Actions storage quota remains full after deleting all visible artifacts and packages

[kyotothe]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Other

Discussion Details

Hello GitHub community,

I’m troubleshooting a GitHub Actions storage-quota block on the personal account kyotothe.

• All accessible repositories currently show 0 Actions artifacts.
• kyotothe/bangkok-our-way currently has 0 Actions caches.
• Accessible package inventories are empty.
• The billing UI still shows 0.5 GB used / 0.5 GB included more than 24 hours after the cleanup.
• Workflow run 30373682297 completed its build, tests, Playwright setup, quality gate, and artifact creation; only the artifact upload failed with: “Failed to CreateArtifact: Artifact storage quota has been hit. Unable to upload any new artifacts. Usage is recalculated every 6-12 hours.”

Could a hidden or stale shared Actions/Packages storage record cause this when visible artifacts and packages are empty? What is the correct way to reconcile or escalate the account-level quota?

Thank you.

[rohitpranav]

This is most likely an account-side storage accounting issue rather than a workflow configuration problem.

Normally, deleting GitHub Actions artifacts and caches frees storage after GitHub recalculates usage, which usually happens within 6–12 hours (though it can occasionally take longer). If your repositories show 0 artifacts, 0 caches, and no GitHub Packages, but your billing page still reports 0.5 GB used, the usage record may be stale or there may be storage that isn't visible through the normal UI.

Unfortunately, there is no user-accessible way to force a storage recalculation. The recommended next steps are:

• Verify that no artifacts remain in any repositories you own or have admin access to.

• Confirm that all GitHub Packages and container images have been removed.

• Wait up to 24–48 hours for billing reconciliation.

• If the quota is still incorrect after that, contact GitHub Support and provide:

  • Your account name (kyotothe)
  • The affected repository (kyotothe/bangkok-our-way)
  • The workflow run ID (30373682297)
  • The error message
  • A screenshot of the billing page showing 0.5 GB used / 0.5 GB included despite no visible artifacts or packages.

At that point, only GitHub Support can investigate and clear any orphaned or incorrectly accounted storage records.

[rohitpranav]

'nice

[rohitpranav]

Based on the information provided, this appears to be a backend storage synchronization issue rather than a problem with your workflow.

If all repositories report 0 artifacts, 0 caches, and no GitHub Packages, the artifact upload should normally succeed after the storage usage is recalculated. Since the billing page still shows the account at its storage limit, it's possible that the storage accounting hasn't been updated or an orphaned storage record is still being counted.

A few questions that may help narrow it down:

• Is this happening across all repositories or only kyotothe/bangkok-our-way?
• Have you checked whether any private repositories, deleted repositories, or transferred repositories could still have storage associated with them?
• Has anyone seen a similar delay lasting more than 24 hours before the quota was corrected?

If everything has already been cleaned up and the usage remains unchanged after 24–48 hours, I'd recommend opening a GitHub Support ticket with the workflow run ID (30373682297) and screenshots of the billing page. They should be able to verify whether the account has stale or orphaned Actions storage that isn't visible through the web interface.

[alexliluz]

The account-level diagnosis is plausible, but one distinction changes what is
worth inventorying: Actions artifacts and GitHub Packages share the
account's included storage pool, while Actions caches are a separate
per-repository allowance. An empty cache list is useful context, but deleting
more caches is not expected to clear this artifact-storage error.

GitHub documents a 6–12 hour update window after artifact deletion. Deleting an
artifact frees current storage but does not erase storage already accrued for
billing earlier in the cycle. In Settings → Billing & Licensing → Usage,
filter to GitHub Actions storage, group by repository, and distinguish current
storage from the historical accrued GB-hours.

The referenced repository/run is not publicly readable, so only an API call
authenticated as kyotothe (or GitHub Support) can verify the complete
inventory. Run this with a gh login that can read every repository owned by
the account:

gh api --paginate -X GET user/repos \
  -f affiliation=owner \
  -f per_page=100 \
  --jq '.[].full_name' |
while IFS= read -r repo; do
  count=$(gh api "repos/$repo/actions/artifacts?per_page=1" --jq .total_count)
  if [ "$count" -gt 0 ]; then
    printf '%s\t%s artifacts\n' "$repo" "$count"
  fi
done

That checks all repositories owned by the authenticated personal account,
including private repositories the public API cannot see. Review
account-owned package versions as the other half of the shared pool as well;
artifacts in a repository owned by somebody else are charged to that
repository's owner, not to a collaborator's personal allowance.

If the owner-scoped artifact result is empty, the package inventory is empty,
the billing view still reports 0.5 GB of current storage, and more than 12 hours
have elapsed since the last deletion, that is inconsistent with the documented
update window. At that point there is no client-side object left to delete.
Open a GitHub Support ticket and include:

• account login kyotothe;
• failed run ID 30373682297 and its URL;
• UTC time of the last artifact/package deletion;
• a screenshot showing the Actions storage SKU and current-versus-accrued
  value;
• the owner-scoped API inventory above (redact private repository names in the
  public discussion, but provide them privately to Support);
• the exact Failed to CreateArtifact message.

Adding a payment method or a non-zero Actions budget can temporarily unblock
uploads if that is acceptable, but it is not a reconciliation fix and should
not replace the support ticket for stale current usage.

Official references:

• GitHub Actions billing
• GitHub Packages billing and shared storage
• REST API: list repository artifacts
• Getting help from GitHub Support about Actions