Crates / Compare / chrono vs time
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026
chrono vs time
Short answerBoth are maintained; time is leaner, chrono is the long-time default. By steady daily use, time is bigger: 2,434,189 real downloads a day against 2,369,156 for chrono (1.0x). 38,126 crates depend on chrono and 6,747 on time. chrono last shipped 5 months ago, time 3 months ago.
chrono
FoundationalFoundational and steady.
38,126 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
Date and time library for Rust
time
Widely usedWidely used and steady.
6,747 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.
Date and time library. Fully interoperable with the standard library. Mostly compatible with #![no_std].
chronotime · 100% = that crate's normal quiet day, so a spike to 300% is triple its usual traffic
How they relate
- Often used together: 1 tracked crate depend on both (tracing-subscriber). They are not always either/or.
Every number, side by side
| Same window, same method | chrono | time |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 2,369,156 | 2,434,189 |
| Crates that depend on it | 38,126 | 6,747 |
| Last release | 0.4.45, 5 months ago | 0.3.55, 3 months ago |
| Trend vs the field | -3% | -2% |
| Release-window share | 0.0% | 1.3% |
| Downloads in the window | 212,297,977 | 215,804,157 |
| All-time downloads | 909,523,149 | 1,003,554,500 |
| Versions published | 95 | 135 |
| License | MIT OR Apache-2.0 | MIT OR Apache-2.0 |
| MSRV | 1.62.0 | 1.88.0 |
| First published | Nov 20, 2014 | Nov 13, 2014 |
Which to pick
- Pick time if you want a lean date/time crate with const support and format macros.
- Pick chrono if you need broad time zone handling (with chrono-tz) and the most examples online.
- Bottom line: Both are maintained; time is leaner, chrono is the long-time default. (checked against each project's docs, Oct 24, 2026)
- Downloads tell you what is common, not what fits. Each crate's own description above says what it is for; when the jobs differ, pick by the job.
- When both fit, prefer the one more crates depend on (chrono, 38,126 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
- Check the release dates against your own pace: chrono 5 months ago, time 3 months ago.
Also in this space
Method
Real downloads = the median day with no release that day or the day before, from the crates.io API (Jul 27, 2026 to Oct 23, 2026). Raw crates.io counts include CI and bots and run high (why); the method is from our 90-day study. People search for this pair: Google suggests "time vs chrono".