GitHub vs GitLab 2026: Pricing, CI Minutes and Which to Pick

For most developer teams in 2026, pick GitHub. Team is listed at $4 per user a month, and with Copilot Business at $19 the whole stack comes to $23, against $29 a month for GitLab Premium billed annually. GitLab wins on paid CI minutes (10,000 against 3,000) and on a free self-managed install.

Two caveats can change that answer. GitHub's pricing page labels its Team and Enterprise figures "for the first 12 months" and gives no renewal rate, so the gap may narrow after year one. GitLab's AI credits are a limited-time offer. All prices below are verified on vendor pages, October 2026. The sections below work the numbers at 5, 25 and 100 developers, and show where the verdict flips.

Toolradar data: Toolradar, the software directory we run, evaluated 114 CI/CD tools for its October 2026 ranking. GitHub and GitLab each have a profile on the site: GitHub and GitLab. The seat math below uses the vendors' own pricing pages, not that ranking.

At a glance

GitHub and GitLab both sell hosted Git, a CI system and paid seats on top. They differ in where the money goes. GitHub charges less per seat and includes less pipeline time on its paid tier, so a team with heavy CI pays for the difference in overage. GitLab charges more per seat and bundles the minutes, and some AI credits, into that seat.

If the Git host is only one of your choices, our CI/CD tools ranking covers the pipeline systems that sit beside it, and best Git clients covers the desktop side.

Winner by dimension

No single column settles it. A team that runs little CI and wants AI in every seat should pick GitHub. A team that runs long pipelines, or wants to self-host for nothing, should look hard at GitLab. The rest of this piece shows the numbers behind each row.

What the seats cost at 5, 25 and 100 developers

The scenario is a developer team on GitHub's Team plan with Copilot Business for AI, against GitLab Premium billed annually. GitHub's pricing page does not state a billing basis for its seat price, so the GitHub figures are the monthly rate times 12. For 25 developers the arithmetic is $4 x 25 x 12 = $1,200 for Team, plus $19 x 25 x 12 = $5,700 for Copilot Business, a total of $6,900 a year.

The GitHub stack comes to $6 per developer a month less than GitLab Premium, or $72 a year for each person. That gap is the whole price argument for GitHub, and it holds only while the Team figure holds after year one. Copilot Business is the larger line at every size, so a team that does not want AI in its seats should compare Team alone. At five developers, Team costs $240 a year.

The gap closes if GitHub's Team price rises. The GitHub stack matches GitLab Premium only at a Team price of $10 a user a month, which is the GitLab Premium price minus the Copilot Business seat. Above $10, GitLab is cheaper on list prices and the verdict flips.

The first-12-months label

GitHub's pricing page shows its Team price and an Enterprise price "starting at" $21, and labels both "for the first 12 months". The page gives no renewal price for either. Read the page on the day you buy, and get the renewal rate in writing before you put year two in a budget.

GitLab's Premium price is billed annually, and its page shows no monthly rate. That makes the price easy to budget but hard to start small on. Annual billing means a team that wants to try Premium first still commits to a full year.

CI minutes: where each plan runs out

Both platforms meter pipeline time each month, with a fixed allowance per plan. GitHub's Free plan gives 2,000 Actions minutes a month on private repositories, and Team gives 3,000 with 2 GB of package storage. GitLab's Free plan gives 400 compute minutes, Premium 10,000 and Ultimate 50,000. Standard GitHub-hosted runners are free on public repositories, but larger runners are charged there too.

The overage is where Team gets expensive. GitHub bills $0.006 a minute for a Linux 2-core x64 runner, and $0.005 a minute for arm64. A team that runs 10,000 minutes a month on Team pays for the 7,000 minutes above the 3,000 included, which is $42 a month on top of the seats. Larger runners cost more per minute, so treat $42 as the floor on Linux.

Count your pipeline minutes for the last three months before you choose. Under 3,000 a month, Team's allowance covers the work. Above it, each extra 1,000 minutes costs $6 on Linux 2-core runners. For 25 developers the seat saving is $1,800 a year, and 25,000 overage minutes a month at $0.006 a minute use that up in twelve months. A 25-developer team running roughly 28,000 minutes a month on Team would spend the whole seat saving on CI.

GitHub also announced a fee for self-hosted runners, the machines a team runs itself. It postponed that change on 15 December 2025 and set no new start date. Treat it as an open question, not a line item, and check GitHub's billing docs before you sign. Both platforms let you run your own runners, and our self-hosting tools guide covers what running your own hardware involves.

AI seats: bundled or bolted on

GitHub sells AI as a separate subscription. Copilot Pro is $10 a month for an individual, Copilot Business is $19 per granted seat a month, and Copilot Enterprise is $39. Copilot is billed per granted seat, so the AI line follows the people you assign it to, not the headcount on the invoice. A GitHub team that wants AI for every developer pays $23 per person a month on Team plus Business.

GitLab bundles credits into its paid seats instead. Its page lists GitLab Credits at $1 each, with $12 of credits per user a month on Premium and $24 on Ultimate, and calls that a promotional offer for a limited time. Do not budget the $12 as permanent until GitLab confirms it past the promotion.

Compare like with like. Right now a GitLab Premium seat includes AI credits and the GitHub stack includes Copilot Business, which puts the comparison at $23 against $29 with AI in both. If the credits lapse, the GitLab seat carries no included AI credits, and the two prices stop being like for like. Our GitHub Copilot review covers what the Copilot seat includes, and Cursor vs GitHub Copilot is the comparison for teams weighing a Copilot alternative. Cursor's own plan prices are in Cursor pricing.

Who should pick which

• Pick GitHub when the team has 5 to 100 developers, the pipelines fit 3,000 minutes a month, and you want Copilot in the same bill. Team is the cheapest paid seat on the two pricing pages, as long as its renewal rate holds. If Copilot is not the assistant you want, best AI coding assistants lists the rest.
• Pick GitLab when pipelines run past 3,000 minutes a month, when you want a self-managed install on the free Self-Managed plan, or when AI credits inside the seat matter more than the seat price.
• Wait on Ultimate. GitLab Ultimate has no published price, so a like-for-like comparison with GitHub Enterprise plus Copilot Enterprise cannot be costed from the vendor pages. GitHub Enterprise is "starting at" $21 with the same 12-month label, and Copilot Enterprise is $39.

Gotchas that change the bill

• GitHub's Team and Enterprise prices carry the first-12-months label, and the page gives no renewal rate.
• Copilot Business is billed per granted seat, so every developer you assign it to adds one seat's price, not one flat amount.
• GitHub's overage is $0.006 a minute on Linux 2-core runners. At 10,000 minutes on Team, that is $42 a month before seats.
• GitLab's $12 of monthly AI credits per user is a limited-time offer.
• GitHub's self-hosted runner fee is postponed with no new date. A team that runs its own runners should ask before it budgets.

How we compared

Every price on this page comes from a vendor page read on 10 October 2026: GitHub's pricing page, GitHub's Copilot plans page, GitHub's Copilot plan docs, GitHub's Actions billing docs, and GitLab's pricing page. GitHub's update on Actions pricing changes is the source for the self-hosted runner status. The seat totals are multiplication, and the 25-developer example shows the sums. Toolradar's GitHub vs GitLab guide is the broader read. This page covers the cost side. For the same kind of head-to-head on other developer tools, see Supabase vs Firebase and Vercel vs Netlify.

FAQ

Is GitHub or GitLab cheaper in 2026?

GitHub, on the prices its pricing page shows. Team is $4 per user a month, against $29 for GitLab Premium billed annually. Add Copilot Business and GitHub comes to $23, still $6 a month under GitLab Premium. The Team figure is labeled "for the first 12 months", so compare renewal rates before you decide.

Which has more free CI minutes, GitHub or GitLab?

GitHub. Its Free plan includes 2,000 Actions minutes a month on private repositories, against 400 compute minutes a month on GitLab's Free plan. Standard GitHub-hosted runners are free on public repositories.

Which is better for a team that runs a lot of CI?

GitLab on the numbers. Premium includes 10,000 compute minutes a month, and GitHub Team includes 3,000. A team that needs 10,000 minutes on GitHub Team pays $0.006 a minute for the 7,000 extra on Linux 2-core runners, which is $42 a month before seats.

Can I run GitLab for free on my own servers?

Yes. GitLab lists a Self-Managed Free plan on its pricing page at no charge. GitHub's pricing page lists only hosted plans, so the free self-managed route is GitLab's alone on that page.

Is GitHub Copilot included in the Team plan?

No. Copilot is a separate subscription. On GitHub's plans page, Copilot Business is $19 per granted seat a month, and Copilot Pro is $10 a month for an individual. Our GitHub Copilot review covers what each tier includes.

Has GitHub started charging for self-hosted runners?

Not yet. GitHub announced a fee for self-hosted runners and postponed it on 15 December 2025, with no new start date. Check GitHub's billing docs before you budget for it.

Cite this: Devshot, "GitHub vs GitLab 2026: Pricing, CI Minutes and Which to Pick", October 2026.

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