How use of GitHub Packages is measured
GitHub Packages usage is free for public packages. In addition, data transferred in from any source is free.
For private repositories, each GitHub account receives a quota of storage and data transfer for use with GitHub Packages, depending on the account's plan. Any usage beyond the included amounts is billed to your account. Data transfer resets every month, while storage usage does not.
Working in a private repository with packages:
- When you publish a private package, the total file size is included in the repository owner's storage use.
- When you download a private package, the transfer of data is included in the repository owner's data transfer usage.
Tip
Anyone with write access to a repository can publish packages without increasing usage for their personal account.
Examples of how usage is measured
- If you publish a 500 MB package in a private repository, you'll use 500 MB of the repository owner's storage and none of their data transfer allowance. If you find a bug and publish an updated 500 MB package without deleting the original package, you are now using 1 GB of the owner's storage.
- If you download a 500 MB package from a private repository, you'll use 500 MB of the repository owner's data transfer. If a security fix is released and you download the new package, you'll add another 500 MB of data transfer, bringing the total transfer for these two downloads to 1 GB of data.
- If GitHub Actions downloads a 500 MB package from a private repository using a
GITHUB_TOKEN, this does not count against the repository owner's data transfer allowance, see Package downloads by GitHub Actions.
Free use of GitHub Packages
The following amounts of storage and data transfer are included in your GitHub plan. At the start of each month, the data transfer for the account is reset to zero.
| Plan | Storage | Data transfer (per month) |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub Free | 500MB | 1GB |
| GitHub Pro | 2GB | 10GB |
| GitHub Free for organizations | 500MB | 1GB |
| GitHub Team | 2GB | 10GB |
| GitHub Enterprise Cloud | 50GB | 100GB |
Package downloads by GitHub Actions
When a workflow uses GitHub Actions to download a package, the data transfer does not count against the usage for the hosting repository. We determine you are downloading packages using GitHub Actions when you log in to GitHub Packages using a GITHUB_TOKEN.
| Hosted | Self-Hosted | |
|---|---|---|
Access using a GITHUB_TOKEN | Free | Free |
| Access using a personal access token | Free | Paid |
Using more than your included quota
If your account does not have a valid payment method on file, usage is blocked once you use up your quota.
Paying for additional GitHub Packages use
You pay for any additional use above your quota using the payment method set up for your GitHub account. See Managing your payment and billing information.
Data transfer is billed for each GB of data transfered. Storage is billed by calculating an hourly usage rate.
- To estimate the costs for metered services, you can use the GitHub pricing calculator.
- To view your current storage and bandwidth, see Viewing your usage of metered products and licenses.
Example of how usage is calculated over a month
At the end of the month, GitHub rounds your data transfer to the nearest GB.
GitHub calculates your storage usage for each month based on hourly usage per GB during that month. For example, if you use 3 GB of storage for 10 days of March and 12 GB for 21 days of March, your storage usage would be:
- 3 GB x 10 days x (24 hours per day) = 720 GB-Hours
- 12 GB x 21 days x (24 hours per day) = 6,048 GB-Hours
- 720 GB-Hours + 6,048 GB-Hours = 6,768 total GB-Hours
- 6,768 GB-Hours / (744 hours per month) = 9.0967 GB-Months
At the end of the month, GitHub rounds your storage to the nearest MB. Therefore, your storage usage for March would be 9.097 GB.
Example of estimating usage
You can also use this calculation in the middle of a billing cycle, to estimate what your total usage might be for the month. For example, if you have an organization that uses GitHub Team, which provides 2 GB of free storage, and you use 0 GB for the first 5 days of April, 1.5 GB for the following 10 days, and you plan to use 3 GB for the last 15 days of the billing cycle, your projected storage usage for the month would be:
- 0 GB x 5 days x (24 hours per day) = 0 GB-Hours
- 0.5 GB x 10 days x (24 hours per day) = 120 GB-Hours
- 3 GB x 15 days x (24 hours per day) = 1080 GB-Hours
- 0 GB-Hours + 120 GB-Hours + 1080 GB-Hours = 1200 total GB-Hours
- 1200 GB-Hours / (744 hours per month) = 1.6 GB-Months
The projected 1.6 GB of storage usage for the month would not exceed your 2 GB limit, even though your actual storage amount exceeded 2 GB for half the month.
Managing your budget for GitHub Packages
If your account does not have a valid payment method on file, usage is blocked once you use up your quota.
If you have a valid payment method on file, spending may be limited by one or more budgets. Check the budgets set for your account to ensure they are appropriate for your usage needs. See Setting up budgets to control spending on metered products.
Accounts that have migrated from the old billing platform may contain automatically generated budgets that mirror their previous spending limits.