Developers Will Soon Get 25 Monthly Hours of Xcode Cloud With Apple Developer Program

Apple today announced that starting in January 2024, all Apple Developer Program memberships will include 25 compute hours of Xcode Cloud at no additional cost on top of the Developer membership fee.

Xcode Cloud icon
Xcode Cloud is designed to provide cloud-based tools to developers for building apps, running automated tests, providing apps to testers, and managing user feedback. It was introduced in 2021, and made available to all developers in June 2022.

Since launch, Apple has given developers access to 25 hours of Xcode Cloud per month at no cost, but that was scheduled to end this month. Apple has now decided to continue offering the free compute hours as part of its Developer Program membership.

We're pleased to announce that as of January 2024, all Apple Developer Program memberships will include 25 compute hours per month on Xcode Cloud as a standard, with no additional cost. If you're already subscribed to Xcode Cloud for free, no additional action is required on your part. And if you haven't tried Xcode Cloud yet, now is the perfect time to start building your app for free in just a few minutes.

Apple initially planned to charge $15 per month for 25 hours, but that tier will be free. 100 compute hours is priced at $50 per month, 250 hours is priced at $100 per month, and 1,000 hours is priced at $400 per month.

Each compute hour is an hour of time used to execute a task in the cloud, such as building an app or running tests. Compute hour usage is tracked through App Store connect and the Apple Developer app.

Tag: Xcode

Popular Stories

iphone air thickness

Apple Said to Cut iPhone Air Production Amid Underwhelming Sales

Friday October 17, 2025 8:29 am PDT by
Apple plans to cut production of the iPhone Air amid underwhelming sales performance, Japan's Mizuho Securities believes (via The Elec). The Japanese investment banking and securities firm claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are seeing higher sales than their predecessors during the same period last year, while the standard iPhone 17 is a major success, performing...
iOS 26 Feature

iOS 26.1 to iOS 26.4 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Saturday October 18, 2025 11:00 am PDT by
iOS 26 was released last month, but the software train never stops, and iOS 26.1 beta testing is already underway. So far, iOS 26.1 makes both Apple Intelligence and Live Translation on compatible AirPods available in additional languages, and it includes some other minor changes across the Apple Music, Calendar, Photos, Clock, and Safari apps. More features and changes will follow in future ...
iOS 26

iOS 26.0.2 Update for iPhones Coming Soon

Friday October 17, 2025 7:35 am PDT by
Apple's software engineers continue to internally test iOS 26.0.2, according to MacRumors logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions. iOS 26.0.2 will be a minor update that addresses bugs and/or security vulnerabilities, but we do not know any specific details yet. The update will likely be released by the end of next week. Last month, Apple released iOS 26.0.1,...
HomePod mini and Apple TV

Apple's Next Rumored Products: New HomePod Mini, Apple TV, and More

Thursday October 16, 2025 9:13 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but previous rumors have indicated that the company still plans to announce at least a few additional products before the end of the year. The following Apple products have at one point been rumored to be updated in 2025, although it is unclear if the timeframe for any of them has...
iPhone Siri Glow

Some Apple Employees Have 'Concerns' About iOS 26.4's Revamped Siri

Sunday October 19, 2025 7:39 am PDT by
iOS 26.4 is expected to introduce a revamped version of Siri powered by Apple Intelligence, but not everyone is satisfied with how well it works. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said some of Apple's software engineers have "concerns" about the overhauled Siri's performance. However, he did not provide any specific details about the shortcomings. iOS 26.4 will...
Apple iPad Pro hero M5

New iPad Pro Has Six Key Upgrades Beyond M5 Chip

Saturday October 18, 2025 10:57 am PDT by
While the new iPad Pro's headline feature is the M5 chip, the device has some other changes, including N1 and C1X chips, faster storage speeds, and more. With the M5 chip, the new iPad Pro has up to a 20% faster CPU and up to a 40% faster GPU compared to the previous model with the M4 chip, according to Geekbench 6 results. Keep in mind that 256GB and 512GB configurations have a 9-core CPU,...
14 inch MacBook Pro Keyboard

New 14-Inch MacBook Pro Has Two Key Upgrades Beyond the M5 Chip

Thursday October 16, 2025 8:31 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with an M5 chip, and there are two key storage-related upgrades beyond that chip bump. First, Apple says the new 14-inch MacBook Pro offers up to 2× faster SSD performance than the equivalent previous-generation model, so read and write speeds should get a significant boost. Apple says it is using "the latest storage technology," ...
m4 macbook air blue

M5 MacBook Air Coming Spring 2026 With M5 Mac Studio and Mac Mini in Development

Thursday October 16, 2025 3:57 pm PDT by
Apple plans to launch MacBook Air models equipped with the new M5 chip in spring 2026, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple is also working on M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models that will come early in the year. Neither the MacBook Pro models nor the MacBook Air models are expected to get design changes, with Apple focusing on simple chip upgrades. In the case of the MacBook Pro, a m...
14 inch MacBook Pro Keyboard

M5 Chip Achieves Impressive Feat in 14-Inch MacBook Pro Speed Test

Friday October 17, 2025 7:10 am PDT by
The first alleged benchmark result for the M5 chip in the new 14-inch MacBook Pro has surfaced, allowing for some performance comparisons. Based on a single unconfirmed result uploaded to the Geekbench 6 database today, the M5 chip has pulled off an impressive feat. Specifically, the chip achieved a score of 4,263 for single-core CPU performance, which is the highest single-core score that...

Top Rated Comments

mrothroc Avatar
25 months ago
But no Xcode Copilot.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
recurringdream Avatar
25 months ago

Can someone please explain in 3 sentences a scenario where a developer uses this? Thank you!
Building an application for distribution on TestFlight or the AppStore is a tedious multi-step process. Building it in the Cloud means that a version of Xcode hosted at Apple does all of that work for you, letting you and your local Mac get on with other tasks. It can also run builds automatically, triggered by certain changes in your source code, catching potential build problems as soon as they arise.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bodhisattva Avatar
25 months ago

Makes sense to offer more benefits to Apple Developer Program members.

Especially when sideloading (which basically means free Apple Developer program) is coming soon.
Side loading will simply be a delivery method. Shouldn't replace the need to sign a build from an authenticated program member. In the early days of iOS development (and even with formerly allowed Enterprise license member) side loading was not an issue, but always still required a valid signed build. Doubt a free dev program is coming anytime soon.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
3530025 Avatar
25 months ago
Makes sense to offer more benefits to Apple Developer Program members.

Especially when sideloading (which basically means free Apple Developer program) is coming soon.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bodhisattva Avatar
25 months ago

Can someone please explain in 3 sentences a scenario where a developer uses this? Thank you!
For enterprise size applications, this actually gives you a bit more iOS specific control over CI/CD process compared to products like TeamCity. For the one-man dev shop how follows the traditional process of code, build, test, repeat this will not do much really except possibly simplifying automation of your processes a bit easier then Jenkins, CircleCI, TravisCI, etc. or the complexity of writing Fastlane scripts. From an enterprise level however it seems just a little more Apple friendly that GitLab CI/CD, or many of the others out there.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nutmac Avatar
25 months ago
While I applaud Apple for doing this, I feel like this is a way to hook people into Xcode Cloud as 25 hours is definitely not enough for most serious developers. I will personally stick with Mac mini.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)