3,000 free minutes every month
CI runners,2x faster builds at half the cost
BuildPulse Runners are a drop-in replacement for GitHub Actions, Semaphore, and CircleCI hosted runners. Modern hardware, smart caching, and per-minute billing: no workflow rewrites, no self-hosting overhead. Every speed claim on this page is measured in public, reproducible benchmarks.
After the free minutes it is $0.004 a minute, with no minimums and no commitment. Cancel anytime.
Trusted by engineering teams at
Measured on real projects, not claimed.
Identical jobs on GitHub's ubuntu-latest and a BuildPulse 4x runner, both at 4 vCPU, medians over repeated runs.
Docker image build
65% less
hugo, no cache
cost, 48% less time
GitHub
243s
BuildPulse
126s
Node install, build, and tests
61% less
vuejs/core
cost, 41% less time
GitHub
92s
BuildPulse
54s
Go compile
54% less
hugo
cost, 31% less time
GitHub
67s
BuildPulse
46s
Rerun it
Don't take our word for it.
Cost is priced at our 4x rate of $0.008/min against GitHub's $0.012/min. The repo, workflows, and run logs are public.
# .github/workflows/ci.yml jobs: test: # ← swap this line runs-on: bp-ubuntu-latest-x64-4x steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4 - run: npm ci && npm test
# .semaphore/semaphore.yml agent: machine: # ← swap this line type: bp-ubuntu-latest-x64-4x blocks: - name: Test task: jobs: - name: npm test commands: - npm ci && npm test
# .circleci/config.yml jobs: test: machine: image: ubuntu-2404:current # ← add this line resource_class: buildpulse/bp-ubuntu-latest-x64-4x steps: - checkout - run: npm ci && npm test
Same CI. Half the bill.
2x faster on a cheaper minute. Per-minute billing, no minimums, and 3,000 free minutes every month.
vCPU
A month of CI at 10,000 GitHub minutes on 2 vCPU x64
runs-on: bp-ubuntu-latest-x64-2x
GitHub-hosted
$42
10,000 min · 3,000 included · 7,000 × $0.006
BuildPulse
$8
5,000 min · 3,000 free · 2,000 × $0.004
Twice the speed, half the minutes.
See the benchmark →You pay
81% less
at 10,000 GitHub minutes a month
$0.004/min, not $0.006/min, for half as many minutes, and the first 3,000 free every month.
| Linux x64 | Memory | BuildPulse | GitHub | Depot | Total vs GitHub |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 vCPU | 8 GB | $0.004 | 67% less | ||
| 4 vCPU | 16 GB | $0.008 | 67% less | ||
| 8 vCPU | 32 GB | $0.016 | 64% less | ||
| 16 vCPU | 64 GB | $0.032 | 62% less | ||
| 32 vCPU | 128 GB | $0.064 | 61% less | ||
| 64 vCPU | 256 GB | $0.128 | 60% less |
Per-minute list prices for the same size, September 2026. Depot also charges a monthly plan fee.
3,000 free minutes a month
On every account, renewed monthly. Larger runners use them proportionally faster, so the grant is worth the same whichever size you run.
Flaky test detection included
Every run is parsed for flaky tests and per-test timing. No second tool, no separate bill.
Caching included
Docker layer, dependency and build caches that survive across runs, with no per-GB storage line.
Need your CI to reach a private registry or database behind an allowlist? Our runners leave from four fixed addresses you can allowlist today, and a dedicated egress IP is available on request. Talk to us.
Built for fast-moving teams
Drop-in replacement
Swap one line in your workflow config: GitHub Actions, Semaphore, or CircleCI. Your pipelines keep working, just faster.
Faster CPUs, more cores
Newer-generation AMD EPYC processors with 2.7x the sysbench throughput of GitHub-hosted runners. Compile, test, and docker workloads finish 2x faster.
Half the total cost
A cheaper minute and half as many of them, so the same workloads cost half as much. No surprise bills, no minimums.
Smart caching
Built-in Docker layer, dependency, and build cache that survives across runs.
No self-hosting headaches
No EC2 instances to patch, no autoscaler to tune, no security boundary to worry about.
Per-org usage analytics
See exactly which workflows burn minutes and where to optimize, on every plan. GitHub Actions, Semaphore, and CircleCI minutes tracked separately.
Coming from Blacksmith or Depot?
Get flaky test detection with every run. BuildPulse runners come with flaky test detection, quarantine, and per-test timing built in, the same product Replit and AuditBoard use to keep CI green. The same runners also serve Semaphore and CircleCI, so one vendor covers every pipeline.
Switching is the same one-line change shown above. Run both side by side for a day and keep whichever is faster.
Visibility you do not get from your CI provider
Track minutes per workflow, per repo, and per team. See which jobs are slowest and where the cache is missing. Drill into any run to see the exact bottleneck, across GitHub Actions, Semaphore, and CircleCI.
Start with 3,000 free minutes, then decide.
One line in your workflow file, no minimum and no call. If it is not faster on your own repo, change the line back.
Common questions
Do I have to change my workflows?
One line. On GitHub Actions you change the runs-on label to a BuildPulse label such as bp-ubuntu-latest-x64-4x; on Semaphore it is the machine type, and on CircleCI the resource_class. Your steps, actions, and scripts stay exactly as they are.
How are runners billed?
Per minute, with no minimums and no commitments. Every x86 and arm64 size is priced on this page, and Docker builder runners cost the same as standard runners of the same size.
How much faster and cheaper are they really?
The hardware is newer-generation AMD EPYC with 2.7x the sysbench throughput of GitHub-hosted runners. Builds finish 2x faster, and with the lower per-minute rate the same workloads cost half as much. The benchmark behind it is public and you can rerun it yourself.
What sizes are available?
Six sizes from 2 vCPU / 8 GB up to 64 vCPU / 256 GB, on x86 and arm64 (Graviton), plus NVMe-backed Docker builder runners from 4x to 32x. arm64 is priced below x86 and Docker builders carry no premium over standard runners of the same size.
Is this self-hosting?
No. There are no EC2 instances to patch, no autoscaler to tune, and no security boundary to manage on your side. BuildPulse runs the fleet, and you get per-org usage analytics showing which workflows and jobs burn minutes across GitHub Actions, Semaphore, and CircleCI.