GitHub Actions: 'Recent Account Payments Have Failed or Spending Limit Needs to Be Increased'

How to fix it

Try these in order — the most common fix is first.

1. 1. Check payment status

   Copy steps
   1. Open Settings > Billing and licensing > Payment information (organization: the org's billing page)
   2. Update the card and pay any failed invoice
   Did this fix it? Yes No

2. 2. Raise the spending limit

   Copy steps
   1. Under Billing and licensing open Budgets and alerts (or spending limit) and set a limit above $0 for Actions
   2. Retry the job after a few minutes
   Did this fix it? Yes No

3. 3. Check which account is billed

   1. Personal billing does not cover organizations; fix it on the account that owns the repo
   Did this fix it? Yes No

4. 4. Contact GitHub Support if it persists

   1. Several users report the error after payment and limit are fixed; Support may need to re-enable Actions
   Did this fix it? Yes No

Symptoms

Jobs fail immediately with 'The job was not started because recent account payments have failed or your spending limit needs to be increased.'

Why it happens

• Default spending limit is $0, so usage past the included minutes is blocked
• A failed or expired card payment on the account or organization
• Billing for an organization is separate from your personal billing
• Occasional billing glitches that need Support to re-enable Actions

This guide also covers

• recent account payments have failed github actions
• github actions spending limit needs to be increased
• github actions billing error
• github actions job not started

Other GitHub errors

• GitHub Permission Denied (publickey) Error
• GitHub 'Password Authentication Was Removed' Error
• GitHub Push Rejected: Updates Were Rejected (Non-Fast-Forward)
• GitHub Push Blocked: Repository Rule Violations (GH013 / Secret Detected)
• GitHub Push Rejected: File Exceeds 100 MB Limit
• GitHub 'Permission Denied' or 403 When Pushing Over HTTPS
• GitHub Locked Out: Lost 2FA Device or Recovery Codes
• GitHub Actions Workflow Stuck in Queued / Waiting for a Runner