GitHub Actions removes Node 20, and older JavaScript actions must move to Node 24

GitHub Actions removes Node 20, and older JavaScript actions must move to Node 24

23 September 2026 — GitHub has removed Node 20 from its Actions runners. In a changelog post on 23 September 2026 it said runners now use Node 24 for all JavaScript actions, and the temporary setting that let teams keep running Node 20 has been withdrawn. That completes a timetable GitHub first set out in September 2025 and revised several times since; some third-party posts gave 16 September as the removal date, but GitHub's own notes set it at 23 September, which is the date that held.

What changes

A GitHub Actions workflow is made of steps, and many steps call reusable actions written in JavaScript, each of which declares the Node.js version it needs. Until now an action that declared Node 20 could still run, either by default or through the ACTIONS_ALLOW_USE_UNSECURE_NODE_VERSION opt-out. Runners have used Node 24 by default since 16 June 2026; now the escape hatch has gone too.

The change applies to GitHub-hosted runners on github.com and on GitHub's data-residency service. It reaches self-hosted runners in two cases: Node 24 does not run on macOS 13.4 or earlier, and it has no official support for 32-bit ARM, so self-hosted runners on those platforms are no longer supported. GitHub says its own first-party actions have been updated; third-party and in-house actions are where the breakage will be.

Who is affected

Any team that builds, tests or deploys software with GitHub Actions, most of all where workflows pin third-party actions to old versions or an organisation maintains its own actions. That includes the agencies and software suppliers that run build pipelines on your behalf, and teams with older Mac build machines or ARM boards as self-hosted runners. GitHub's posts give no timetable for GitHub Enterprise Server, so self-managed installations should check their own version's release notes.

What to do

• Check your Actions run history since 23 September for failed workflows, particularly scheduled and release pipelines that run rarely and fail quietly.
• Update pinned third-party actions to releases that declare Node 24, and chase the maintainers of any that have not moved.
• For in-house actions, change runs.using to node24, test and publish a new version.
• Upgrade or retire self-hosted runners on macOS 13.4 or earlier and on 32-bit ARM.
• If an outside supplier runs your pipelines, ask it to confirm that releases and deployments still complete, and for its plan for any action that cannot move yet.

Not yet independently verified. This rests on GitHub’s own changelog entries, including the removal date that third-party posts gave differently. No independent report of it was found, so every date here comes from the vendor's own page and is only as reliable as that page. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

Sources

• GitHub changelog: Node 20 is no longer available in GitHub Actions — 23 September 2026
• GitHub changelog: Deprecation of Node 20 on GitHub Actions runners (editor's notes to 25 August 2026) — 19 September 2025