Built a free GitHub Actions cost calculator in a weekend. Here's what I learned shipping a developer tool solo.

Hey IH,

Wanted to share a small weekend project and some honest lessons from shipping it.

The problem I was solving

GitHub changed their pricing in January 2026. Self-hosted runners now have a charge. Many developers including myself got surprised by bills they did not expect. The existing tools either required login or only showed historical data after you had already been charged.

I wanted something where you paste your YAML and instantly see what you will pay. Before the bill arrives.

What I built

githubactionscost.online — a free GitHub Actions cost calculator.

Paste OR upload your workflow YAML. It estimates cost per run, daily, monthly, and yearly. Shows a side-by-side comparison of Ubuntu vs Windows vs macOS runner costs. Then gives AI-powered optimization suggestions with copy-paste YAML code examples.

Single HTML file for the frontend. Vercel serverless function for the AI suggestions. OpenRouter for the model. Total infrastructure cost is basically zero.

What surprised me

The tool itself took one weekend. Everything after that took longer.

Setting up the domain, connecting DNS, configuring Vercel, getting AdSense ready, writing privacy policy and terms, setting up analytics, submitting to Search Console. All of that was another 2 to 3 days of work that I did not account for.

For solo developers shipping small tools — the non-code work is real. Build time is maybe 30 percent of total launch time.

Current status

Live as of this week. Just started promotion. Zero paid acquisition — purely organic through SEO and developer communities.

The timing feels right because GitHub's pricing change is fresh. "github actions price" is trending +850 percent in search right now. Trying to capture that while the window is open.

What I am looking for

Honest feedback from anyone who uses GitHub Actions seriously. Does the tool give you useful information? Is anything missing or confusing? What would make you actually share it with your team?

Also genuinely curious — has anyone here built small developer tools and found distribution channels that worked well beyond Reddit and Hacker News?

Link is www.githubactionscost.online . Free to use, no signup needed.