How to Get the Current Date and Time in Rust

Crates/Chrono
2026-04-17T16:32:01+00:00
Use the `chrono` crate to get the current date and time, as the standard library's `std::time::SystemTime` lacks convenient formatting and calendar methods.

Use the chrono crate to get the current date and time, as the standard library's std::time::SystemTime lacks convenient formatting and calendar methods. You can retrieve the current UTC time or local time using Utc::now() or Local::now(), respectively, and format it as needed.

First, add the dependency to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
chrono = "0.4"

Here is a practical example showing how to get the current time in UTC and format it, as well as how to get the local time:

use chrono::{Local, Utc, DateTime};

fn main() {
    // Get current UTC time
    let now_utc: DateTime<Utc> = Utc::now();
    println!("UTC: {}", now_utc.format("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"));

    // Get current local time
    let now_local: DateTime<Local> = Local::now();
    println!("Local: {}", now_local.format("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"));

    // Extract specific components
    let year = now_local.year();
    let month = now_local.month();
    let day = now_local.day();
    println!("Today is {}/{}/{}", day, month, year);
}

If you need a timestamp (seconds since the Unix epoch) instead of a formatted date, use timestamp() on the DateTime object or SystemTime::now() from the standard library. The standard library approach is lighter but requires manual conversion for human-readable strings:

use std::time::{SystemTime, UNIX_EPOCH};

fn main() {
    let start = SystemTime::now();
    let since_the_epoch = start
        .duration_since(UNIX_EPOCH)
        .expect("Time went backwards")
        .as_secs();
    
    println!("Unix timestamp: {}", since_the_epoch);
}

For most application logic involving dates, chrono is the standard choice because it handles time zones, leap years, and formatting out of the box. If you are building a minimal binary and only need a raw timestamp, the standard library SystemTime is sufficient and avoids external dependencies.