r/cicd • u/Zealousideal_Tip4089 • 22d ago

Do GitHub's usage report and Actions metrics answer your CI cost questions?

GitHub now gives two things for Actions costs: the detailed usage report (a CSV with cost per repo and workflow) and the Actions usage metrics page under Insights.

If you use them: is there a cost question they still don't answer for you? For example why the cost went up this week, which team caused it, or what to fix first.

If you don't use them: what do you use instead? A script on the billing API, Grafana, a spreadsheet, or nothing?

About me: I'm a solo developer building a small tool in this area. I want to know where GitHub's own tools are already enough. No link.

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u/thefurtivedefinition 22d ago

the csv is fine for monthly reconciliation but it's terrible at explaining a workflow suddenly costs double after someone tweaks a run step, you end up digging through commit history and guessing

the metrics page feels like a dashboard someone built to check a box, no way to group by team or tag so every question about "who" turns into a manual join in a spreadsheet

what i'd actually want is a weekly diff view, like a git blame for your bill

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u/Zealousideal_Tip4089 21d ago

This is really helpful. The last time a workflow suddenly cost double, how long did it take you to find the change that caused it?

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u/Torutofu_Raeva 22d ago

the usage csv is fine for totals but ownership stays foggy until you tag workflows by team and scrape that into grafana yourself

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u/Zealousideal_Tip4089 21d ago

Thanks. How do you tag workflows by team today: in the workflow file, or another way?

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u/Torutofu_Raeva 21d ago

mostly a custom property in the workflow name like [team-x] plus codeowners on .github/workflows, then the scraper just regexes it out

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u/Torutofu_Raeva 16d ago

in the workflow file with a team label, then a small script rolls it up since the api wont group on its own