Skip to content

Compute minutes

DETAILS: Tier: Premium, Ultimate Offering: GitLab.com, Self-managed

  • Renamed from "CI/CD minutes" to "compute quota" or "compute minutes" in GitLab 16.1.

NOTE: The term CI/CD minutes is being renamed to compute minutes. During this transition, you might see references in the UI and documentation to CI/CD minutes, CI minutes, pipeline minutes, CI pipeline minutes, pipeline minutes quota, compute credits, compute units, and compute minutes. For more information, see epic 2150.

Administrators can limit the amount of time that projects can use to run jobs on instance runners each month. This limit is tracked with a compute quota.

By default, one minute of execution time by a single job uses one compute minute. The total execution time for a pipeline is the sum of all its jobs' durations. Jobs can run concurrently, so the total usage can be higher than the end-to-end duration of a pipeline.

On GitLab.com:

On self-managed GitLab instances:

  • Compute quotas are disabled by default.
  • When enabled, compute quotas apply to private projects only.
  • Administrators can assign more compute minutes if a namespace uses all its monthly quota.

Trigger jobs do not execute on runners, so they do not consume compute minutes, even when using strategy:depend to wait for the downstream pipeline status. The triggered downstream pipeline consumes compute minutes the same as other pipelines.

Project runners are not subject to a compute quota.

Set the compute quota for all namespaces

By default, GitLab instances do not have a compute quota. The default value for the quota is 0, which is unlimited. However, you can change this default value.

Prerequisites:

  • You must be a GitLab administrator.

To change the default quota that applies to all namespaces:

  1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin area.
  2. Select Settings > CI/CD.
  3. Expand Continuous Integration and Deployment.
  4. In the Compute quota box, enter a limit.
  5. Select Save changes.

If a quota is already defined for a specific namespace, this value does not change that quota.

Set the compute quota for a specific namespace

You can override the global value and set a compute quota for a specific namespace.

Prerequisites:

  • You must be a GitLab administrator.

To set a compute quota for a namespace:

  1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin area.
  2. Select Overview > Groups.
  3. For the group you want to update, select Edit.
  4. In the Compute quota box, enter the maximum number of compute minutes.
  5. Select Save changes.

You can also use the update group API or the update user API instead.

NOTE: You can set a compute quota for only top-level groups or user namespaces. If you set a quota for a subgroup, it is not used.

View compute usage

Prerequisites:

  • You must have access to the build to view the total usage and quota summary for a namespace associated with a build.
  • Access to Usage Quotas page is based on your role in the associated namespace or group.

View Usage Quota Reports for a group

  • Displaying instance runners duration per project introduced in GitLab 15.0.

Prerequisites:

  • You must have the Owner role for the group.

To view compute usage for your group:

  1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your group. The group must not be a subgroup.
  2. Select Settings > Usage Quotas.
  3. Select the Pipelines tab.

The projects list shows projects with compute usage or instance runners usage in the current month only. The list includes all projects in the namespace and its subgroups, sorted in descending order of compute usage.

View Usage Quota reports for a personal namespace

  • Displaying instance runners duration introduced in GitLab 15.0.

Prerequisites:

  • The namespace must be your personal namespace.

You can view the compute usage for a personal namespace:

  1. On the left sidebar, select your avatar.
  2. Select Edit profile.
  3. On the left sidebar, select Usage Quotas.

The projects list shows personal projects with compute usage or instance runners usage in the current month only. The list is sorted in descending order of compute usage.

Purchase additional compute minutes

DETAILS: Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate Offering: GitLab.com

If you're using GitLab.com, you can purchase additional packs of compute minutes. These additional compute minutes:

  • Are used only after the monthly quota included in your subscription runs out.
  • Are carried over to the next month, if any remain at the end of the month.
  • Are valid for 12 months from date of purchase or until all compute minutes are consumed, whichever comes first. Expiry of compute minutes is not enforced.

For example, with a GitLab.com Premium license:

  • You have 10,000 monthly compute minutes.
  • You purchase an additional 5,000 compute minutes.
  • Your total limit is 15,000 compute minutes.

If you use 13,000 compute minutes during the month, the next month your additional compute minutes become 2,000. If you use 9,000 compute minutes during the month, your additional compute minutes remain the same.

Additional compute minutes bought on a trial subscription are available after the trial ends or upgrading to a paid plan.

You can find pricing for additional compute minutes on the GitLab Pricing page.

Purchase compute minutes for a group

DETAILS: Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate Offering: GitLab.com

Prerequisites:

  • You must have the Owner role for the group.

You can purchase additional compute minutes for your group. You cannot transfer purchased compute minutes from one group to another, so be sure to select the correct group.

  1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your group.
  2. Select Settings > Usage Quotas.
  3. Select Pipelines.
  4. Select Buy additional compute minutes.
  5. Complete the details of the transaction.

After your payment is processed, the additional compute minutes are added to your group namespace.

Purchase compute minutes for a personal namespace

DETAILS: Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate Offering: GitLab.com

Prerequisites:

  • The namespace must be your personal namespace.

To purchase additional compute minutes for your personal namespace:

  1. On the left sidebar, select your avatar.
  2. Select Edit profile.
  3. On the left sidebar, select Usage Quotas.
  4. Select Buy additional compute minutes. GitLab redirects you to the Customers Portal.
  5. Locate the subscription card that's linked to your personal namespace on GitLab.com, select Buy more compute minutes, and complete the details of the transaction.

After your payment is processed, the additional compute minutes are added to your personal namespace.

Troubleshooting

Error: Last name can't be blank

You might get an error "Last name can't be blank" when purchasing compute minutes. This issue occurs when a last name is missing from the Full name field of your profile.

To resolve the issue:

  1. Ensure that your user profile has a last name filled in:

    • On the left sidebar, select your avatar.
    • Select Edit profile.
    • Update the Full name field to have both first name and last name, save the changes.

  2. Clear your browser cache and cookies, then try the purchase process again.

  3. If the error persists, try using a different web browser or an incognito/private browsing window.

Error: Attempt_Exceed_Limitation - Attempt exceed the limitation, refresh page to try again

You might get the error Attempt_Exceed_Limitation - Attempt exceed the limitation, refresh page to try again. when purchasing compute minutes.

This issue occurs when the credit card form is re-submitted too quickly within a specific time frame (three submissions within one minute or six submissions within one hour).

To resolve this issue, wait a few minutes and try the purchase process again.

How compute usage is calculated

GitLab uses this formula to calculate the compute usage of a job:

Job duration * Cost factor
  • Job duration: The time, in seconds, that a job took to run on a instance runner, not including time spent in the created or pending statuses.
  • Cost factor: A number based on project visibility.

The value is transformed into compute minutes and added to the count of used units in the job's top-level namespace.

For example, if a user alice runs a pipeline:

  • Under the gitlab-org namespace, the compute minutes used by each job in the pipeline are added to the overall consumption for the gitlab-org namespace, not the alice namespace.
  • For one of the personal projects in their namespace, the compute minutes are added to the overall consumption for the alice namespace.

The compute used by one pipeline is the total compute minutes used by all the jobs that ran in the pipeline. Jobs can run concurrently, so the total compute usage can be higher than the end-to-end duration of a pipeline.

Cost factor

The cost factors for jobs running on instance runners on GitLab.com are:

The cost factors on self-managed instances are:

  • 0 for public projects, so they do not consume compute minutes.
  • 1 for internal and private projects.

Cost factor for community contributions to GitLab projects

Community contributors can use up to 300,000 minutes on instance runners when contributing to open source projects maintained by GitLab. The maximum of 300,000 minutes would only be possible if contributing exclusively to projects part of the GitLab product. The total number of minutes available on instance runners is reduced by the compute minutes used by pipelines from other projects. The 300,000 minutes applies to all SaaS tiers, and the cost factor calculation is:

  • Monthly compute quota / 300,000 job duration minutes = Cost factor

For example, with a monthly compute quota of 10,000 in the Premium tier:

  • 10,000 / 300,000 = 0.03333333333 cost factor.

For this reduced cost factor:

  • The merge request source project must be a fork of a GitLab-maintained project, such as gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com, or gitlab-org/gitlab.
  • The merge request target project must be the fork's parent project.
  • The pipeline must be a merge request, merged results, or merge train pipeline.

GitLab administrators can add a namespace to the reduced cost factor with a flag named ci_minimal_cost_factor_for_gitlab_namespaces.

GitLab-hosted runner costs

GitLab-hosted runners have different cost factors, depending on the runner type (Linux, Windows, macOS) and the virtual machine configuration.

GitLab-hosted runner type Machine Size Cost factor
Linux x86-64 small 1
Linux x86-64 medium 2
Linux x86-64 large 3
Linux x86-64 xlarge 6
Linux x86-64 2xlarge 12
Linux x86-64 + GPU-enabled medium, GPU standard 7
Linux Arm64 medium 2
Linux Arm64 large 3
macOS M1 medium 6 (Status: Beta)
Windows medium 1 (Status: Beta)

Monthly reset of compute usage

On the first day of each calendar month, the accumulated compute usage is reset to 0 for all namespaces that use instance runners. This means your full quota is available, and calculations start again from 0.

For example, if you have a monthly quota of 10,000 compute minutes:

  • On 1st April, you have 10,000 compute minutes.
  • During April, you use only 6,000 of the 10,000 compute minutes.
  • On 1st May, the accumulated compute usage resets to 0, and you have 10,000 compute minutes to use again during May.

Usage data for the previous month is kept to show historical view of the consumption over time.

Monthly rollover of purchased compute minutes

If you purchase additional compute minutes and don't use the full amount, the remaining amount rolls over to the next month.

For example:

  • On April 1, you purchase 5,000 additional compute minutes.
  • During April, you use only 3,000 of the 5,000 additional compute minutes.
  • On May 1, the unused compute minutes roll over, so you have 2,000 additional compute minutes available for May.

Additional compute minutes are a one-time purchase and do not renew or refresh each month.

What happens when you exceed the quota

When the compute quota is used for the current month, GitLab stops processing new jobs.

  • Any non-running job that should be picked by instance runners is automatically dropped.
  • Any job being retried is automatically dropped.
  • Any running job can be dropped at any point if the overall namespace usage goes over-quota by a grace period.

The grace period for running jobs is 1,000 compute minutes.

Jobs on project runners are not affected by the compute quota.

GitLab.com usage notifications

On GitLab.com an in-app banner is displayed and an email notification sent to the namespace owners when:

  • The remaining compute minutes is below 30% of the quota.
  • The remaining compute minutes is below 5% of the quota.
  • All the compute quota has been used.

Special quota limits

In some cases, the quota limit is replaced by one of the following labels:

  • Unlimited: For namespaces with unlimited compute quota.
  • Not supported: For namespaces where active instance runners are not enabled.

Reduce compute quota usage

If your project consumes too much compute quota, there are some strategies you can use to reduce your usage:

If you manage an open source project, these improvements can also reduce compute quota consumption for contributor fork projects, enabling more contributions.

See our pipeline efficiency guide for more details.

Reset compute usage

DETAILS: Tier: Premium, Ultimate Offering: Self-managed, GitLab Dedicated

An administrator can reset the compute usage for a namespace for the current month.

Reset usage for a personal namespace

  1. Find the user in the Admin area.
  2. Select Edit.
  3. In Limits, select Reset compute usage.

Reset usage for a group namespace

  1. Find the group in the Admin area.
  2. Select Edit.
  3. In Permissions and group features, select Reset compute usage.