CI Bench

Head to head · CI Bench v1

Self-hosted runners on Google Cloud vs GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)

GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU) ran jobs 1.0× faster than Self-hosted runners on Google Cloud (95% interval 1.0× to 1.1×); Self-hosted runners on Google Cloud cost 70% less per job (at 100,000 jobs a month).

Self-hosted options spread fixed monthly costs over the monthly volume, so their cost per job changes with it; see the volume table.

Speed

× faster than GitHub-hosted (ubuntu-latest) · higher is better
Self-hosted runners on Google Cloud
1.5×
GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
1.6×
GitHub-hosted (ubuntu-latest)
1.0×

Cost per job

USD per $1.00 spent on GitHub-hosted (ubuntu-latest), at 100,000 jobs a month · lower is better
Self-hosted runners on Google Cloud
$0.41
GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
$1.39
GitHub-hosted (ubuntu-latest)
$1.00

Workload by workload

Self-hosted runners on Google Cloud had the lowest median time of the two on 6 of 12 workloads, GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU) on 6.
WorkloadSelf-hosted runners on Google CloudGitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)Lowest median
Burst: 20 jobs at once153 s154 sSelf-hosted runners on Google Cloud
cli310 s192 sGitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
codex-lint581 s476 sGitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
container178 s185 sSelf-hosted runners on Google Cloud
fd64 s66 sSelf-hosted runners on Google Cloud
flask11 s21 sSelf-hosted runners on Google Cloud
guava820 s946 sSelf-hosted runners on Google Cloud
monorepo278 s220 sGitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
pydantic119 s154 sSelf-hosted runners on Google Cloud
ts533 s435 sGitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
vite401 s288 sGitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
vue76 s67 sGitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)

Cost by volume

Mean cost per job in USD, from the benchmark’s sensitivity results
VolumeSelf-hosted runners on Google CloudGitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
100,000 jobs a month$0.409$1.387
10,000 jobs a month$0.409$1.387
1,000 jobs a month$0.409$1.387

Failed runs

Counted, never replaced
Self-hosted runners on Google Cloud
1 of 360 measured runs (0.3%)
GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
3 of 360 measured runs (0.8%)

Each configuration page lists where its failures happened. All losses.

All results for this pair

One line per configuration pairing, generated from the benchmark data