CircleCI pricing 2026: plans and costs
How AI answers describe CircleCI pricing
However, Buildkite and GitHub Actions stand out for straightforward pricing, while CircleCI offers clearly published usage-based pricing.
Compared to: GitLab · GitHub · Jenkins
- One important distinction: GitLab and CircleCI offer annual billing for certain plans, but their current public pricing pages don't establish a standard percentage discount against monthly billing.
- CircleCI: Free plan with up to 6,000 build minutes per month and support for multiple operating systems and Docker-based builds.
- CircleCI is a strong choice for transparent CI/CD pricing: it publishes a free tier and paid plans starting at $15/month, with usage based on credits rather than negotiated enterprise quotes.
Quick pricing summary
- Free: $0 month
- Performance: $15 month
- Scale: Custom (billed annually)
- Worth noting: Usage is paid in credits. Free plan credits expire monthly. Performance purchased credits roll over monthly and expire after a year. Prices do not include applicable taxes.
Plans
Free
$0 month
- 30,000 free credits per month
- 5 active users per month
- Up to 6,000 build minutes
- 30x concurrency
- Docker, Windows, Linux, Arm, macOS, self-hosted runners
- 1 GB network and 2 GB storage included
Performance
$15 month
- Starting at $15/month with 30,000 credits included
- 5 active users included
- Additional credits at $15 per 25,000
- 80x concurrency
- Larger resource classes
- 5 GB network and 2 GB storage included
- Optional 8x5 support add-on
- Option to purchase bulk credits at a discount
Scale
Custom billed annually
- Customizable plans
- Enterprise controls
- Largest resource classes including GPU
- Unlimited concurrency
- 50 GB network and 200 GB storage included
- Single sign-on and config policies
- Optional 24/7 support add-on
What you get on each plan
| Feature | Free | Performance | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Concurrent job runs | 30 | 80 | Unlimited |
| Active users included | 5 | 5 | Custom |
| Monthly credits included | 30,000 | 30,000 plus $15 per additional 25,000 | Custom |
| Smarter Testing test atoms per month | 1,000 | 10,000 | 100,000 |
| Self-hosted runner concurrency | 5 | 20 | Unlimited |
| Docker layer caching | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Private orbs | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Ticket-based global support | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Support SLA | — | 8x5 SLAs available | 8x5 and 24x7 SLAs available |
| Single sign-on (SSO) | — | — | ✓ |
| Config policies | — | — | ✓ |
| Technical services | — | — | Add-on services available |
Hidden costs & add-ons
| Cost driver | Price | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Docker layer caching | 200 credits per job run ($0.12 per job run) | Pipelines that run Docker build jobs |
| IP ranges | 450 credits per GB | Jobs with the IP ranges feature enabled |
| Additional network and storage | 420 credits per GB | Usage beyond plan-included network or storage thresholds |
| Smarter Testing test atoms | 3,000 credits per 100,000 test atoms | Usage beyond plan monthly test atom threshold |
CircleCI pricing vs alternatives
| Brand | Entry price | Free plan | Model | Best for | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CircleCI | Free; paid from $15 / mo | Yes | Usage-based | — | |
| GitLab | Free; paid from $29 per seat / mo | Yes | Per seat | Scaling development teams and enterprises that need advanced security and compliance capabilities | Compare → |
| GitHub | Free; paid from $4 per seat / mo | Yes | Per seat | Development teams, from individuals to enterprises, that build, review, and ship software on one platform. | Compare → |
| Jenkins | — | — | — | Developers who need to build, test and deploy software reliably | Compare → |
| Buildkite | Free; paid from $30 per seat / mo | Yes | Per seat | Engineering teams that want CI to run on their own infrastructure and need it to scale to large build volumes | Compare → |
List prices as published on circleci.com/pricing/. Totals are worked examples, not quotes.