This post explores the full lifecycle of Salesforce certifications—including creation, maintenance, and retirement—to ensure they remain relevant for your career. Key updates are also included, which are the retirement of 24 certifications on February 1, 2027, with the last day to register being July 24, 2026 and the final day to take exams on August 31, 2026. Additionally, 16 certifications will be renamed effective July 24, 2026 to better align with the current market and Salesforce product portfolio.
Creation: Expanding the Certification Portfolio
At Salesforce, we build our certification portfolio around your career success and the high-impact skills you need to excel. We continuously expand our offerings to align with market demand, emerging business trends, and strategic priorities like Agentforce. New certifications are created to ensure you have the validated skills required for the latest innovations. This rigorous development process ensures our certifications remain a trusted, vital resource for both you and employers.
Maintenance: Ensuring Ongoing Relevance
As a certified individual, you’re required to complete annual Trailhead maintenance badges to keep your certification active and your skills up to date. These badges become available during one of our three release cycles (Spring, Summer, and Winter) and are essential for ensuring your expertise reflects the most recent product features.
This focus on current relevance extends to our naming conventions. With that, 16 certifications are being renamed, effective July 24, 2026, to better align with our evolving product portfolio and provide clarity in the marketplace. It’s important to note that these name changes do not affect the underlying exam content or the annual maintenance requirements for these certifications.
For the complete list of the upcoming name changes and commonly asked questions, visit the Salesforce Certification Name Changes FAQ.
Retirements: Evolving Our Catalog
To maintain a program that delivers the most value, we retire certifications that no longer reflect the most in-demand skills in today’s marketplace. This evolution ensures that your certifications represent expertise in the most valuable and relevant areas. We make the decision to retire an exam based on a mix of market demand, new product innovations, and evolving job roles.
By retiring outdated certifications, we ensure that every Salesforce certification remains a high-value achievement that boosts your competitiveness in the market. You may be wondering: will my retired certification still be valid? Will it still appear in the verification system? And can employers still verify it?
A retired certification is still a valid certification. It demonstrates your knowledge of the product and your commitment to building expertise in that area. Retirement simply means Salesforce is no longer actively maintaining or evaluating those skills as part of our current catalog—it does not invalidate the work you put in or the knowledge you gained. And rest assured—retired certifications remain on your Trailblazer profile record and continue to be verifiable by employers, so your past achievements are never lost.
We also provide guidance on continued learning through resources on Trailhead and Partner Learning Camp (PLC) (partner-exclusive). Individuals can actively evolve their skills and knowledge through these resources, ensuring their Salesforce expertise remains up-to-date and competitive.
For the full list of the 24 exams retiring on February 1, 2027, next steps, and key deadlines, review the 2027 Certification Retirements FAQ.
Our Vision for Continued Certification Value
As Salesforce evolves, so does our certification program. Through thoughtful expansion, ongoing maintenance, strategic renaming, and the retirement of certifications, we aim to ensure your verified skills remain relevant, competitive, and aligned with the latest platform innovations.
