings/billing/budgets

I also have the free account, and I never touched the budgets section. In here, GitHub action budget is set to $0 and has Stop usage enabled.

If these settings are set to $0 and you got charged, then I guess you can open up a case support case, since that seems like a bug.

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 8 points 1 week ago

Ah yeah that's a good idea. I'll do that.

[–] FrostyPolicy@suppo.fi 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Stop using github. Move to something else e.g. codeberg.

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I dont have that option. Its for work.

[–] imrighthere@lemmy.ca 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Sounds like your bosses bill, not yours.

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 10 points 1 week ago

Its on my account. I have hundreds of repos over my career. I switched a majority of them over but there is some major projects that use the repos for open source. One has been downloaded over 1.7 million times (im trying not to sound like a humble brag) If I remove them, it could potentially cause downtime. I just disabled all github actions and other things that could potentially cause billing.

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The first thing that comes to my mind is, it might be a scam. Confirm the mail is from Github. Can't help otherwise, but this is what I think first.

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Especially if no bank account is attached and if it isn't tied to anything on here

https://docs.github.com/en/billing/managing-billing-for-your-products/about-billing-for-github-actions

@mesamunefire@piefed.social does anything show up when you log in to GitHub and check billing?

[+] 30p87@feddit.org -29 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I'll be damned when Forgejo (or gitlab) starts charging me for selfhosting.

Sounds like a hard you-problem to me there.

[–] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 53 points 1 week ago (1 children)

User 1: "I'm having an issue with a service, has anyone else experienced this?"

User 2: "I do not use that service." <-- This contributes nothing to the discussion, and makes User 2 sound like a prick. Don't be like User 2.

[+] 30p87@feddit.org -27 points 1 week ago (3 children)

User 1: "I pointed a loaded gun at my foot, and now shot myself!"
User 2: "Don't do that."

[–] andioop@programming.dev 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Okay, everyone knows guns are literal weapons. Not everyone has the time to look into things and develop an anticorporate opinion to the point simply using a service is a loaded weapon and simply using it is cause enough for "no sympathy, sucks to be you!" when they have trouble with it. Maybe this might make them change their minds eventually, but even if it doesn't… this seems a bit more blaming the victim. Get angry at the corporation, not the person who wasn't born believing corporations bad. If I fail to lock my door, that is probably unwise of me, but everyone should be more mad at the thief for stealing from me in the first place.

[–] RonSijm@programming.dev 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Since you're getting downvoted, maybe you want to explain why using Github free is "pointing a loaded gun at your foot"?

I'm using github for a bunch of my public repos as a free backup service... Why would I want to use a self hosted or way more obscure git forge? Seems riskier than just dumping it on github

[–] 30p87@feddit.org 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Because you're essentially putting data into a limbo, in hopes that a heavily profit oriented company does not fuck you as they please. They need more money? They'll charge money. Someone with any power reports you? You're banned/striked, no questions asked. Much cheaper and convenient than giving a second thought. And, of course, automated. You lose decades of work? No one will care if you aren't either a company earning millions or are a huge public figure.

The model of for-profit companies, especially as hosters for services, is deeply flawed.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 1 points 1 week ago

No one will care if you aren’t either a company earning millions or are a huge public figure

And that is not just a company or "capitalism" problem. That's a society problem.
If you are not some public figure, if you cry out "thief", you can expect people to tell you to "shut up" instead^[instead of admonishing the thief for its thievery], while the thief, who might have some amount of local power, will get to smack you right in front of them.
Why? Because to them, you are the problem for making too much noise. Because you don't let bygones be bygones.

If someone has the gall to steal in front of everyone and not be said anything before you cry, perhaps you want to be looking at the bystanders with a fair amount of suspicion. In our case however, we already know the bystanders (talking about governments here) are guilty and that they are already all too powerful and the others are just standing too far and like ants to the thieves.

[–] ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

a loaded gun, sure. is that what you also think about the billions of windows users?

[–] 30p87@feddit.org 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yes.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 0 points 1 week ago

UK seems to be big on ~~Windows~~ gun control laws :P

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 10 points 1 week ago

I have to use Github for work. And prior to all this ive had no real issues with it...other than all the ethical arguments of course.

I have my own forgejo (and codeberg, contributed to lemmy and other projects too). works really well for my tiny projects.

[–] FrostyPolicy@suppo.fi 8 points 1 week ago

According to wikipedia Forgejo development is run by Codeberg which is a non-profit organization so I doubt they will start charging money. GitLab is managed by a for-profit corporation so anything is possible with them.