GitHub Actions is a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) platform that allows you to automate your software development workflows directly within your GitHub repository. Introduced in 2018, it enables users to automate tasks such as building, testing, and deploying code. GitHub Actions is developed and maintained by GitHub. Workflows are defined using YAML files stored in your repository, triggered by events like pushes, pull requests, or scheduled intervals. It supports multiple operating systems, including Linux, macOS, and Windows, and is compatible with various programming languages.
Key features include hosted runners for various operating systems and containers, matrix builds for testing across multiple environments, live logs, and a built-in secret store for managing sensitive information. GitHub Actions integrates with other tools and services through the Actions Marketplace, offering pre-built actions for common tasks. GitHub Actions is generally available to all GitHub users. GitHub Actions is free for public repositories using GitHub-hosted runners. For private repositories, GitHub provides a quota of free minutes, artifact storage, and cache storage depending on the account's plan. Additional usage is billed based on the runner type and storage used. As of December 2025, GitHub announced a $0.002 per-minute platform fee for all GitHub Actions usage, but later postponed the change for self-hosted runners.