Buying GitHub Actions Runners Through AWS Marketplace

You can buy WarpBuild GitHub Actions runners through AWS Marketplace by subscribing to the WarpBuild CI listing and then connecting that subscription to a WarpBuild organization, a step only an organization admin can complete. Runner usage then lands on your AWS invoice instead of a separate card charge, and the rates are the same usage-based rates published on the WarpBuild pricing page.

Three documented limitations apply to this path, and they are worth reading before you subscribe rather than after.

Answer

AWS Marketplace billing changes where the invoice arrives. It does not change the product, the runner labels, the per-minute rates, or the workflow files.

The three limitations documented for this path are stated up front:

• No free credits. AWS Marketplace billing does not support free credits. The direct signup path includes $10 free credits; a marketplace subscription bills usage from the first minute.
• No Helios. Helios cannot be used with AWS Marketplace billing.
• Daily billing at 12:15 AM UTC. Organization usage is billed daily, at 12:15 AM UTC for the previous day, so the costs shown on AWS Marketplace might not match the costs on the WarpBuild billing dashboard at any given moment.

All three come from the AWS Marketplace billing documentation.

This path suits teams with committed AWS spend that want GitHub Actions runner usage consolidated onto the same invoice as the rest of their infrastructure. Procurement approves one vendor relationship instead of two, and finance reconciles one line rather than chasing a separate subscription. AWS Marketplace purchases arrive on the same AWS invoice as your account spend, so ask your AWS account team whether this listing counts toward your specific commitment before you plan around it.

What stays the same is the pricing structure. Pricing is purely usage based. There is no base subscription fee, no platform fee, and no seat fee. You are billed for the minutes your jobs run, and the rate depends on the runner label the job asked for.

How It Works

The purchase runs in two halves. The first half happens on AWS, the second inside WarpBuild, and the subscription only starts metering once both halves are connected.

1. Find the WarpBuild CI product on AWS Marketplace and open View purchase options.
2. Review the offer and click Subscribe at the bottom of the page.
3. While the subscription is being created, click Set up your account at the top of the page. This step is also available after the subscription finishes creating, where the same callout appears in the marketplace console.
4. You are redirected to a page that asks which WarpBuild organization to connect the subscription to. You must be an admin of that organization. If you are not logged in, you are prompted to log in first. If the AWS account is already connected, you see a message saying that this AWS account is already linked to a WarpBuild organization.
5. The subscription activates shortly after it is connected. Until then, the WarpBuild billing dashboard shows the subscription as inactive; once activation completes, the dashboard shows it as active.
6. Start running jobs on WarpBuild runners.

Step 4 is the one that stalls purchases. The person who holds AWS Marketplace purchasing rights in a large organization is often in procurement or platform finance, while WarpBuild organization admin rights sit with the platform engineering team. Line up both people before you start, or the subscription sits created and unconnected while access is sorted out.

Nothing in your workflow files changes. The runs-on labels that worked before the subscription work after it, and jobs are billed at the same per-minute rate against the marketplace subscription instead of the direct account.

name: build-and-test

on:
  pull_request:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  lint:
    runs-on: warp-ubuntu-latest-x64-2x
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run lint

  test:
    runs-on: warp-ubuntu-latest-x64-4x
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test -- --shard=${{ matrix.shard }}/4
    strategy:
      matrix:
        shard: [1, 2, 3, 4]

  build:
    runs-on: warp-ubuntu-latest-x64-8x
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run build

Teams that also run runners inside their own cloud account keep that option. BYOC runs on AWS, GCP, and Azure, and Terraform support exists for BYOC on AWS, so the runner infrastructure in your account can be described in the same modules as the rest of it. The BYOC comparison is covered in hosted runners compared with runners in your own cloud.

Limitations

The three documented limitations deserve more than a bullet each, because each one changes a decision.

Free credits do not apply. AWS Marketplace billing does not support free credits. Signup on the direct path includes $10 free credits, which is enough to run a real pipeline for a few hundred build minutes and confirm the runner labels and image contents behave. The practical sequence is to evaluate on a direct account, then subscribe through the marketplace once the technical decision is made. Moving after the evaluation costs nothing extra, because there is no base subscription fee, no platform fee, and no seat fee to duplicate during the overlap.

Helios is unavailable. You cannot use Helios with AWS Marketplace billing. If your organization already runs Helios, or plans to, keep that product on direct billing and treat the marketplace subscription as covering GitHub Actions runner usage only.

Billing runs daily, one day behind. Organization usage is billed daily, at 12:15 AM UTC for the previous day. The consequence is a timing gap: the costs on AWS Marketplace might not match the actual costs on the WarpBuild billing dashboard, because the dashboard reflects usage as it is recorded while the marketplace reflects what has been metered through the last daily run.

That gap is a reconciliation problem with a repeatable procedure. Here is how to close it.

Open the Reports page in the WarpBuild dashboard and go to the Billing section, CI tab. Each row is a single job execution with repository, job name, runner label, stack, execution time, billed time, and the cost breakdown between runner and snapshot. Set the date range to a full calendar month in UTC, export the CSV, and sum the cost column. Compare that total against the marketplace charges for the same month.

Three rules make the comparison land:

• Reconcile whole months in UTC, not partial weeks. A month boundary absorbs the one-day metering lag; a Tuesday-to-Tuesday window does not.
• Compare the CI tab, the Docker Builder tab, and the Cache tab separately before you compare totals. Runner minutes, Docker Builder sessions, and cache storage and operations are metered on different units, and a mismatch usually sits in exactly one of them.
• Keep the CSV exports. The Reports page supports date range selection, sorting, filtering, search, and CSV export on every tab, and a saved export is the artifact your finance team can check against the invoice months later.

For splitting those same rows across teams and repositories, see attribute GitHub Actions costs to teams and repositories.

Cost

Marketplace billing meters the same rate card as direct billing. Every number below comes from the published rate card or from GitHub's published list prices, with the arithmetic shown and a checked-on date attached.

WarpBuild rates come from the pricing page. GitHub list prices were checked on 2026-08-13 against the Actions minute multipliers reference, and the shapes against the GitHub-hosted runner specifications. GitHub gives public repositories a larger free shape; the 2 vCPU comparison above is the private-repository shape that paying teams run.

Now the worked model for a mid-sized fleet, using the labels in the workflow file above. Assume 6,000 jobs a month: 600 lint jobs at 3 minutes, 2,400 test shards at 5 minutes, and 3,000 build jobs at 8 minutes.

The arithmetic: 1,800 minutes at $0.004 is $7.20, 12,000 minutes at $0.008 is $96.00, and 24,000 minutes at $0.016 is $384.00, for $487.20 a month and $5,846.40 a year. The same minute counts on the GitHub-hosted equivalents are $10.80, $144.00, and $528.00, for $682.80 a month and $8,193.60 a year. On a marketplace subscription, the $487.20 lands on your AWS invoice rather than a separate charge, and the $5,846.40 annual figure is the number to take to your AWS account team when you ask about commitment treatment.

The pricing page carries the full rate card, including macOS, Windows, remote Docker builders, cache, and snapshot line items that this model leaves out. Use those rates with measured usage rather than projecting from the example alone.

Two account-level line items to plan for. SSO is available for a flat $250 per month, whatever the user count. Confirm with the WarpBuild team which of your line items your marketplace subscription meters before you build the invoice forecast around them.

If the reason you are reading this page is an invoice that grew faster than your merge volume, the drivers are broken down in why is my GitHub Actions bill so high. Moving the same spend onto an AWS invoice changes who reviews it, so it is worth knowing which jobs generate it first.

FAQ

Do I still get the $10 free credits on AWS Marketplace billing?

No. AWS Marketplace billing does not support free credits. Signup on the direct path includes $10 free credits, so run the evaluation on a direct account first and move to the marketplace subscription once you have decided.

Who can connect an AWS Marketplace subscription to a WarpBuild organization?

Only an admin of the WarpBuild organization. If you are not logged in you are prompted to log in first, and if the AWS account is already connected you see a message saying that this AWS account is already linked to a WarpBuild organization.

Why do AWS Marketplace charges differ from the WarpBuild billing dashboard?

WarpBuild bills organization usage daily, at 12:15 AM UTC for the previous day, so the figures on AWS Marketplace might not match the costs on the WarpBuild billing dashboard on any given day. Reconcile over full calendar months.

Can I use Helios with AWS Marketplace billing?

No. Helios cannot be used with AWS Marketplace billing. Organizations that need Helios stay on direct billing for that product.