path: root/doc/ci/pipelines/cicd_minutes.md

---
stage: Verify
group: Pipeline Execution
info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/ux/technical-writing/#assignments
type: reference
---

# Compute quota **(PREMIUM ALL)**

> [Renamed](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-com/-/epics/2150) from "CI/CD minutes" to "compute quota" or "compute minutes" in GitLab 16.1.

NOTE:
The term `CI/CD minutes` is being renamed to `compute minutes`. During this transition, you might see references in the UI and documentation to `CI/CD minutes`, `CI minutes`, `pipeline minutes`, `CI pipeline minutes`, `pipeline minutes quota`, `compute credits`, `compute units`, and `compute minutes`. For more information, see [epic 2150](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-com/-/epics/2150).

Administrators can limit the amount of time that projects can use to run jobs on
[shared runners](../runners/runners_scope.md#shared-runners) each month. This limit
is tracked with a compute quota.

By default, one minute of execution time by a single job uses
one compute minute. The total execution time for a pipeline is
[the sum of all its jobs' durations](#how-compute-usage-is-calculated).
Jobs can run concurrently, so the total usage can be higher than the
end-to-end duration of a pipeline.

On GitLab.com:

- Compute quotas are enabled for all projects, but certain
  projects [consume compute minutes at a slower rate](#cost-factor).
- The base monthly compute quota for a GitLab.com [namespace](../../user/namespace/index.md)
  is determined by its [license tier](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/).
- You can [purchase additional compute minutes](#purchase-additional-compute-minutes)
  if you need more than the amount of compute in your monthly quota.

On self-managed GitLab instances:

- Compute quotas are disabled by default.
- When enabled, compute quotas apply to private projects only.
- Administrators can [assign more compute minutes](#set-the-compute-quota-for-a-specific-namespace)
  if a namespace uses all its monthly quota.

[Trigger jobs](../../ci/yaml/index.md#trigger) do not execute on runners, so they do not
consume compute minutes, even when using [`strategy:depend`](../yaml/index.md#triggerstrategy)
to wait for the [downstream pipeline](../pipelines/downstream_pipelines.md) status.
The triggered downstream pipeline consumes compute minutes the same as other pipelines.

[Project runners](../runners/runners_scope.md#project-runners) are not subject to a compute quota.

## Set the compute quota for all namespaces

> [Moved](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2021/01/26/new-gitlab-product-subscription-model/) to GitLab Premium in 13.9.

By default, GitLab instances do not have a compute quota.
The default value for the quota is `0`, which is unlimited.
However, you can change this default value.

Prerequisite:

- You must be a GitLab administrator.

To change the default quota that applies to all namespaces:

1. On the left sidebar, select **Search or go to**.
1. Select **Admin Area**.
1. On the left sidebar, select **Settings > CI/CD**.
1. Expand **Continuous Integration and Deployment**.
1. In the **Compute quota** box, enter a limit.
1. Select **Save changes**.

If a quota is already defined for a specific namespace, this value does not change that quota.

## Set the compute quota for a specific namespace

> [Moved](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2021/01/26/new-gitlab-product-subscription-model/) to GitLab Premium in 13.9.

You can override the global value and set a compute quota
for a specific namespace.

Prerequisite:

- You must be a GitLab administrator.

To set a compute quota for a namespace:

1. On the left sidebar, select **Search or go to**.
1. Select **Admin Area**.
1. On the left sidebar, select **Overview > Groups**.
1. For the group you want to update, select **Edit**.
1. In the **Compute quota** box, enter the maximum number of compute minutes.
1. Select **Save changes**.

You can also use the [update group API](../../api/groups.md#update-group) or the
[update user API](../../api/users.md#user-modification) instead.

NOTE:
You can set a compute quota for only top-level groups or user namespaces.
If you set a quota for a subgroup, it is not used.

## View compute usage

Prerequisite:

- You must have access to the build to view the total usage and quota summary for a namespace associated with a build.
- Access to **Usage Quotas** page is based on your role in the associated namespace or group.

### View Usage Quota Reports for a group

> Displaying shared runners duration per project [introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/355666) in GitLab 15.0.

Prerequisite:

- You must have the Owner role for the group.

To view compute usage for your group:

1. On the left sidebar, select **Search or go to** and
   find your group. The group must not be a subgroup.
1. Select **Settings > Usage Quotas**.
1. Select the **Pipelines** tab.

The projects list shows projects with compute usage or shared runners usage
in the current month only. The list includes all projects in the namespace and its
subgroups, sorted in descending order of compute usage.

### View Usage Quota reports for a personal namespace

> Displaying shared runners duration [introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/345795) in GitLab 15.0.

Prerequisite:

- The namespace must be your personal namespace.

You can view the compute usage for a personal namespace:

1. On the left sidebar, select your avatar.
1. Select **Edit profile**.
1. On the left sidebar, select **Usage Quotas**.

The projects list shows [personal projects](../../user/project/working_with_projects.md#view-personal-projects)
with compute usage or shared runners usage in the current month only. The list
is sorted in descending order of compute usage.

## Purchase additional compute minutes **(FREE SAAS)**

If you're using GitLab SaaS, you can purchase additional packs of compute minutes.
These additional compute minutes:

- Are used only after the monthly quota included in your subscription runs out.
- Are carried over to the next month, if any remain at the end of the month.
- Are valid for 12 months from date of purchase or until all compute minutes are consumed, whichever comes first. Expiry of compute minutes is not enforced.

For example, with a GitLab SaaS Premium license:

- You have `10,000` monthly compute minutes.
- You purchase an additional `5,000` compute minutes.
- Your total limit is `15,000` compute minutes.

If you use `13,000` compute minutes during the month, the next month your additional compute minutes become
`2,000`. If you use `9,000` compute minutes during the month, your additional compute minutes remain the same.

Additional compute minutes bought on a trial subscription are available after the trial ends or upgrading to a paid plan.

You can find pricing for additional compute minutes on the
[GitLab Pricing page](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/).

### Purchase compute minutes for a group **(FREE SAAS)**

Prerequisite:

- You must have the Owner role for the group.

You can purchase additional compute minutes for your group.
You cannot transfer purchased compute minutes from one group to another,
so be sure to select the correct group.

1. On the left sidebar, select **Search or go to** and find your group.
1. Select **Settings > Usage Quotas**.
1. Select **Pipelines**.
1. Select **Buy additional compute minutes**.
1. Complete the details of the transaction.

After your payment is processed, the additional compute minutes are added to your group
namespace.

### Purchase compute minutes for a personal namespace **(FREE SAAS)**

Prerequisite:

- The namespace must be your personal namespace.

To purchase additional compute minutes for your personal namespace:

1. On the left sidebar, select your avatar.
1. Select **Edit profile**.
1. On the left sidebar, select **Usage Quotas**.
1. Select **Buy additional compute minutes**. GitLab redirects you to the Customers Portal.
1. Locate the subscription card that's linked to your personal namespace on GitLab SaaS, select **Buy more compute minutes**,
   and complete the details of the transaction.

After your payment is processed, the additional compute minutes are added to your personal
namespace.

## How compute usage is calculated

GitLab uses this formula to calculate the compute usage of a job:

```plaintext
Job duration * Cost factor
```

- **Job duration**: The time, in seconds, that a job took to run on a shared runner,
  not including time spent in the `created` or `pending` statuses.
- [**Cost factor**](#cost-factor): A number based on project visibility.

The value is transformed into compute minutes and added to the count of used units
in the job's top-level namespace.

For example, if a user `alice` runs a pipeline:

- Under the `gitlab-org` namespace, the compute minutes used by each job in the pipeline are
  added to the overall consumption for the `gitlab-org` namespace, not the `alice` namespace.
- For one of the personal projects in their namespace, the compute minutes are added
  to the overall consumption for the `alice` namespace.

The compute used by one pipeline is the total compute minutes used by all the jobs
that ran in the pipeline. Jobs can run concurrently, so the total compute usage
can be higher than the end-to-end duration of a pipeline.

### Cost factor

The cost factors for jobs running on shared runners on GitLab.com are:

- `1` for internal, public, and private projects.
- Exceptions for public projects:
  - `0.5` for projects in the [GitLab for Open Source program](../../subscriptions/community_programs.md#gitlab-for-open-source).
  - `0.008` for forks of projects in the [GitLab for Open Source program](../../subscriptions/community_programs.md#gitlab-for-open-source). For every 125 minutes of job execution time,
  you use 1 compute minute.
- Discounted dynamically for [community contributions to GitLab projects](#cost-factor-for-community-contributions-to-gitlab-projects).

The cost factors on self-managed instances are:

- `0` for public projects, so they do not consume compute minutes.
- `1` for internal and private projects.

#### Cost factor for community contributions to GitLab projects

Community contributors can use up to 300,000 minutes on shared runners when contributing to open source projects
maintained by GitLab. The maximum of 300,000 minutes would only be possible if contributing exclusively to projects [part of the GitLab product](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/metrics/#projects-that-are-part-of-the-product). The total number of minutes available on shared runners
is reduced by the compute minutes used by pipelines from other projects.
The 300,000 minutes applies to all SaaS tiers, and the cost factor calculation is:

- `Monthly compute quota / 300,000 job duration minutes = Cost factor`

For example, with a monthly compute quota of 10,000 in the Premium tier:

- 10,000 / 300,000 = 0.03333333333 cost factor.

For this reduced cost factor:

- The merge request source project must be a fork of a GitLab-maintained project,
  such as [`gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com),
  or [`gitlab-org/gitlab`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab).
- The merge request target project must be the fork's parent project.
- The pipeline must be a merge request, merged results, or merge train pipeline.

GitLab administrators can add a namespace to the reduced cost factor
[with a flag](../../administration/feature_flags.md) named `ci_minimal_cost_factor_for_gitlab_namespaces`.

### Additional costs on GitLab SaaS

GitLab SaaS runners have different cost factors, depending on the runner type (Linux, Windows, macOS) and the virtual machine configuration.

| GitLab SaaS runner type      | Machine Size           | Cost factor |
|:-----------------------------|:-----------------------|:------------|
| Linux OS amd64               | `small`                | 1           |
| Linux OS amd64               | `medium`               | 2           |
| Linux OS amd64               | `large`                | 3           |
| Linux OS amd64               | `xlarge`               | 6           |
| Linux OS amd64               | `2xlarge`              | 12          |
| Linux OS amd64 + GPU-enabled | `medium`, GPU standard | 7           |
| macOS M1                     | `medium`               | 6 (Beta)    |
| Windows Server               | -                      | 1 (Beta)    |

### Monthly reset of compute usage

On the first day of each calendar month, the accumulated compute usage is reset to `0`
for all namespaces that use shared runners. This means your full quota is available, and
calculations start again from `0`.

For example, if you have a monthly quota of `10,000` compute minutes:

- On **April 1**, you have `10,000` compute minutes.
- During April, you use only `6,000` of the `10,000` compute minutes.
- On **May 1**, the accumulated compute usage resets to `0`, and you have `10,000` compute minutes to use again
  during May.

Usage data for the previous month is kept to show historical view of the consumption over time.

### Monthly rollover of purchased compute minutes

If you purchase additional compute minutes and don't use the full amount, the remaining amount rolls over to
the next month.

For example:

- On **April 1**, you purchase `5,000` additional compute minutes.
- During April, you use only `3,000` of the `5,000` additional compute minutes.
- On **May 1**, the unused compute minutes roll over, so you have `2,000` additional compute minutes available for May.

Additional compute minutes are a one-time purchase and do not renew or refresh each month.

## What happens when you exceed the quota

When the compute quota is used for the current month, GitLab stops
processing new jobs.

- Any non-running job that should be picked by shared runners is automatically dropped.
- Any job being retried is automatically dropped.
- Any running job can be dropped at any point if the overall namespace usage goes over-quota
  by a grace period.

The grace period for running jobs is `1,000` compute minutes.

Jobs on project runners are not affected by the compute quota.

### GitLab SaaS usage notifications

On GitLab SaaS an email notification is sent to the namespace owners when:

- The remaining compute minutes is below 30% of the quota.
- The remaining compute minutes is below 5% of the quota.
- All the compute quota has been used.

### Special quota limits

In some cases, the quota limit is replaced by one of the following labels:

- **Unlimited**: For namespaces with unlimited compute quota.
- **Not supported**: For namespaces where active shared runners are not enabled.

## Reduce compute quota usage

If your project consumes too much compute quota, there are some strategies you can
use to reduce your usage:

- If you are using project mirrors, ensure that [pipelines for mirror updates](../../user/project/repository/mirror/pull.md#trigger-pipelines-for-mirror-updates)
  is disabled.
- Reduce the frequency of [scheduled pipelines](schedules.md).
- [Skip pipelines](index.md#skip-a-pipeline) when not needed.
- Use [interruptible](../yaml/index.md#interruptible) jobs which can be auto-canceled
  if a new pipeline starts.
- If a job doesn't have to run in every pipeline, use [`rules`](../jobs/job_control.md)
  to make it only run when it's needed.
- [Use private runners](../runners/runners_scope.md#group-runners) for some jobs.
- If you are working from a fork and you submit a merge request to the parent project,
  you can ask a maintainer to run a pipeline [in the parent project](merge_request_pipelines.md#run-pipelines-in-the-parent-project).

If you manage an open source project, these improvements can also reduce compute quota
consumption for contributor fork projects, enabling more contributions.

See our [pipeline efficiency guide](pipeline_efficiency.md) for more details.

## Reset compute usage **(PREMIUM SELF)**

An administrator can reset the compute usage for a namespace for the current month.

### Reset usage for a personal namespace

1. Find the [user in the admin area](../../administration/admin_area.md#administering-users).
1. Select **Edit**.
1. In **Limits**, select **Reset compute usage**.

### Reset usage for a group namespace

1. Find the [group in the admin area](../../administration/admin_area.md#administering-groups).
1. Select **Edit**.
1. In **Permissions and group features**, select **Reset compute usage**.