How to Cut Your GitHub Actions CI Bill (Without Compromising Tests)

Julien Danjou's article provides strategies to reduce costs associated with GitHub Actions CI without compromising the quality of tests. It identifies five key strategies: runner sizing, caching, test selection, batching, and two-step CI, explaining how each can impact costs and when they are most effective. The article emphasizes the importance of understanding where CI minutes are being consumed by analyzing the GitHub billing page, which can highlight inefficient workflows. It provides guidance on selecting the appropriate strategies based on specific codebase needs, such as monorepos benefiting from test selection and two-step CI, while polyglot repos may find runner sizing and caching more effective. The piece advises against using all strategies simultaneously and highlights the significance of measuring the impact of changes over time. While not discussing self-hosted runners or other CI platforms, the article underscores the potential for significant cost reductions by optimizing GitHub Actions workflows.