{"id":5255,"date":"2020-09-02T19:03:52","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T17:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.almtoolbox.com\/blog\/?p=5255"},"modified":"2020-09-06T07:02:40","modified_gmt":"2020-09-06T05:02:40","slug":"gitlab-ci-minutes-update-free-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.almtoolbox.com\/blog\/gitlab-ci-minutes-update-free-users\/","title":{"rendered":"Coming Soon: Changes to CI\/CD in GitLab Cloud Free"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"gitlab<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday GitLab announced that effective next month (October 2020) they will reduce the limit of free CI\/CD minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you know, GitLab Cloud (Gitlab.com) provides shared CI\/CD runners, i.e. virtual machines on which you can run your build, test and other jobs. For example, we at ALM-Toolbox use them to run programs, which regularly create Excel files with all\/new GitLab features (see here<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until now, users of the Gitlab.com free tier could use shared CI\/CD runners for up to 2,000 min. per month. Starting October 1, that number goes down to 400 min.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The monthly CI\/CD minutes limit for the paid tiers will not change as you can see from this table:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Tier<\/th>\nFree<\/th>\nBronze<\/th>\nSilver<\/th>\nGold<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
CI\/CD Minutes<\/td>\n400<\/td>\n2,000<\/td>\n10,000<\/td>\n50,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n

GitLab explained the rationale of this change as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After analyzing the usage of the free CI\/CD minutes and discovered that 98.5% of users do not exceeded 400 minutes per month. Therefore GitLab wants to save money and resources on account of the 1.5% who intensively use free CI\/CD minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the service (beyond the first 400 min. a month) will start costing money, the price relative to the added value is not high. Moreover, as a result of the new limit, the total load on the shared runners is expected to go down, which means that the CI\/CD jobs will run faster and users will get more value for their minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I need more CI\/CD minutes. What shall I do?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are two options:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Move on to a paid tier which gives you enough minutes (see the table above).<\/li>
  2. Buy additional minutes. Note that each purchase is per group or a private namespace. The price is $10 per 1,000 min. You can purchase CI\/CD minutes through our company (one of the advantages is that you won\u2019t need to provide your credit card details).<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    <\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Don\u2019t want to pay? Want to save money?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    There are many ways to reduce your usage of GitLab CI\/CD minutes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n