Depot GitHub Actions runners

Depot GitHub Actions runners are a drop-in replacement for your existing runners in any GitHub Actions job. Our runners are up to 3x faster than a GitHub-hosted runner. Depot runners are integrated into our cache orchestration system, so you also get 10x faster caching without having to change anything in your jobs.

To use Depot runners, your repository must be owned by a GitHub organization (not a personal account).

Switching to Depot

After you connect your Depot organization to your GitHub repository, switching to Depot is a one-line change to your runner label in your GitHub actions workflow file. For example:

jobs:
  build:
    name: Build
-    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
+    runs-on: depot-ubuntu-24.04
    steps:
      ...

For a step-by-step guide, see the quickstart.

Feature summary


Single tenant infrastructure	Builds run on ephemeral EC2 instances that are never reused. GitHub Actions runners launch on-demand in response to webhook events from your organization.
Accelerated caching	Runners are automatically integrated into our distributed cache architecture for upload and download speeds up to 1000 MiB/s on 12.5 Gbps of network throughput. Uses the same cache orchestration system as our Docker image builds for 10x faster caching in GitHub Actions jobs. Zero configuration required to benefit from faster caching.
High-performance compute	Portion of memory reserved for disk to maximize performance. Intel runners (x86 architecture) use 4th Gen AMD EPYC Genoa CPUs. Arm runners use AWS Graviton4 CPUs.
No limits	No concurrency limits, cache size limits, or network limits. Run as many jobs as you want in parallel.
Flexible cache isolation	Cache isn't isolated by branch. Cache entries from `main` and other branches contribute to the same namespace, making them accessible to all jobs. Control your cache isolation based on how you format your cache keys.
Cache scoped by repository	We scope cache entries stored in the Depot GitHub Actions cache by repository. Cache entries are accessible only by the same repository that saved them. Repositories don't have key collisions when using the same cache key. One repository can't unexpectedly read cache entries from another repository of a different trust level (for example, a public repository reading from or writing to a private repository).
Per second usage tracking	We track builds by the second and bill for whole minutes used at the end of the month. No one minute minimum enforced.
Self-hostable	Run optimized runners in our cloud or your AWS account for additional security and compliance. Support for dedicated infrastructure and VPC peering options for custom configurations.
Custom runner images	For Business plan customers, we can create custom runner AMIs with pre-installed software tailored to your specific requirements. Useful for specific tools, dependencies, or configurations not included in our standard runner images. Contact us at contact@depot.dev to discuss your needs.
Egress filtering	Control which external services your GitHub Actions runners can connect to with configurable allow and deny rules for IPs, CIDRs, or hostnames. For details, see Apply egress filters to GitHub Actions runners.
Docker image builds integration	If you use Depot for faster Docker image builds via our remote container builds, your BuildKit builder runs right next to your managed GitHub Action runner. Minimizes network latency and data transfer for faster CI builds.
Analytics and metrics	Job performance analytics with CPU/memory utilization tracking and automated runner sizing recommendations. Step-level timing breakdowns, failure rate tracking, and live runner status. Learn more about GitHub Actions metrics and analytics.

How Depot GitHub Actions runners work

Depot GitHub Actions runners use a webhook-driven architecture that launches ephemeral, single-tenant EC2 instances in response to your GitHub workflow jobs. When you run a GitHub Actions job with a Depot label (like runs-on: depot-ubuntu-latest), the job runs on a Depot runner.

When you start a workflow run in GitHub, the platform sends workflow_job webhook events to Depot's control plane. For each new job, Depot:

Receives the webhook event from GitHub indicating a new job needs to run.
Assigns a fresh EC2 instance from a pre-provisioned standby pool matching your requested runner type (for example, depot-ubuntu-24.04).
Registers the runner in your GitHub organization's default runner group.
Runs the entire job using GitHub's standard runner image on the instance.
Terminates the instance when the job completes.

Integration with Docker image builds

Depot GitHub Actions runners and Depot's remote container builds run in the same private network. If you use Depot for Docker image builds (via depot build), your BuildKit builders run right next to your GitHub Actions runners, minimizing network latency and accelerating workflows that build images and load them back into the job for testing.

Cache storage

When you use Depot GitHub Actions runners, we store the cache entries in a distributed storage system optimized for high throughput and low latency. The cache storage is encrypted at rest and in transit. To learn more and to configure the cache retention policy, see the Depot Cache overview.

Pricing

Runners usage is tracked by the second, with no one-minute minimum per run. We calculate total minutes used at the end of the billing period.

	Developer plan	Startup plan	Business plan
Plan cost	$20/month	$200/month	Custom
GitHub Actions minutes	2,000 included/month + $0.006/minute after	20,000 included/month + $0.006/minute after	Custom
Cache	25 GB included + $0.20/GB/month after	250 GB included + $0.20/GB/month after	Custom
Runner types	Linux, Windows	Linux, Windows, macOS	Linux, Windows, macOS

Try out Depot on any plan free for 7 days, no credit card required.

Try it free for 7 days

Plans also include Depot CI minutes and container build minutes. See Pricing for more about plan features and costs.

Runner pricing by type and size

Larger runners consume your included GitHub Actions minutes faster (via multipliers) and cost more per minute. For per-minute pricing, see GitHub Actions runner types.

Additional GitHub Actions minutes

Included monthly minutes are not a hard cap. You can pay for additional GitHub Actions minutes on a per-minute basis. For per-minute pricing, see GitHub Actions runner types.