This article describes the various services available within the GitHub Enterprise Cloud platform which are available via an additional monthly charge based on usage.
Services that are available for Metered Billing:
- GitHub Actions - https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/actions/concepts/runners/github-hosted-runners
- GitHub Codespaces - https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/codespaces
- GitHub Copilot - https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/copilot/get-started/what-is-github-copilot
- GitHub LFS - https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/repositories/working-with-files/managing-large-files/about-git-large-file-storage
- GitHub Packages - https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/packages
Since these services are charged monthly according to usage, an Azure subscription associated with the unit responsible for handling the billing must be configured prior to any metered billing services being enabled for an organization.
If you already have an existing Azure Subscription you'd like to use for this purpose, there is no need to set up another one; however, if you do not already have a subscription, you'll need to request a new subscription here: https://ncsu.service-now.com/sp?id=sc_cat_item_guide&sys_id=75f272281baa465071e35570604bcb45&sysparm_category=885024131b01a0d04d506288bd4bcba3
Once you have an Azure Subscription, open a ticket with GITHUB@help.ncsu.edu with the name of your organization and your Azure Subscription ID.
NOTE: Once billing has been enabled, the organization is removed from the "Billing Disabled" cost center which enforces no metered billing services can accrue charges. It is highly recommended to set up Budgets for your organization for all services prior to submitting your request to enable billing.
Once you have set up billing and service has been enabled for your organization, you'll want to set up Budgets to ensure you don't end up with run-away costs.
Setting a Budget for $0.00 for a service will ensure that you are not charged for that service, except for CoPilot licenses which operate slightly differently (see below).
As an organization owner, navigate to the Budget section of Billing and Licensing in the Enterprise Portal: https://github.com/enterprises/ncstate-university/billing/budgets
Here you can create a budget for each service, either as a Product Budget or a SKU Budget.
Product budgets are broad and cover an entire service offering, while SKY budgets are more targeted, allowing fine grain control over your service billing.
See the official GitHub documentation for more details: https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/billing/concepts/budgets-and-alerts
Here is a quick summary of all available metered billing services, and how they are charged.
https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/billing/concepts/product-billing/github-actions
Actions are charged per minute of runtime, with the specific rate determined by the type of runner used.
A quota of 50,000 minutes per month is included in our license, but may quickly be consumed by other users.
If you build workflows that rely on the use of GitHub Hosted Action Runners, we recommend setting up billing and allocating a Budget for their use to ensure availability.
NOTE: Self-hosted runners and the pool of Action Runners provided by the NC State GitHub Service Team is available at no charge as an alternative on a first-come-first-served queue.
Actions may be enabled / disabled as a whole across organizations and individual repositories; however there is no means to limit the use of GitHub Hosted Action Runners when Actions are enabled, so it is recommended to set your Budget for this service to $0.00 if you do not intend to use GitHub Hosted Action Runners, but would still like to utilize GitHub Actions with self-hosted runners or the NC State Enterprise Action Runners. This effectively limits their use and ensures you are not charged.
Codespaces are charged based on compute time and storage while the Codespace is running.
A quota of 180 hours per month is included in our license, but may be quickly consumed by other users.
If you rely on Codespaces as a part of university business, we recommend setting up billing and allocating a Budget to ensure availability.
Codespaces are only available for repositories within an organization, and organization administrators may select which users can utilize the feature.
Repositories owned by users cannot be used with Codespaces.
https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/billing/concepts/product-billing/github-copilot
GitHub Copilot operates as a user license instead of as a product, and so is handled slightly differently.
Each organization may have GitHub Copilot enabled with either the Business or Enterprise license, and organization owners may assign licenses to members.
Each user license is billed at a prorated monthly cost according to which license tier is assigned to the organization.
GitHub Copilot also charges per "Premium Request". Details can be found here: https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/copilot/concepts/billing/copilot-requests
Each user is allocated an initial quota of 300 (Business) or 1000 (Enterprise) Premium Requests per month, after which additional charges will incur.
NOTE: Budgets can get set up to alert when license usage exceeds a quota, but CANNOT be used to prevent the charge, unlike most Budgets.
A SKU Budget can be used to ensure that no additional charges are made for Premium Requests, but the base license charge is entirely dictated by the number of assigned licenses.
https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/billing/concepts/product-billing/git-lfs
LFS usage is charged based on total storage and bandwidth per month.
A quota of 250 GiB of storage and 250 GiB of bandwidth is included in our license, but may be quickly consumed by other users.
If you rely on LFS as a part of university business, we recommend setting up billing and allocating a Budget to ensure availability.
You may allocate separate amounts for storage vs bandwidth costs via SKU Budgets.
NOTE: LFS is implicitly enabled once billing has been set up, and its usage can ONLY be limited via a Budget.
Therefore we HIGHLY recommend setting a Budget for $0.00 if you do not intend to use this feature.
https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/billing/concepts/product-billing/github-packages
GitHub Packages usage is charged based on total storage and bandwidth per month.
A quota of 50GB of storage and 100GB of bandwidth is included in our license, but may be quickly consumed by other users.
If you rely on GitHub Packages as a part of university business, we recommend setting up billing and allocating a Budget to ensure availability.
Currently, bandwidth usage by GitHub Actions via the GITHUB_TOKEN is free, and all usage of GitHub Packages as a container registry is free for both storage and bandwidth.
This is subject to change without notice in the future, as determined by GitHub.
You may allocate separate amounts for storage vs bandwidth costs via SKU Budgets.
NOTE: GitHub Packages is implicitly enabled once billing has been set up, and its usage can ONLY be limited via a Budget.
Therefore we HIGHLY recommend setting a Budget for $0.00 if you do not intend to use this feature.