Blacksmith

What it is for

Blacksmith is a hosted GitHub Actions runner: you open Jobs analytics, and Ubuntu x64 is $0.004 / minute (the page prints “Try for free”, no card required to start). Use it when the job is Actions minutes you pay per minute, not when you need a $20 chat seat.

What makes it unique: the cover is the official Blacksmith GitHub Actions Analytics desk (300,689 jobs, 45s p50, failure-rate charts) from the docs still — not a pricing card. The charts themselves are ops of Jobs. Blacksmith bills minutes (plus cache GB), not seats.

Key features

• Runners — a GitHub Actions worker Blacksmith starts (pricing; docs). One job. Ubuntu x64 $0.004 / min; Ubuntu ARM $0.0025 / min; Windows x64 $0.008 / min; macOS M4 $0.08 / min. Labels that pick a runner sit here.
• Jobs analytics — the Actions dashboard on the cover (jobs still; docs). A chart, not a runner. p50 / failure rate / minutes are ops of this.
• Cache — a build cache you attach to jobs (docs; pricing Docker layer caching). A cache, not a job. Docker layer caching and sticky disks print +$0.50 / GB / month.
• Monitors — a duration alert on a job (docs). An alert, not a chart. Slack messages from a monitor sit here.
• Static IPs — a fixed egress IP for a runner (pricing). An IP, not a cache. +$100 / IP / month.

CLI / YAML runs-on: is install. Proof (their test product) is not this listing.

Who it's for

Best fit: CI teams who will try Blacksmith for free, then stay on Ubuntu at $0.004 / minute when GitHub-hosted runners are the bill they want to cut.

Pricing

Verified 2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) from blacksmith.sh/pricing. Tiles print per-minute rates and “Try for free”. There is no forever $0 minute allowance on the HTML we fetched.

• Ubuntu x64 — $0.004 / min (page claims 67% vs GitHub-hosted).
• Ubuntu ARM — $0.0025 / min.
• Windows x64 — $0.008 / min.
• macOS M4 — $0.08 / min.
• Add-ons — Docker layer caching +$0.50 / GB / month; sticky disks +$0.50 / GB / month; static IPs +$100 / IP / month.

Startup discounts (“under 100 employees / $50m raised / 5 years”) print as a form, not a dollar. Confirm checkout; taxes follow your location.

Limitations / costs

• Try for free is not a forever Free plan. Minutes are metered.
• macOS is $0.08 / min — 20× Ubuntu x64.
• A runner desk, not a pipeline host. For self-host CI YAML see Woodpecker. For Docker builds as a service see Depot.

Alternatives

• Depot — container builds + Actions minutes when you want Depot’s $20 / $200 tiles, not Blacksmith’s $0.004 / min.
• Woodpecker — self-host CI when you want a $0 Apache pipeline log, not a hosted runner.
• Dagger — CI-as-code when the pipeline should be an SDK, not a runs-on: label.

Official tutorial

Official Blacksmith channel video: Introducing Blacksmith: The fastest way to run your GitHub Actions (oEmbed author: Blacksmith). First-party intro; the docs Jobs still is the cover.

Written path: blacksmith.sh/pricing plus the Jobs still.

Website

https://www.blacksmith.sh

Repository

https://github.com/useblacksmith

Source

Catalog row curated for AI Tools Nav. Cover is the official Blacksmith Jobs analytics desk from the docs still. Dollars checked on blacksmith.sh/pricing (Ubuntu $0.004/min; ARM $0.0025; Windows $0.008; macOS M4 $0.08; cache/disks $0.50/GB/mo; static IP $100/mo). Tutorial oEmbed author: Blacksmith.

Last verified

2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) editorial check.