Crates / protobuf / Maintained?
Rust crate maintenance · data Oct 24, 2026
Is protobuf still maintained?
Short answerYes: actively maintained. protobuf's newest version, 4.36.2-release, shipped on Sep 17, 2026 (37 days ago). It has had 19 releases in the last 12 months and 33 in 24, and 179 non-yanked versions since 2014. 602 crates depend on it and it gets 370,395 real downloads a day.
The signals
- Last release: 37 days ago (4.36.2-release, Sep 17, 2026).
- Release rhythm: 19 in the last year, 33 in two.
- Still used: 370,395 real downloads a day, quiet-day trend -16% against the field.
- Yanked versions: 1 (a normal sign of a maintainer fixing a bad release).
Releases per quarter, last 2 years
| Quarter | Releases | |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 27 to Jan 25, 2025 | 1 | |
| Jan 26 to Apr 26, 2025 | 3 | |
| Apr 27 to Jul 26, 2025 | 4 | |
| Jul 27 to Oct 25, 2025 | 6 | |
| Oct 26 to Jan 24, 2026 | 5 | |
| Jan 25 to Apr 25, 2026 | 6 | |
| Apr 26 to Jul 25, 2026 | 5 | |
| Jul 26 to Oct 24, 2026 | 3 |
Rules
From crates.io release history (non-yanked versions), fetched Oct 24, 2026: last release within 6 months = actively maintained; within 18 months = slow cadence; older with 1,000+ dependents = quiet and widely relied on; otherwise quiet. We do not read commits or issues: a crate can be finished and safe without new releases, and active on GitHub without publishing. Run cargo audit for security advisories.
Up next
The full numbers: Established and losing ground. Chart, alternatives and badge.protobufRust crate. Protocol Buffers - Google's data interchange format. Real use: 370K downloads a day on quiet days; 602 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time