Publishing a branch is the act of making a branch available on a remote repository (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket) for the first time. When it Happens: If the branch exists only locally (on your machine), it has not been uploaded to the remote repository. When you "publish" it, the branch gets created in the remote repository, and you can share it with others.

Pushing is the action of uploading your commits (changes) from your local branch to the corresponding branch in the remote repository. When it Happens: If the branch already exists on the remote, you "push" changes to update it. This keeps the remote branch in sync with your local branch.