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GitHub Actions provides a built-in way to automatically terminate long-running workflows, jobs, or individual steps using the timeout-minutes setting. By default, a workflow is killed after 360 minutes (6 hours), but you can customize the timeout at both the step and job levels to prevent runaway executions and save minutes.

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Default Behavior

Without any explicit timeout, GitHub Actions enforces a global 360-minute limit:
If any step (e.g., a stray sleep 6000s) runs longer than 6 hours, the entire workflow will be forcefully terminated.

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Example: No Timeout Specified

This sample workflow accidentally includes a long sleep command with no timeout: 
name: CI
on:
  workflow_dispatch:

env:
  CONTAINER_REGISTRY: docker.io
  IMAGE_NAME: github-actions-nginx

jobs:
  docker:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      # ... build and push steps ...

  deploy:
    needs: docker
    concurrency:
      group: production-deployment
      cancel-in-progress: false
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Docker Run
        run: |
          docker run -d -p 8080:80 $CONTAINER_REGISTRY/${{ vars.DOCKER_USERNAME }}/${{ IMAGE_NAME }}:latest
          # Oops—this sleeps for 6000 seconds (~1.6 hours)
          sleep 6000s
Without timeout-minutes, this workflow could run until GitHub Actions kills it after six hours.

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Step-Level Timeout

To limit only one step—regardless of other steps—you can set timeout-minutes on that specific step: 
jobs:
  deploy:
    needs: docker
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Docker Run with Timeout
        timeout-minutes: 1
        run: |
          echo "Starting container"
          docker run -d -p 8080:80 $CONTAINER_REGISTRY/${{ vars.DOCKER_USERNAME }}/${{ IMAGE_NAME }}:latest
          # This step will be canceled after 1 minute
          sleep 6000s
In this configuration, Docker Run with Timeout will be canceled if it exceeds 1 minute.

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Job-Level Timeout

Applying a timeout at the job level ensures the sum of all steps in that job respects the limit: 
jobs:
  deploy:
    timeout-minutes: 5
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Step A
        run: sleep 300s
      - name: Step B
        run: sleep 300s
Here, if Step A and Step B together take longer than 5 minutes, the entire job is terminated.

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Timeout Comparison

ScopeApplies ToSyntax LocationExample Duration
Step-levelSingle step onlyUnder a steps itemtimeout-minutes: 1
Job-levelAll steps in a jobUnder a jobs itemtimeout-minutes: 5
Workflow-level*Entire workflowNot user-configurable (360 min default)360 min
* Workflow-level timeout is fixed at 360 minutes by GitHub.

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Demonstration

  1. Commit and push your updated workflow or trigger it with Run workflow.
  2. Monitor the Docker Run with Timeout step in the Actions UI.
  3. After the specified timeout, you’ll see an error like: 
    Error: The action has timed out.
  4. Under Annotations, GitHub pinpoints which step or job exceeded its limit.
This approach helps you control runaway processes, optimize usage, and reduce unnecessary billing on GitHub Actions.

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