Unexpected charges and free-minute limits with Blacksmith GitHub runners
Asked by
MellowCedar42
I signed up for Blacksmith about a week ago because its GitHub runners were impressively fast. However, I've already received a $7 bill and a warning that I've used 80% of my free minutes, along with a request to add a payment method. I'm confused about how the free usage and billing work. I'm willing to pay for a service that performs well, but I'm concerned about unexpected charges and potentially larger bills later. I also found it difficult to contact billing because a payment method is required, and I haven't received a response through the support email. Has anyone else run into this, and can someone explain what usage typically causes these charges?
Answers
Review the pricing page and your detailed usage breakdown. Storage-related features, such as persistent or sticky disks, may be billed separately—possibly around $0.50 per GB—so the runner minutes may not be the only charge involved.
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Another hosted runner provider may be worth comparing if the pricing feels too unpredictable. Look for a clearly defined free allowance, transparent overage rates, and usage alerts before switching a larger workload.
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Some users dislike that the service records paid usage and applies the free allowance as a discount afterward, rather than stopping at the free-tier limit. According to that model, a displayed charge may be offset by a roughly $9 free-usage credit, so the final amount could be lower than the initial bill suggests.
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I wasn’t comfortable with needing to add billing information just to remain within the free tier, so I moved to self-hosted runners. That avoids the hosted-runner charges, though it does mean handling the maintenance yourself.
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The $7 itself may not be the biggest issue; the lack of predictable billing and requiring a payment method before contacting billing are more concerning. Check your usage details carefully and set up alerts before putting important workloads on the service.
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