diff --git a/xarray/coding/cftime_offsets.py b/xarray/coding/cftime_offsets.py
index 89c06e56ea7..2cd8eccd6f3 100644
--- a/xarray/coding/cftime_offsets.py
+++ b/xarray/coding/cftime_offsets.py
@@ -68,7 +68,12 @@
 from xarray.core.utils import attempt_import, emit_user_level_warning
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
-    from xarray.core.types import InclusiveOptions, Self, TypeAlias
+    from xarray.core.types import (
+        InclusiveOptions,
+        PDDatetimeUnitOptions,
+        Self,
+        TypeAlias,
+    )
 
 
 DayOption: TypeAlias = Literal["start", "end"]
@@ -971,7 +976,6 @@ def cftime_range(
         Include boundaries; whether to set each bound as closed or open.
 
         .. versionadded:: 2023.02.0
-
     calendar : str, default: "standard"
         Calendar type for the datetimes.
 
@@ -1180,6 +1184,7 @@ def date_range(
     normalize=False,
     name=None,
     inclusive: InclusiveOptions = "both",
+    unit: PDDatetimeUnitOptions = "ns",
     calendar="standard",
     use_cftime=None,
 ):
@@ -1210,6 +1215,10 @@ def date_range(
         Include boundaries; whether to set each bound as closed or open.
 
         .. versionadded:: 2023.02.0
+    unit : {"s", "ms", "us", "ns"}, default "ns"
+        Specify the desired resolution of the result.
+
+        .. versionadded:: 2024.12.0
     calendar : str, default: "standard"
         Calendar type for the datetimes.
     use_cftime : boolean, optional
@@ -1245,6 +1254,7 @@ def date_range(
                 normalize=normalize,
                 name=name,
                 inclusive=inclusive,
+                unit=unit,
             )
         except pd.errors.OutOfBoundsDatetime as err:
             if use_cftime is False:
diff --git a/xarray/coding/cftimeindex.py b/xarray/coding/cftimeindex.py
index a4524efe117..9030966a934 100644
--- a/xarray/coding/cftimeindex.py
+++ b/xarray/coding/cftimeindex.py
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ def trailing_optional(xs):
     return xs[0] + optional(trailing_optional(xs[1:]))
 
 
-def build_pattern(date_sep=r"\-", datetime_sep=r"T", time_sep=r"\:"):
+def build_pattern(date_sep=r"\-", datetime_sep=r"T", time_sep=r"\:", micro_sep=r"."):
     pieces = [
         (None, "year", r"\d{4}"),
         (date_sep, "month", r"\d{2}"),
@@ -100,6 +100,7 @@ def build_pattern(date_sep=r"\-", datetime_sep=r"T", time_sep=r"\:"):
         (datetime_sep, "hour", r"\d{2}"),
         (time_sep, "minute", r"\d{2}"),
         (time_sep, "second", r"\d{2}"),
+        (micro_sep, "microsecond", r"\d{1,6}"),
     ]
     pattern_list = []
     for sep, name, sub_pattern in pieces:
@@ -131,11 +132,13 @@ def _parse_iso8601_with_reso(date_type, timestr):
     result = parse_iso8601_like(timestr)
     replace = {}
 
-    for attr in ["year", "month", "day", "hour", "minute", "second"]:
+    for attr in ["year", "month", "day", "hour", "minute", "second", "microsecond"]:
         value = result.get(attr, None)
         if value is not None:
             # Note ISO8601 conventions allow for fractional seconds.
             # TODO: Consider adding support for sub-second resolution?
+            if attr == "microsecond":
+                value = 10 ** (6 - len(value)) * int(value)
             replace[attr] = int(value)
             resolution = attr
     return default.replace(**replace), resolution
diff --git a/xarray/core/types.py b/xarray/core/types.py
index 11b26da033f..d4224dcead9 100644
--- a/xarray/core/types.py
+++ b/xarray/core/types.py
@@ -249,6 +249,7 @@ def copy(
     "Y", "M", "W", "D", "h", "m", "s", "ms", "us", "μs", "ns", "ps", "fs", "as", None
 ]
 NPDatetimeUnitOptions = Literal["D", "h", "m", "s", "ms", "us", "ns"]
+PDDatetimeUnitOptions = Literal["s", "ms", "us", "ns"]
 
 QueryEngineOptions = Literal["python", "numexpr", None]
 QueryParserOptions = Literal["pandas", "python"]