Rust surprisingly drops – Python remains on top: Tiobe Index for April
Rust slips from 13th to 16th place in the Tiobe Index, ending a longer upward trend. Python remains at the top.
(Image: Artit Wongpradu/Shutterstock.com)
In the Tiobe Index for April 2026, Rust has fallen from its peak of 13th place at the beginning of the year to 16th. The publishers of the monthly index see this as a sign that the language's rise, which has been ongoing since 2020, is slowing down overall.
Python continues to lead the ranking with 20.97 percent of search hits, followed by C (12.34 percent), C++ (8.03 percent), Java (7.79 percent), and C# (5.98 percent) – Tiobe only named this language the Programming Language of the Year 2025 in January.
Rust achieves a share of 1.09 percent in the current ranking. Tiobe CEO Paul Jansen attributes the decline primarily to the high barrier to entry: “Rust remains difficult for non-experts to learn.” Concepts like ownership and borrowing require a fundamental rethink for those switching over.
(Image:Â Screenshot Tiobe)
C shows a counter-trend, as the language has gained significantly with an increase of 2.39 percentage points. This is surprising, as C is considered an insecure option for low-level programming compared to Rust, and more and more developers are moving away from it, especially in large organizations like Google, Microsoft, or the Linux kernel team.
As a type-safe programming language, Rust also offers an advantage over many other languages in handling AI, as it leads to more clarity and fewer errors. The trend of the past few months can also be interpreted as normal fluctuation.
Videos by heise
The methodology of the Tiobe Index is considered questionable in the industry, as it does not measure the actual use of languages by developers but rather their interest in them – measured by web search hits. The percentage represents the share of search hits for a programming language compared to all programming languages. Tiobe analyzes the results from 25 search engines, including Google, Wikipedia, or Amazon.
In the future, the publisher must demonstrate how sustainable this method is in the age of AI, where most programmers consult their coding assistants rather than Google.
(who)
