diff --git a/.changeset/dull-windows-carry.md b/.changeset/dull-windows-carry.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..fb259f1e56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/dull-windows-carry.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@backstage/plugin-catalog-backend': minor
+---
+
+**BREAKING**: Removed unused `durationText` utility.
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/api-report.md b/plugins/catalog-backend/api-report.md
index d97df9967c..00040a19e3 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/api-report.md
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/api-report.md
@@ -580,11 +580,6 @@ export type DeferredEntity = {
   locationKey?: string;
 };
 
-// Warning: (ae-missing-release-tag) "durationText" is exported by the package, but it is missing a release tag (@alpha, @beta, @public, or @internal)
-//
-// @public
-export function durationText(startTimestamp: [number, number]): string;
-
 // @public (undocumented)
 export type EntitiesCatalog = {
   entities(request?: EntitiesRequest): Promise<EntitiesResponse>;
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/util/index.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/util/index.ts
index 2e592fb8df..13a9c84b0f 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/util/index.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/util/index.ts
@@ -16,4 +16,3 @@
 
 export * from './runPeriodically';
 export * from './RecursivePartial';
-export * from './timing';
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/util/timing.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/util/timing.ts
deleted file mode 100644
index b5f9eb258f..0000000000
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/util/timing.ts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,31 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * Copyright 2020 The Backstage Authors
- *
- * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
- * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
- * You may obtain a copy of the License at
- *
- *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- *
- * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
- * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
- * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
- * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
- * limitations under the License.
- */
-
-/**
- * Returns a string with the elapsed time since the start of an operation,
- * with some human friendly precision, e.g. "133ms" or "14.5s".
- *
- * @param startTimestamp - The timestamp (from process.hrtime()) at the start ot
- *                       the operation
- */
-export function durationText(startTimestamp: [number, number]): string {
-  const delta = process.hrtime(startTimestamp);
-  const seconds = delta[0] + delta[1] / 1e9;
-  if (seconds > 1) {
-    return `${seconds.toFixed(1)}s`;
-  }
-  return `${(seconds * 1000).toFixed(0)}ms`;
-}