//benchmarks · github actions runners · cpu
the fastest github actions runners, by the numbers.
Single-thread CPU, queue time, and real $/min for every Linux runner worth considering — official GitHub, self-hosted, and third-party SaaS. The leaderboard re-ranks live as you drag the speed-vs-price dial, and RunsOn rows use real EC2 spot prices in your own AWS account.
TL;DR#
Best value
RunsOn, Namespace, and Blacksmith cluster in the cheap-and-fast corner. RunsOn leads self-hosted on both speed and price; AWS CodeBuild is slower and pricier.
Fastest CPU
x64: Namespace, Blacksmith, and RunsOn’s newest families (m8a / m8azn) lead single-thread. arm64: Namespace leads, followed by RunsOn and Warpbuild.
Cheapest
Self-hosted spot on AWS lands ~5.9× under GitHub — the bill goes to your own AWS account, not a middleman.
How to read: leaderboard and deep dive use the configured CPU/queue percentiles (p50/p50). Higher CPU is better, lower queue is better. Price is normalized $/min.
Providers included#
Third-party: Namespace (US/Europe) · Blacksmith (Hetzner) · Warpbuild (Hetzner / AWS) · Ubicloud (Hetzner)
CPU speed vs price per minute#
Each dot is a runner. Up is faster, left is cheaper — so the top-left corner is where you want to be. Dot size is queue time; hover any dot or row to link the two. Drag the speed-vs-price dial and the leaderboard re-ranks live.
Last updated:
Benchmarks use Linux runners only, the Passmark single-thread metric, and the last 30 days of data.
arch
runson price
cheaperfasterleaning faster
70% speed / 30% price
70% speed / 30% price
cpu × price × queuespot · us-east-1 · x64
who's who
RunsOn — self-hosted, your AWS account
GitHub — official, the reference price
AWS CodeBuild — managed, in your account
SaaS — Namespace, Blacksmith, Warpbuild, Ubicloud
dot size = queue time
~10s
~25s
~40s
Smaller is better — the wait between trigger and first step. GitHub queues fastest; self-hosted spot trades a few seconds for much lower cost.
| # | provider | type | specs | cpu | queue | price / min | value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Namespacenscloud-ubuntu-24.04-amd64-2x8 | SaaSstandard | 4×8GBnorm $0.0024 | 4367 | 13s | $0.00401.5× cheaper | 89 |
| 2 | RunsOn ✦family=m8azn | Self-hostedspot | 2×8GB | 4271 | 26s | $0.00125.1× cheaper | 87 |
| 3 | Blacksmithblacksmith-2vcpu-ubuntu-2404 | SaaS | 2×8GB | 4441 | 16s | $0.00401.5× cheaper | 79 |
| 4 | RunsOn ✦family=m8a | Self-hostedspot | 2×8GB | 3790 | 26s | $0.00096.9× cheaper | 76 |
| 5 | Ubicloudubicloud-premium-2-ubuntu-2404 | SaaSpremium | 2×8GB | 3740 | 28s | $0.00163.8× cheaper | 70 |
| 6 | Warpbuildwarp-ubuntu-2404-x64-2x | SaaS | 2×7GB | 3722 | 12s | $0.00401.5× cheaper | 60 |
| 7 | RunsOn ✦family=m8i+r8i | Self-hostedspot | 2×8GB | 3196 | 27s | $0.00105.9× cheaper | 59 |
| 8 | Ubicloudubicloud-standard-2-ubuntu-2404 | SaaSstandard | 2×8GB | 2936 | 17s | $0.00106.0× cheaper | 54 |
| 9 | Ubicloudubicloud-standard-2-ubuntu-2404 | SaaSstandard | 2×8GB | 2935 | 33s | $0.00106.0× cheaper | 50 |
| 10 | RunsOn ✦family=c7a+m7a+r7a | Self-hostedspot | 2×8GB | 2878 | 29s | $0.00106.0× cheaper | 49 |
| 11 | RunsOn ✦family=c7i+m7i+r7i | Self-hostedspot | 2×8GB | 2698 | 29s | $0.00096.5× cheaper | 45 |
| 12 | RunsOn ✦family=c6a+m6a+r6a | Self-hostedspot | 2×8GB | 2584 | 28s | $0.00106.2× cheaper | 42 |
| 13 | GitHububuntu-24.04 | Official | 2×8GB | 2322 | 9s | $0.0060≈ GitHub | 9 |
| 14 | GitHububuntu-24.04, github24-2cpu-x64 | Official | 2×8GB | 2269 | 10s | $0.0060≈ GitHub | 7 |
| 15 | GitHubgithub24-2cpu-x64, ubuntu-24.04 | Official | 2×8GB | 2195 | 9s | $0.0060≈ GitHub | 5 |
| 16 | AWS CodeBuildcodebuild-ubuntu-8.0-small, codebuild-ubuntu-8.0-large, codebuild-ubuntu-8.0-medium | Self-hosted | 2×4GBnorm $0.0059 | 2139 | 28s | $0.00501.2× cheaper | 4 |
| 17 | AWS CodeBuildcodebuild-ubuntu-8.0-medium, codebuild-ubuntu-8.0-small, codebuild-ubuntu-8.0-large | Self-hosted | 2×4GBnorm $0.0059 | 2018 | 30s | $0.00501.2× cheaper | 1 |
| 18 | AWS CodeBuildcodebuild-ubuntu-8.0-medium, codebuild-ubuntu-8.0-small | Self-hosted | 2×4GBnorm $0.0059 | 2013 | 326s | $0.00501.2× cheaper | 0 |
Value score = weighted speed + price, adjusted for queue (the dial sets the weights). The price side is normalized for the shape the price buys (specs column): vCPU and RAM weighted by AWS Fargate’s per-resource prices (1 vCPU ≈ 9.1 GB), against a 2 vCPU / 8GB reference — so a provider selling 4 vCPU for the same $/min scores as cheaper, without pretending RAM is free. The table still shows the real $/min. RunsOn $/min = real EC2
.large spot in us-east-1 + EBS + license amortized (€300/yr). GitHub is the price baseline for the “× cheaper” column.How to choose#
$/minWant the lowest bill? Sort by cheapest. Self-hosted spot on AWS lands ~5.9× under GitHub — the cost goes to your AWS account, not a middleman.
cpuWant raw speed? Sort by fastest CPU. Namespace, Blacksmith and RunsOn’s newest families (m8a / m8azn) lead x64 single-thread.
queueLatency-sensitive? Sort by lowest queue. GitHub starts fastest; for self-hosted, warm pools cut RunsOn queues to under ~10s.
ctrlWant control & isolation? Pick self-hosted. RunsOn keeps runners, logs, caches and secrets inside your own VPC — no third party touches your code. See networking options.
Deep dive (full data)#
Open full benchmark table with distributions
Includes per-runner distributions, CPU/queue percentiles, and provider metadata for the last 30 days.
| # | Provider | CPU speed (p50) | Queue time (p50) + 30d P90 trend | Processor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blacksmith SaaS blacksmith-2vcpu-ubuntu-2404 $0.004/min 1.5x cheaper | p50: 4441p90: 4626 | p50: 16.0sp90: 24.0s | AMD EPYC (x86_64) |
| 2 | Namespace SaaS nscloud-ubuntu-24.04-amd64-2x8 $0.004/min 1.5x cheaper standard | p50: 4367p90: 4609 | p50: 13.0sp90: 14.0s | AMD EPYC (x86_64) |
| 3 | RunsOn Self-Hosted runs-on,family=m8azn $0.0012/min 5.1x cheaper spot | p50: 4270p90: 4282 | p50: 26.0sp90: 33.0s | AMD EPYC 9R05 (x86_64) |
| CPU 4000+ | ||||
| 4 | RunsOn Self-Hosted runs-on,family=m8a $0.0009/min 6.9x cheaper spot | p50: 3790p90: 3822 | p50: 26.0sp90: 42.0s | AMD EPYC 9R45 (x86_64) |
| 5 | Ubicloud SaaS ubicloud-premium-2-ubuntu-2404 $0.0016/min 3.8x cheaper premium | p50: 3740p90: 3827 | p50: 28.0sp90: 59.0s | AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 16-Core Processor[4;49H(x86_64) |
| 6 | Warpbuild SaaS warp-ubuntu-2404-x64-2x $0.004/min 1.5x cheaper | p50: 3722p90: 3877 | p50: 12.0sp90: 37.0s | AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 16-Core Processor[4;49H(x86_64) |
| CPU 3500+ | ||||
| 7 | RunsOn Self-Hosted runs-on,family=m8i+r8i $0.001/min 5.9x cheaper spot | p50: 3196p90: 3201 | p50: 26.0sp90: 51.0s | Intel(R) Xeon(R) 6975P-C (x86_64) |
| CPU 3000+ | ||||
| 8 | Ubicloud SaaS ubicloud-standard-2-ubuntu-2404 $0.001/min 6.0x cheaper standard | p50: 2936p90: 2960 | p50: 17.0sp90: 119.0s | AMD EPYC 9454P 48-Core Processor[4;49H(x86_64) |
| 9 | Ubicloud SaaS ubicloud-standard-2-ubuntu-2404 $0.001/min 6.0x cheaper standard | p50: 2922p90: 2950 | p50: 14.0sp90: 39.0s | AMD EPYC 9454 48-Core Processor[4;49H(x86_64) |
| 10 | RunsOn Self-Hosted runs-on,family=c7a+m7a+r7a $0.001/min 6.0x cheaper spot | p50: 2877p90: 2880 | p50: 29.0sp90: 37.0s | AMD EPYC 9R14 (x86_64) |
| 11 | RunsOn Self-Hosted runs-on,family=c7i+m7i+r7i $0.0009/min 6.5x cheaper spot | p50: 2677p90: 2928 | p50: 29.0sp90: 41.0s | Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8488C (x86_64) |
| 12 | RunsOn Self-Hosted runs-on,family=m6a $0.001/min 6.2x cheaper spot | p50: 2584p90: 2590 | p50: 28.0sp90: 58.0s | AMD EPYC 7R13 Processor (x86_64) |
| CPU 2500+ | ||||
| 13 | GitHub Official ubuntu-24.04 $0.006/min ≈ GitHub | p50: 2322p90: 2324 | p50: 9.0sp90: 10.0s | Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8370C CPU @ 2.80GHz (x86_64) |
| 14 | GitHub Official ubuntu-24.04, github24-2cpu-x64 $0.006/min ≈ GitHub | p50: 2269p90: 2275 | p50: 10.0sp90: 11.0s | AMD EPYC 7763 64-Core Processor[4;49H(x86_64) |
| 15 | GitHub Official github24-2cpu-x64, ubuntu-24.04 $0.006/min ≈ GitHub | p50: 2195p90: 2199 | p50: 9.0sp90: 10.0s | AMD EPYC 9V74 80-Core Processor[4;49H(x86_64) |
| 16 | AWS CodeBuild Self-Hosted codebuild-ubuntu-8.0-small, codebuild-ubuntu-8.0-large, codebuild-ubuntu-8.0-medium $0.005/min 1.2x cheaper | p50: 2138p90: 2152 | p50: 28.0sp90: 34.0s | Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8275CL CPU @ 3.00GHz (x86_64) |
| 17 | AWS CodeBuild Self-Hosted codebuild-ubuntu-8.0-medium, codebuild-ubuntu-8.0-small, codebuild-ubuntu-8.0-large $0.005/min 1.2x cheaper | p50: 2018p90: 2031 | p50: 30.0sp90: 34.0s | Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8124M CPU @ 3.00GHz (x86_64) |
| 18 | AWS CodeBuild Self-Hosted codebuild-ubuntu-8.0-medium, codebuild-ubuntu-8.0-small $0.005/min 1.2x cheaper | p50: 1921p90: 2013 | p50: 29.0sp90: 326.0s | Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8223CL CPU @ 3.00GHz (x86_64) |
| # | Provider | CPU speed (p50) | Queue time (p50) + 30d P90 trend | Processor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Namespace SaaS nscloud-ubuntu-24.04-arm64-2x8,namespace-features:linux-on-apple-silicon=true $0.012/min 2.4x pricier premium | p50: 3848p90: 4130 | p50: 14.0sp90: 26.0s | Apple M4 + Virtualization |
| CPU 3500+ | ||||
| 2 | RunsOn Self-Hosted runs-on,family=m9g $0.0009/min 5.5x cheaper spot | p50: 2469p90: 2471 | p50: 24.0sp90: 30.0s | Neoverse-V3 (aarch64) |
| CPU 2000+ | ||||
| 3 | Warpbuild SaaS warp-ubuntu-latest-arm64-2x $0.003/min 1.7x cheaper | p50: 1944p90: 1945 | p50: 21.0sp90: 46.0s | Neoverse-V2 (aarch64) |
| 4 | RunsOn Self-Hosted runs-on,family=c8g+m8g+r8g $0.0009/min 5.7x cheaper spot | p50: 1946p90: 1947 | p50: 29.0sp90: 47.0s | Neoverse-V2 (aarch64) |
| 5 | GitHub Official github24-2cpu-arm64 $0.005/min ≈ GitHub | p50: 1874p90: 1877 | p50: 9.0sp90: 10.0s | Neoverse-N2 (aarch64) |
| 6 | RunsOn Self-Hosted runs-on,family=c7g+m7g+r7g $0.001/min 5.1x cheaper spot | p50: 1559p90: 1564 | p50: 29.0sp90: 32.0s | Neoverse-V1 (aarch64) |
| CPU 1500+ | ||||
| 7 | Blacksmith SaaS blacksmith-2vcpu-ubuntu-2404-arm $0.0025/min 2.0x cheaper | p50: 1362p90: 1377 | p50: 21.0sp90: 29.0s | Ampere-1a (aarch64) |
| 8 | GitHub Official github24-2cpu-arm64 $0.005/min ≈ GitHub | p50: 1333p90: 1333 | p50: 10.0sp90: 63.0s | Neoverse-N1 (aarch64) |
| 9 | Blacksmith SaaS blacksmith-2vcpu-ubuntu-2404-arm $0.0025/min 2.0x cheaper | p50: 1326p90: 1332 | p50: 20.0sp90: 23.0s | Neoverse-N1 (aarch64) |
| 10 | Ubicloud SaaS ubicloud-standard-2-arm-ubuntu-2404 $0.001/min 5.0x cheaper standard | p50: 1312p90: 1319 | p50: 17.0sp90: 18.0s | Neoverse-N1 (aarch64) |
| 11 | Namespace SaaS nscloud-ubuntu-24.04-arm64-2x8 $0.004/min 1.3x cheaper standard | p50: 1256p90: 1267 | p50: 17.0sp90: 20.0s | Ampere-1a (aarch64) |
What the data says#
performance
- –Namespace, Blacksmith and RunsOn lead x64 single-thread.
- –Namespace leads arm64; RunsOn and Warpbuild follow. GitHub’s newer Cobalt CPUs are closer but not consistently available.
- –GitHub runs older CPUs overall, most visibly on x64.
reliability & scaling
- –GitHub’s queue times are excellent for standard runners — and much improved for larger ones.
- –AWS scales better than Hetzner-backed fleets under load.
- –Some SaaS providers gate higher vCPU concurrency (and static egress IPs) behind requests or fees; self-hosted RunsOn and CodeBuild aren’t affected.
- –Variable CPU models on some providers (e.g. Ubicloud tiers) can affect reproducibility.
security & infra
- –RunsOn is fully self-hosted in your AWS account — your IAM, your network, a dedicated GitHub App.
- –AWS CodeBuild is managed by AWS but runs in your account (shared GitHub App for registration).
- –GitHub runners are managed by GitHub on Azure; private access needs secrets or OIDC.
- –Namespace, Blacksmith, Warpbuild, Ubicloud and Depot are SaaS; control plane and registration aren’t fully yours.
Gap: detailed concurrency/scaling tests are still missing; they matter for high-volume CI/CD (thousands of jobs/day). RunsOn routinely handles more than 1M jobs every day.
fastest self-hosted, at ~5.9× lower cost.
The benchmark runs on the same RunsOn anyone can deploy. One CloudFormation stack, your account, ~10 minutes.
Note: this analysis is updated regularly. Things change quickly in this space, so make sure you do your own research as well.