Why am I seeing charges and free-minute warnings from Blacksmith runners?
Asked by
MellowCedar42
I signed up for Blacksmith about a week ago because its GitHub Actions runners were impressively fast. However, I've already received a $7 bill, along with a warning that I've used 80% of my free minutes and should add a payment method. I'm confused about how the billing and free allowance work. I'm willing to pay for a good service, but the unexpected charge and the requirement to add payment details before contacting billing support make me nervous about future costs. Has anyone else experienced this, and what usage typically causes charges?
Answers
My understanding is that usage is billed normally first, and then the free allowance is applied as a discount of roughly $9. So seeing a charge in the usage view may not necessarily mean you’ll ultimately pay that full amount, but the billing presentation is definitely confusing.
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The frustrating part is that there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to remain strictly within the free tier without adding payment information. Predictable billing matters just as much as fast CI runners, so I can understand why some people choose to self-host instead.
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First check the current pricing details and compare them with your usage breakdown. The charge may come from resources beyond runner minutes, such as persistent or sticky disk storage, which can be billed separately. Set up usage alerts before putting larger workloads on the service.
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