Growing crates.io
Keywords, categories and a clear description are how people find a crate. Set them in Cargo.toml before you publish.
Basics
How many crates are on crates.io?
361,227 crates, downloaded about 509.7 billion times in all, by crates.io's own count on 25 Oct 2026. crates.io doesn't publish a user count.[1]
How do people find your crate on crates.io?
Through the keywords, categories, description and README you set in Cargo.toml.
| Field | crates.io's rule |
|---|---|
| keywords | Up to 5, each 20 characters or fewer |
| categories | Up to 5, matching crates.io's category list exactly |
| description | Required; shown with your crate |
| readme | Rendered as Markdown on the crate's page |
| documentation | If unset, crates.io links your docs.rs page |
Using the same name on GitHub or a website? Check it on GitHub and the .com too.[2]
Advanced
Can you publish to crates.io without long-lived tokens?
Yes, with trusted publishing from GitHub Actions, or GitLab CI/CD in public beta. Your first version still needs an API token, and you must own the crate.[4]
Can a team own a crate on crates.io?
Yes, a GitHub team can be a team owner. Team owners can publish and yank versions but can't add or remove owners; named users have full rights.[3]
What can you do with crates.io's API?
Read crate data, at no more than 1 request a second, with a user-agent header that names your app. crates.io asks you to try its database dumps, updated every 24 hours, first.
Next: check your crate name on GitHub and the .com, or read Growing GitHub.[5]
Sources (5)
- Primarycrates.io API: registry summary
- PrimaryCargo Book: The manifest format
- PrimaryCargo Book: Publishing on crates.io
- Primarycrates.io: Trusted publishing, read from its source file in the crates.io repository
- Primarycrates.io: Data access policy, read from its source file in the crates.io repository