diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/rest/action/cat/RestSnapshotAction.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/rest/action/cat/RestSnapshotAction.java
index 947da876b0b..bfe3f0faaed 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/rest/action/cat/RestSnapshotAction.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/rest/action/cat/RestSnapshotAction.java
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.client.Client;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Table;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.inject.Inject;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.TimeValue;
 import org.elasticsearch.rest.RestChannel;
 import org.elasticsearch.rest.RestController;
 import org.elasticsearch.rest.RestRequest;
@@ -33,6 +34,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.rest.RestResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.rest.action.support.RestResponseListener;
 import org.elasticsearch.rest.action.support.RestTable;
 import org.elasticsearch.snapshots.SnapshotInfo;
+import org.elasticsearch.snapshots.SnapshotState;
 import org.joda.time.format.DateTimeFormat;
 import org.joda.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
 
@@ -80,6 +82,7 @@ public class RestSnapshotAction extends AbstractCatAction {
                 .addCell("start_time", "alias:sti,startTime;desc:start time in HH:MM:SS")
                 .addCell("end_epoch", "alias:ete,endEpoch;desc:end time in seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00")
                 .addCell("end_time", "alias:eti,endTime;desc:end time in HH:MM:SS")
+                .addCell("duration", "alias:dur,duration;text-align:right;desc:duration")
                 .addCell("indices", "alias:i,indices;text-align:right;desc:number of indices")
                 .addCell("successful_shards", "alias:ss,successful_shards;text-align:right;desc:number of successful shards")
                 .addCell("failed_shards", "alias:fs,failed_shards;text-align:right;desc:number of failed shards")
@@ -101,6 +104,13 @@ public class RestSnapshotAction extends AbstractCatAction {
             table.addCell(dateFormat.print(snapshotStatus.startTime()));
             table.addCell(TimeUnit.SECONDS.convert(snapshotStatus.endTime(), TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS));
             table.addCell(dateFormat.print(snapshotStatus.endTime()));
+            final long durationMillis;
+            if (snapshotStatus.state() == SnapshotState.IN_PROGRESS) {
+                durationMillis = System.currentTimeMillis() - snapshotStatus.startTime();
+            } else {
+                durationMillis = snapshotStatus.endTime() - snapshotStatus.startTime();
+            }
+            table.addCell(TimeValue.timeValueMillis(durationMillis));
             table.addCell(snapshotStatus.indices().size());
             table.addCell(snapshotStatus.successfulShards());
             table.addCell(snapshotStatus.failedShards());
diff --git a/docs/reference/cat/snapshots.asciidoc b/docs/reference/cat/snapshots.asciidoc
index 981788abf9c..3d34cd51e6d 100644
--- a/docs/reference/cat/snapshots.asciidoc
+++ b/docs/reference/cat/snapshots.asciidoc
@@ -8,9 +8,9 @@ Querying the snapshots of a repository named `repo1` then looks as follows.
 [source,sh]
 --------------------------------------------------
 % curl 'localhost:9200/_cat/snapshots/repo1?v'
-id     status start_epoch start_time end_epoch  end_time indices successful_shards failed_shards total_shards
-snap1  FAILED 1445616705  18:11:45   1445616978 18:16:18       1                 4             1            5
-snap2 SUCCESS 1445634298  23:04:58   1445634672 23:11:12       2                10             0           10
+id     status start_epoch start_time end_epoch  end_time duration indices successful_shards failed_shards total_shards
+snap1  FAILED 1445616705  18:11:45   1445616978 18:16:18     4.6m       1                 4             1            5
+snap2 SUCCESS 1445634298  23:04:58   1445634672 23:11:12     6.2m       2                10             0           10
 --------------------------------------------------
 
 Each snapshot contains information about when it was started and stopped.
diff --git a/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/cat.snapshots/10_basic.yaml b/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/cat.snapshots/10_basic.yaml
index 4a4207fd629..c1a1fc97011 100755
--- a/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/cat.snapshots/10_basic.yaml
+++ b/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/cat.snapshots/10_basic.yaml
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
                     start_time        .+   \n
                     end_epoch         .+   \n
                     end_time          .+   \n
+                    duration          .+   \n
                     indices           .+   \n
                     successful_shards .+   \n
                     failed_shards     .+   \n
@@ -74,6 +75,6 @@
 
   - match:
       $body: |
-               /^   snap1\s+ SUCCESS\s+ \d+\s+ \d\d\:\d\d\:\d\d\s+ \d+\s+ \d\d\:\d\d\:\d\d\s+ 2\s+ 2\s+ 0\s+ 2\s*\n
-                    snap2\s+ SUCCESS\s+ \d+\s+ \d\d\:\d\d\:\d\d\s+ \d+\s+ \d\d\:\d\d\:\d\d\s+ 2\s+ 2\s+ 0\s+ 2\s*\n
+               /^   snap1\s+ SUCCESS\s+ \d+\s+ \d\d\:\d\d\:\d\d\s+ \d+\s+ \d\d\:\d\d\:\d\d\s+ \S+\s+ 2\s+ 2\s+ 0\s+ 2\s*\n
+                    snap2\s+ SUCCESS\s+ \d+\s+ \d\d\:\d\d\:\d\d\s+ \d+\s+ \d\d\:\d\d\:\d\d\s+ \S+\s+ 2\s+ 2\s+ 0\s+ 2\s*\n
                $/