Crates / cargo-expand
Rust crate · real downloads · data Oct 27, 2026
cargo-expand downloads, and should you depend on it?
Wrapper around rustc -Zunpretty=expanded. Shows the result of macro expansion and #[derive] expansion. crates.io · docs · repository
alternatives · is it still maintained?
Few direct dependents and losing ground.
cargo-expand: only 6 crates name it directly; downloads don't spike on releases.
How this verdict is decided (4 rules)
- Usage: crates.io reverse dependencies (crates that list it as a dependency): 10,000+ = foundational, 1,000+ = widely used, 100+ = established, under 100 = few direct dependents.
- Direction: the median quiet day in the last 30 days of the window against the first 30, read against the median tracked crate (the whole field moved +39% from late summer to October, so a raw trend says nothing). 10%+ ahead of the field = gaining; 10%+ behind = losing ground; otherwise steady. Steady with no release in 2+ years = quiet for years.
- Release spikes: the median release-window day against the quiet-day baseline: under 1.15x = no spike, 1.15x to 1.3x = small bumps, 1.3x or more = jumps on release days.
- Release recency: days since the newest version that was not yanked, from crates.io publish times.
release window (release day + next day)quiet dayquiet-day median · download the 89 days as CSV
The numbers in one paragraphcargo-expand got 539,846 crates.io downloads from Jul 30, 2026 to Oct 26, 2026. 5% of them landed within 2 days of one of its 3 releases. On the other 85 quiet days it got a median of 5,999 a day, about 41,993 a week. Capping release days at that baseline leaves 537,825 release-adjusted downloads for the window.
What this means if you're choosing a dependency
- You rarely add this one yourself. Only 6 crates name it directly.
- Actively released. 1.0.127 shipped 18 days ago (Oct 9, 2026).
- Fit check: license MIT OR Apache-2.0, edition 2021, needs Rust 1.90 or newer (from the latest version's manifest).
- Compare it by the baseline, not the raw count. 5% of its 539,846 downloads in the window landed within 2 days of a release; the steady number is 5,999 a day.
Alternatives that do a similar job
Crates that share its crates.io category or keywords, most similar first. Each line is the crate's own description, then how it compares on the same data.
What the chart says
- Weekend quiet days ran at 80% of weekday quiet days (5,088 vs 6,350). A moderate dip: a mix of work-week builds and always-on automation.
- Biggest day: 8,439 on Aug 4, 2026, a quiet day with no release nearby.
Every number
| All-time downloads | 3,767,459 (outside the crates.io top 1,000 by all-time downloads) |
| Downloads in the window | 539,846 (Jul 30, 2026 to Oct 26, 2026, 89 days) |
| Within 2 days of a release | 25,874 (4.8%) |
| Quiet-day median (baseline) | 5,999 a day; weekdays 6,350, weekends 5,088 |
| Release-adjusted downloads | 537,825 (release-window days capped at the baseline) |
| Baseline rank | #1200 of the 1329 crates we track |
| Quiet-day trend | -13% raw, -37% against the median tracked crate (+39%) |
| Releases in the window | 3 |
| Versions published, ever | 182 |
| Latest version | 1.0.127, published Oct 9, 2026 (license MIT OR Apache-2.0, edition 2021, MSRV 1.90) |
| First published | Jun 5, 2016 |
| Reverse dependencies | 6 |
Releases in the window
Each one opens a 2-day release window on the chart.
| Version | Published | Downloads that version got (lifetime) |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0.127 | Oct 9, 2026 | 40,232 |
| 1.0.126 | Aug 19, 2026 | 164,277 |
| 1.0.125 | Aug 19, 2026 | 111 |
How we compute this
crates.io counts every download, including CI runners, mirrors and bots that fetch each new version, so raw counts run high (why, in The Manual). We split the last 89 days into release windows (the day a version of cargo-expand was published, plus the next day) and quiet days, and use the median quiet day as the baseline: an upper bound on steady use, never a head count. The method and data come from our study of 90 days of crates.io data from 69 crates, featured in This Week in Rust #674; check any crate live with the real-downloads checker.
Badge for your README
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Publishing a crate of your own? How to publish a Rust crate to crates.io, step by step.
Categories
Sources
- Daily downloads: crates.io API, /crates/cargo-expand/downloads (last 90 days, all versions), fetched Oct 27, 2026.
- Versions and publish times: crates.io API, /crates/cargo-expand/versions, same fetch.
- Reverse dependencies: crates.io reverse dependencies, same fetch. Dependency edges between tracked crates: each crate's default version, crates.io API.
- Fetched politely (one request every 2 seconds, identified User-Agent) per the crates.io data access policy. Data is crates.io's; the release-window split, baseline and verdict rules are ours, CC BY 4.0.
Up next
Next in cargo plugins: Next in Cargo plugins by real downloads: 5,423 a day, 9 dependents. Few direct dependents and losing ground.cargo-editRust crate. Cargo commands for modifying a `Cargo.toml` file. Real use: 5.4K downloads a day on quiet days; 9 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time
Art: Nicholas Roerich, Nag Lake (1925). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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