Spike: Determine Utilization implementation for Hosted Runners (Dedicated) usage billing in 19.1

Process

  1. Write the spike summary and requirement and select Definition of Done (DoD) questions that apply
  2. DRI/s are assigned to the spike
  3. Before starting the spike, engineer should confirm
    • Is the problem statement and description of the problem clear
    • Are the requirements of this spike clear
    • Are the Definition of done questions relevant/reasonable for this spike
  4. Engineer does an investigation to gather information and note any initial impressions and possible paths for implementation
  5. PM/EM/Collaborators + Engineer asks questions and start to narrow the scope to an appropriate solution/implementation
  6. DoD questions are answered
  7. DRI confirms next steps and the spike issue gets closed

Summary

Spike DRI/s: TBD

The Utilization team needs to determine the level of effort (LOE) and feasibility of supporting Hosted Runners for GitLab Dedicated only in milestone %19.1 (June 2026). This spike focuses on the Utilization team's implementation work required to integrate Hosted Runners compute consumption into the existing GitLab Credits usage billing platform.

Background

Hosted Runners provides GitLab-managed compute infrastructure for running CI/CD pipelines. The feature team (group::platforms, PM DRI: Gabriel Engel) is transitioning Hosted Runners from the legacy compute minutes / annual drawdown model to the GitLab Credits usage-based billing framework. Pricing has been finalized (confirmed Mar 4th) at 100 compute minutes : 1 GitLab Credit, leveraging the monthly commit structure.

For Dedicated, the existing credit pack model will continue for 6 limited availability (LA) customers, but monthly commit will be the only path forward at GA for new customers. No new Zuora SKU is required.

Key Context from Related Issues

Pricing & Billing Model (Dedicated)

Attribute Value
Conversion rate 100 compute minutes : 1 GitLab Credit
Unit of measurement (billing engine) GitLab Credits
Product-side unit Compute minutes (converted at 100:1 before entering billing pipeline)
Billing model Usage-based via GitLab Credits (monthly commit)
New Zuora SKU required No
Entitlement Built into existing Premium/Ultimate base plan
Existing LA customers 6 customers remain on legacy credit pack model
Credits exhausted CX TBD (feature team to define)
Spend limits TBD

Requirements / Ask

Determine the Utilization team's implementation scope, LOE, and feasibility for supporting Hosted Runners (Dedicated) usage billing in %19.1. Specifically:

  1. Billable event ingestion - What changes are needed in the mediation/enrichment layer to ingest Hosted Runners compute minute events? How do these events flow from the Runners Platform team's instrumentation into the billing pipeline, and where does the 100:1 conversion to GitLab Credits occur?
  2. Credit conversion logic - What is required to implement the 100 compute minutes : 1 GitLab Credit conversion in CustomersDot? Is this a new price multiplier configuration, or can it leverage existing patterns? The billing engine UOM must be GitLab Credits.
  3. subject field migration dependency - What is the current status of #15803? Is the entity_id bigint-to-string migration a hard blocker for 19.1, or can we work around it for Dedicated?
  4. Dashboard integration - What work is needed to display Hosted Runners compute credit consumption in the usage dashboard (both CDot and GitLab)?
  5. Commitment pool / overage integration - Can Hosted Runners credits draw from the existing monthly commitment and on-demand pools without changes, or are modifications needed?
  6. LA customer migration - Is any Utilization work required to maintain the legacy credit pack model for the 6 existing LA customers while supporting the new monthly commit path?
  7. Scope boundary - Clearly delineate what is Utilization's responsibility vs. what the Runners Platform team (group::platforms) owns (e.g., event emission, credits-exhausted CX).

Acceptance Criteria

This spike is complete when the following questions are answered:

  • Can the existing billing platform support Hosted Runners (Dedicated) usage billing without architectural changes?
  • What are the possible implementations / approaches?
  • Is the work achievable within the 19.1 milestone (June 2026)?
  • What is the level of effort (t-shirt size: S, M, L)?
  • What is the confidence level in this implementation?
  • Is there technical debt to consider or being created?
Edited by Bryan Rothwell