Runner Types

Ubicloud offers a wide variety of runner types and sizes, allowing you to choose based on your specific needs.

By default, using runs-on: ubicloud provisions a 2 vCPU x64 Ubuntu 22.04 runner. You can specify the runner size, for example, runs-on: ubicloud-standard-8 provisions an 8 vCPU runner. You can even specify the operating system, such as runs-on: ubicloud-standard-4-ubuntu-2404, which provisions a 4 vCPU runner with Ubuntu 24.04.

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Available Labels

You can append -ubuntu-2204 or -ubuntu-2404 to explicitly set the operating system.

Ubicloud runners support the following label patterns:

# x64 runners
runs-on: ubicloud-standard-{vcpu}-{os}
# ubicloud                        -> 2 vCPU x64 Ubuntu 22.04 runner
# ubicloud-standard-8             -> 8 vCPU x64 Ubuntu 22.04 runner
# ubicloud-standard-4-ubuntu-2404 -> 4 vCPU x64 Ubuntu 24.04 runner

# arm64 runners
runs-on: ubicloud-standard-{vcpu}-arm-{os}
# ubicloud-arm                        -> 2 vCPU arm64 Ubuntu 22.04 runner
# ubicloud-standard-8-arm             -> 8 vCPU arm64 Ubuntu 22.04 runner
# ubicloud-standard-4-arm-ubuntu-2404 -> 4 vCPU arm64 Ubuntu 24.04 runner

# GPU runners
runs-on: ubicloud-gpu

You can find all the available labels here.

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x64 Runners

Ubicloud x64 standard runners are powered by AMD EPYC 9454P processors, with every two x64 vCPUs corresponding to one physical core. All Ubicloud runners are equipped with modern hardware, including new generation processors, NVMe SSDs, and high-speed networking. This enables us to deliver better price-performance across our services.

For our customers who seek even higher performance, we offer premium runners powered by AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D CPUs. These processors are optimized for single-thread speed and fast CI execution, making them ideal for large monorepos, test-heavy workflows, or any job that benefits from high CPU clock speeds. Learn how to enable premium runners here.

Our x64 runner images are fully compatible with default runners. We generate them using the official HashiCorp packer templates published by GitHub in the actions/runner-images repository.

We update the images monthly after GitHub releases a new version. We don’t deploy new images on the same day as GitHub to avoid potential issues. In the past, GitHub has encountered problems with new images and had to quickly rollback.

To prevent any disruption to our customers, we typically deploy new images a few days after GitHub’s deployment is complete.

If you notice any mismatches between Ubicloud x64 runners and the official GitHub runners, please reach out to us at [email protected].

If your workflow has a package dependency that doesn’t exist on Ubicloud’s image, we recommend installing the dependency manually for the time being or creating an issue at actions/runner-images repository.

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arm64 Runners

Ubicloud arm64 runners are powered by Ampere Altra Q80-30 processors, with each arm64 vCPU backed by a dedicated physical core. This ensures consistent, high-performance computing for your workloads.

GitHub launched official arm64 runners at the beginning of 2025. However, GitHub doesn’t create arm64 images; their partner does. Unfortunately, they don’t publish a packer template like the one for x64 images. As a result, Ubicloud builds its own Ubuntu arm64 image, and our arm64 runners don’t have all the pre-installed packages that are available on x64.

Arm shares a list of installed packages in the actions/partner-runner-images repository, and we try to keep it similar. However, our images might not be identical to GitHub’s arm64 images since they don’t share the exact template and versions.

If your workflow has a package dependency that doesn’t exist on Ubicloud’s arm64 image, we recommend installing the dependency manually for the time being.

If you need commonly used packages on arm64 that are already installed on x64, please contact us at [email protected].

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GPU Runners

GitHub launched official GPU runners at the middle of 2024. However, like the arm64 runners, GitHub doesn’t create GPU images; their partner does.

NVIDIA shares a list of installed packages in https://docs.nvidia.com/ngc/ngc-deploy-public-cloud/ngc-azure/index.html#azure-vmi, and we try to keep it similar. However, our images might not be identical to GitHub’s GPU images since they don’t share the exact template and versions.

If your workflow has a package dependency that doesn’t exist on Ubicloud’s GPU image, we recommend installing the dependency manually for the time being.

If you need commonly used packages on GPU runner that are already installed on x64, please contact us at [email protected].

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Ubuntu 24.04 Migration

GitHub changed the default version of the ubuntu-latest label to Ubuntu 24.04 from Ubuntu 22.04 in January 2025. They actually tried to switch ubuntu-latest from 22.04 to 24.04 twice. The first attempt was rolled back due to community frustration. GitHub succeeded on the second attempt, but people are still reporting issues with the 24 image. GitHub Issue #10636.

We’re sticking with Ubuntu 22.04 as the default operating system for backward compatibility. We need to make the change eventually, but we’re waiting for the Ubuntu 24 image to mature. We’re holding off until things settle down before we make the switch.

If your workflow depends on a specific Ubuntu version, we recommend explicitly specifying the operating system in the runner label.