---
description: "GitHub Pages is GitHub's free hosting for static websites, published straight from a repository. It gives one site per account or organisation plus unlimited project sites, with Jekyll built in and custom domains accepted."
title: 'GitHub Pages: free static website hosting from a GitHub repository'
canonical: 'https://markleex.com/@github-pages'
markleex:
  entity: '@github-pages'
  url: 'https://markleex.com/@github-pages'
  version: 3
  published: '2026-09-04T21:07:23+00:00'
  updated: '2026-09-08T14:54:06+00:00'
  ai_reads:
    value: 67
    as_of: '2026-10-19T10:00:00+00:00'
  lang: en
  content_license: 'https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/'
  ai_score:
    value: 63
    out_of: 100
    as_of: '2026-10-19T10:00:00+00:00'
  lists:
    -
      title: 'Best Free Website Builders (2026)'
      url: 'https://markleex.com/en/lists/free-website-builders'
      rank: 5
      of: 10
---

GitHub Pages is the website hosting built into GitHub, the code platform founded in 2008 and based in San Francisco. It publishes a static site directly from a GitHub repository: the files are edited, committed and pushed, and the changes go live. GitHub describes it as "websites for you and your projects, hosted directly from your GitHub repository."

It costs nothing to use. Every GitHub account and every organisation gets one user or organisation site, plus unlimited project sites, and a custom domain can be attached without choosing a plan. There is no visual editor and no dashboard of blocks: what visitors receive is the HTML that was written by hand or generated by a tool such as Jekyll. That makes it a natural home for developers, documentation and personal pages, and a steeper start for anyone who has never worked with files and version control.

## What GitHub Pages offers

- **Free static hosting** straight from a repository.
- **One user or organisation site** per account, at an address of the form username.github.io.
- **Unlimited project sites**, each published at username.github.io/repository.
- **Custom domains**, set by adding a CNAME file with the domain.
- **Jekyll built in**, so a blog can be written in Markdown without a database.
- **Themes**, chosen from a set offered in the repository settings, or no theme at all.
- **Custom 404 pages** and support for Git submodules, both covered in the help pages.

## How it works

A user or organisation site takes five steps, according to the GitHub Pages site:

1. Create a public repository named username.github.io.
2. Clone the repository to a computer.
3. Add an index.html file with the page content.
4. Commit and push the change with Git.
5. Open https://username.github.io to see the site.

A project site uses an existing repository: in its settings, the GitHub Pages section is pointed at a branch (for example main) as the source, an index.html file is added and committed, and the site appears at username.github.io/repository.

Because a site is a repository, every change is a commit. The history of the site is the history of the repository, and a mistake is undone the way any code change is undone.

## Pricing

| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| User or organisation site | Free |
| Project sites (unlimited) | Free |
| Custom domain on GitHub Pages | Free (the domain itself is bought from a registrar) |

## Limits published by GitHub

GitHub's documentation sets out the usage limits:

| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Source repository | Recommended limit of 1 GB |
| Published site | No larger than 1 GB |
| Deployment | Times out after 10 minutes |
| Bandwidth | Soft limit of 100 GB per month |
| Builds | Soft limit of 10 builds per hour (custom GitHub Actions workflows are not bound by it) |
| User or organisation sites | One per GitHub account |

The documentation also states that GitHub Pages is not intended or allowed as free hosting for an online business, an e-commerce site or a site primarily directed at commercial transactions or software as a service, and that it should not be used for sensitive transactions such as sending passwords or credit card numbers.

## Who it suits

GitHub Pages fits developers at ease with files and version control: project documentation, personal pages, portfolios, open source project sites and Markdown blogs built with Jekyll. People who want to drag blocks onto a page, take payments or run a shop are served by other kinds of builders.

## Frequently asked questions

**Is GitHub Pages free?** Yes. Hosting a user, organisation or project site costs nothing, and a custom domain can be attached without a paid plan.

**How many sites can one account have?** One user or organisation site per account or organisation, and unlimited project sites.

**What is the default address of a site?** A user site lives at username.github.io; a project site at username.github.io/repository.

**Can a site use its own domain?** Yes, by adding a CNAME file that contains the domain.

**Can I write a blog in Markdown?** Yes. Jekyll is built in, so posts can be written in Markdown without a database.

**Is there a size or traffic limit?** A published site may be no larger than 1 GB, and sites have a soft bandwidth limit of 100 GB per month.

## Contact and resources

- Website: [pages.github.com](https://pages.github.com/)
- Usage limits: [docs.github.com, GitHub Pages limits](https://docs.github.com/en/pages/getting-started-with-github-pages/github-pages-limits)
- Jekyll: [jekyllrb.com](https://jekyllrb.com/)