by CircleCI · circleci.com ↗
CI/CD platform for automating builds, tests, and deployments across cloud and self-hosted environments.
CircleCI’s pricing is built around credits rather than a simple per-seat subscription. That matters because the amount you pay is driven by what your pipelines actually consume: active users, machine size, runtime, storage, network transfer, and optional add-ons can all affect the final bill. The public plan structure is straightforward at the top level — Free for getting started, Performance for teams that want more scale and flexibility, and Scale for enterprise customers who need custom limits, premium support, and annual billing. The official pages also make clear that CircleCI’s pricing is meant to expand with usage, so a small team can begin on the free tier and then move into paid credit packages as workflows grow. Publicly disclosed pricing is available for Free and Performance, while Scale is quote-only. For buyers, the practical takeaway is that CircleCI can start at $0, but real spend depends on how many people build, how long jobs run, which resource classes they use, and whether they add support or other metered features.
Usage-based, credit-based pricing with Free, Performance, and quote-only Scale tiers; credits are purchased or included to cover users, compute, and some add-ons.
Free is monthly at $0 and requires no credit card. Performance is billed monthly, with credits purchased in 25,000-credit blocks and automatic monthly refills; paid credits roll over month to month and expire after one year. The docs state that Performance customers can choose prepaid billing for bulk discounts, with discounting starting at 5 million credits, while Scale is billed annually and set up by contacting sales. Prices do not include applicable taxes, and the startup program offers up to $20,000 in free compute credits for qualifying startups.
The Free plan includes up to 30,000 credits per month for personal usage, with 1 GB of network transfer and 2 GB-months of storage included. Credits expire after a month and do not roll over.
Additional users are billed at $15/month. Additional credits are sold in blocks of 25,000 credits, and credits roll over month to month and expire after one year. The plan includes the 30,000 credits available to the Free plan; these expire and do not roll over month-to-month.
Quote-only tier for enterprise customers. The supplied documents say Scale is billed annually, offers custom user seat count, unlimited self-hosted runners, custom concurrency, and custom storage retention, but do not disclose a public starting price.
Performance customers can add additional users for a recurring monthly charge. The pricing page states this as an add-on to the included 5 active users.
Performance customers can buy credits in advance for additional savings. The documents also note prepaid billing discounts start at 5 million credits and that bulk purchases can begin at 1 million credits for $600.
A non-compute add-on billed per job. The pricing page and price list both list Docker Layer Caching as a separately metered cost.
IP range usage is billed per gigabyte. The pricing page notes this applies to IP ranges, and the docs say the network transfer limit applies to self-hosted runners only when restoring caches and workspaces.
Network and storage usage beyond plan-specified thresholds is charged at 420 credits per GB. The price list lists both runner network egress and storage at this rate.
The pricing page says 8x5 SLAs are available on Performance and 8x5 and 24x7 SLAs are available on Scale, but the supplied documents do not provide public dollar amounts for the support packages.
A small team just getting started with CI/CD and staying within the included free allowance.
Expected cost$0/month, as long as usage stays within Free plan limits.A growing team that needs more than the Free plan and starts buying monthly credits on Performance.
Expected costStarting at $15/month, plus any additional users, compute, and add-ons.An enterprise buyer that wants custom concurrency, unlimited self-hosted runners, and premium support.
Expected costNot publicly disclosed; quote required.No public starting price is disclosed in the supplied official documents. The pricing page and plan overview position Scale as an enterprise tier with custom configuration and a sales contact path. Buyers should expect a quote-based process rather than a self-serve checkout price.
CircleCI charges in credits, which are used for active users, compute time, and some add-on features. The documents state that credits are sold in 25,000-credit packages on Performance, and that compute rates vary by machine type and resource class. This means the final bill depends on how much you run and what resources your workflows use.
Yes. The pricing documents say you can buy credits in advance for additional savings, and that prepaid billing discounts start at 5 million credits. The docs also list savings bands ranging from 2% to 5% for very large purchases, so larger commitments can lower the effective credit cost.
