Renting a Mac mini for CI
Renting a Mac mini gives you dedicated Apple Silicon for continuous integration without buying hardware, finding somewhere to put it, or maintaining it. This page covers how it works, what it costs against buying outright, and the licensing rules involved.
Rent or buy
Buying an M4 Mac mini costs roughly $599 up front, plus the parts people forget: a reliable network drop, a smart plug or KVM for remote reboots, somewhere with cooling and power, and the recurring hours to maintain macOS, Xcode and the runner service.
Renting at $79 per month costs more over a long enough horizon if you value your operations time at zero. It costs less in the first year once you count setup, and it converts a capital purchase plus ongoing maintenance into one predictable line item you can cancel.
- Buy if you already run hardware, have a spare network segment, and someone who enjoys maintaining build machines.
- Rent if you want dedicated hardware economics without owning the operations, or you need it working this week.
What you actually get
- A whole M4 Mac mini, 16GB RAM, with only your jobs on it.
- Recent Xcode versions preinstalled and pinned.
- Private network access over Tailscale, keys only.
- A supervision daemon that keeps the runner service alive.
- Automatic secure wipe when the lease ends.
Is leasing a Mac for CI legal?
Yes, within specific limits. Apple's macOS Software License Agreement permits leasing a whole Mac for permitted developer services, on monthly terms, to a single lessee. The constraints that matter are that the machine is not shared between customers and the use is developer work rather than general compute. We wrote up the details in how Apple's leasing terms work.
Getting started
Sign up, pay, and we provision the machine within 1 to 4 hours. You get an email when it is live with the exact registration command and the two-line workflow change. See pricing for current availability.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to rent a Mac mini for CI?
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MacRun leases a dedicated M4 Mac mini with 16GB of RAM for $79 per month with unlimited build minutes, billed monthly with no contract.
Is renting cheaper than buying a Mac mini?
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Over several years, buying is cheaper on hardware cost alone. Renting is usually cheaper in year one once you include setup, networking, remote power control and the maintenance hours, and it stays cancellable.
Can I get SSH access to the rented Mac?
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Yes. You get key-only SSH access over a private Tailscale network. The machine is yours for the duration of the lease.
What happens to my data when the lease ends?
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The machine is wiped automatically. The account and data are deleted, the volume is securely erased, and the box is restored to a clean golden image before it is leased again.