CircleCI

What it is for

CircleCI is a hosted pipelines dashboard: you expand a workflow, and Free is $0 (30,000 credits / month, 5 active users, up to 6,000 small-Docker build minutes). Use it when the job is a CI pipeline you start at $0, not when you need a $20 chat seat.

What makes it unique: the cover is CircleCI’s official pipelines dashboard (circleci-docs / main, pipeline 706400 Running, PR #10433, jobs build-main / validate / deploy-production) from the docs still — not a credit meter. The rows themselves are ops of Pipelines.

Key features

• Pipelines dashboard — workflows and jobs you rerun or cancel (cover still; pipelines). One desk. Cover circleci-docs / #10433 sit here.
• Job steps / logs — output, tests, artifacts, timing (jobs). A log, not the pipeline row.
• Insights — duration, credit usage, success rate (web app). A chart, not a job.
• Orbs — reusable YAML packages (pricing). A package, not a pipeline.
• Self-hosted runners — your machines (Free is 5 concurrent tasks) (pricing). A runner, not a cloud job.

Trigger Pipeline on the cover is a CTA (not a desk). 30k credits and $15 / extra user are the meter. Scale is custom.

Who it's for

Best fit: teams who will stay on Free at $0 (30k credits, 5 users) while they open a first pipelines dashboard, then Performance when a sixth committer is $15/month or they buy another 25,000 credits for $15.

Pricing

Verified 2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) from circleci.com/pricing.

• Free — $0. 30,000 credits / month (expire; no rollover). 5 active users. Up to 6,000 small-Docker minutes. 30× concurrency. 1 GB runner network. 2 GB storage.
• Performance — 30,000 credits included. 5 users included. Additional users $15/month. Additional credits $15 / 25,000. 80× concurrency. Larger resource classes. Ticket support.
• Prepaid credits — 1 million credits $600; 5 million $3,000. Paid credits roll 12 months.
• Scale — custom. GPU / SSO / config policies. Confirm the live quote.
• Open source on Free — up to 400,000 credits / month on Linux / Arm / Docker.
• Overage examples printed — network / storage 420 credits / GB ($0.252/GB). Docker Layer Caching 200 credits / job ($0.12).

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Limitations / costs

• Free credits expire monthly. A leftover 29,000 does not roll.
• A sixth committer is $15/month on Performance. Free stops at 5 active users.
• A pipelines desk, not Buildkite’s hosted agents. For that agent model see Buildkite.

Alternatives

• Buildkite — pipelines when you want Buildkite’s public Pro $, not CircleCI credits.
• Trigger.dev — background jobs when you want Trigger’s public $, not a YAML pipeline.
• Depot — remote BuildKit when you want Depot’s public $, not a CircleCI credit pack.

Official tutorial

Written path: pipelines overview plus circleci.com/pricing. We did not embed a CircleCI YouTube — oEmbed author was not verified as official.

Website

https://circleci.com

Repository

https://github.com/CircleCI-Public

Source

Catalog row curated for AI Tools Nav. Cover is CircleCI’s official pipelines-dashboard still (circleci-docs + PR #10433 + build-main). Dollars checked on circleci.com/pricing (Free $0 / 30k credits; extra user $15/mo; extra 25k credits $15).

Last verified

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