If you hold a Salesforce certification, circle April 23, 2026, on your calendar. That’s the day Salesforce releases its Spring ’26 maintenance badges, the short Trailhead modules you need to complete to keep your credential active.
Salesforce published the official Spring ’26 maintenance schedule in its Help Center, and it confirms two things every certified professional needs to know: which badges become available on April 23, 2026, and the hard deadline to finish them is April 16, 2027.
Below is a clean breakdown of what’s releasing, which certifications are affected, and exactly what you need to do next.
Official source: Salesforce Help – Certification Maintenance Schedule
Quick Answer: What’s Happening on April 23, 2026?
On April 23, 2026, Salesforce releases eight Spring ’26 maintenance badges on Trailhead. These badges cover the most widely held Salesforce credentials, from Administrator to Sales Cloud Consultant, and completing the right one is how you keep your certification current.
You have until April 16, 2027, to finish the required badge. Miss that date, and your certification expires; you’d then need to re-sit the full exam to earn it back.
How Salesforce Certification Maintenance Actually Works
Before we get to the list, a quick refresher on the rules, because people lose certifications every year by misunderstanding them.
Every Salesforce-certified professional must complete one maintenance badge per year to stay certified. Salesforce publishes new maintenance badges three times a year, aligned with the Spring, Summer, and Winter platform releases. Each badge is valid for roughly 12 months. You only need to complete the specific badge required for your certification, not every release or every badge.
Deadlines are strict. If you blow past your personal maintenance due date, your certification expires. Worse, if an expired certification is a prerequisite for others you hold (for example, Administrator is the foundation for Advanced Admin, Sales Cloud Consultant, Service Cloud Consultant, and more), those dependent credentials expire too.
Two small but important exceptions worth flagging from the official schedule: Foundations certifications have no maintenance requirement and don’t expire, and the Accredited Professional (AP) program maintenance is currently being revamped, so AP holders don’t need to take action right now.
Spring ’26 Maintenance Badges Releasing on April 23, 2026
These are the eight maintenance badges going live on April 23, 2026, with a due date of April 16, 2027. This list is pulled directly from the official Salesforce Certification Maintenance Schedule.
- Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator
- Salesforce Certified B2C Commerce Cloud Developer
- Salesforce Certified CPQ Administrator
- Salesforce Certified CRM Analytics and Einstein Discovery Consultant
- Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Email Specialist
- Salesforce Certified MuleSoft Platform Integration Architect
- Salesforce Certified Slack Administrator
- Salesforce Certified Platform Strategy Designer
That’s the full list of badges released in this cycle. But this is the part most articles get wrong: these eight badges cover more than eight certifications. Several credentials share the same maintenance badge, which means the practical impact of the April 23 release is much wider than the list above suggests.
Which Certifications Are Affected by the Spring ’26 Release?
Here’s how each Spring ’26 badge maps to the certifications it maintains.
Platform Administrator maintenance badge
This is the big one. A single Platform Administrator maintenance badge satisfies the yearly requirement for all of the following:
- Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator
- Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator II
- Salesforce Certified Education Cloud Consultant
- Salesforce Certified Experience Cloud Consultant
- Salesforce Certified Field Service Consultant
- Salesforce Certified Nonprofit Success Pack Consultant
- Salesforce Certified Sales Cloud Consultant
- Salesforce Certified Service Cloud Consultant
Eight certifications, one badge. If you hold any of these, completing the Spring ’26 Platform Administrator module is the way to go.
CPQ Administrator maintenance badge
- Salesforce Certified CPQ Administrator
B2C Commerce Cloud Developer maintenance badge
- Salesforce Certified B2C Commerce Cloud Developer
- Salesforce Certified B2C Commerce Architect (this credential uses the B2C Commerce Cloud Developer maintenance badge)
CRM Analytics & Einstein Discovery Consultant maintenance badge
- Salesforce Certified CRM Analytics and Einstein Discovery Consultant
Marketing Cloud Email Specialist maintenance badge
- Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Email Specialist
MuleSoft Platform Integration Architect maintenance badge
- Salesforce Certified MuleSoft Platform Integration Architect
Slack Administrator maintenance badge
- Salesforce Certified Slack Administrator
Platform Strategy Designer maintenance badge
- Salesforce Certified Platform Strategy Designer
Holding a Certification That’s Not on This List?
If your credential isn’t shown above, don’t panic; your maintenance badge simply falls under a different release cycle. The two other active cycles in the schedule are:
Summer ’25 cycle available now, due August 21, 2026
- Salesforce Certified Agentforce Specialist
- Salesforce Certified B2B Solution Architect
- Salesforce Certified Business Analyst
- Salesforce Certified Heroku Architect
- Salesforce Certified Industries CPQ Developer
- Salesforce Certified JavaScript Developer
- Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Specialist
- Salesforce Certified MuleSoft Platform Architect
- Salesforce Certified OmniStudio Consultant
- Salesforce Certified OmniStudio Developer
- Salesforce Certified Platform User Experience Designer
- Salesforce Certified Slack Consultant
Winter ’26 cycle available now, due December 4, 2026
- Architect Maintenance Badge (covers Data Architect, Development Lifecycle & Deployment Architect, Identity and Access Management Architect, Integration Architect, and Sharing and Visibility Architect)
- Salesforce Certified B2C Solution Architect
- Salesforce Certified MuleSoft Catalyst Consultant
- Salesforce Certified Data Cloud Consultant
- Salesforce Certified MuleSoft Hyperautomation Developer
- Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Engagement Administrator
- Salesforce Certified MuleSoft Developer
- Salesforce Certified Platform App Builder
- Salesforce Certified Platform Developer
- Salesforce Certified Slack Developer
- Tableau Maintenance Badge (covers Tableau Architect, Tableau Consultant, Tableau Server Administrator, and Tableau Data Analyst)
If you hold a credential from either of these cycles, check your personal deadline on Trailhead and complete the appropriate badge before it’s too late.
Key Dates to Remember
| Release Cycle | Badge Available | Due Date |
|---|---|---|
| Spring ’26 | April 23, 2026 | April 16, 2027 |
| Summer ’25 | August 28, 2025 | August 21, 2026 |
| Winter ’26 | December 11, 2025 | December 4, 2026 |
All dates are aligned to Pacific Time (PT). Salesforce notes that dates are subject to change, so always confirm on the official Help page before booking anything around them.
How to Complete Your Spring ’26 Maintenance (Step-by-Step)
- Log in to Trailhead with the Trailblazer account tied to your certifications.
- Open the “Maintain Your Salesforce Certifications” trail to see every maintenance badge available to you.
- Check your certification status on your Trailblazer profile to confirm which badge you owe and your personal deadline.
- Launch the Spring ’26 maintenance module that matches your certification (for example, the Platform Administrator module if you hold Admin, Advanced Admin, or any of the consultant credentials that depend on it).
- Work through the units and pass the short assessment at the end. Most maintenance modules take 30–60 minutes.
- Verify your Trailblazer profile updates to show the badge as earned, with your certification re-validated for another year.
One badge, one hour of work, and your certification is safe until 2027. That’s a fair trade.
Common Mistakes That Cost People Their Certifications
After enough renewal cycles, the same avoidable mistakes keep showing up:
Waiting until the last week. The maintenance trail occasionally experiences technical issues near the deadline. Complete it within a month of release, not a month before the deadline.
Assuming all certifications need a new badge every cycle. They don’t. You complete only the badge tied to your specific credential; some credentials share badges. Check the schedule carefully before doing extra work.
Letting a prerequisite expire. If your Platform Administrator lapses, every consultant credential that depends on it will lapse as well. Always treat the foundational badge as priority #1.
Forgetting that Foundations and AP credentials work differently. Foundations certifications don’t expire. AP maintenance is being revamped; don’t stress about it right now.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. When exactly do the Spring ’26 maintenance badges release?
April 23, 2026. All eight Spring ’26 badges go live on Trailhead on that date.
Q. What’s the deadline to complete a Spring ’26 maintenance badge?
April 16, 2027, is the official due date published by Salesforce.
Q. Do I need to complete every Spring ’26 maintenance badge?
No. You only need to complete the specific badge tied to your certification. If you hold multiple certifications that share the same maintenance badge, for example, Administrator and Sales Cloud Consultant both use the Platform Administrator badge, completing it once covers all of them.
Q. What happens if I miss my maintenance deadline?
Your certification expires. To earn it back, you must re-register and pass the full certification exam again. If the expired credential is a prerequisite for other certifications you hold, those downstream certifications expire as well.
Q. How much does Salesforce certification maintenance cost?
The Trailhead maintenance modules themselves are free. There is a separate annual $100 maintenance fee for most credentials, which covers all certifications associated with your Trailblazer profile for the year.
Q. Where can I check whether my Spring ’26 maintenance badge is due?
Your Trailblazer profile lists every certification you hold, the next required maintenance badge, and the personal due date. You can also review the full schedule on the official Salesforce Help page.
Q. Is there a Spring ’26 maintenance badge for Platform Developer?
No. Platform Developer sits in the Winter ’26 cycle, with a badge released on December 11, 2025, and due on December 4, 2026.
Q. What about the Agentforce Specialist certification?
Agentforce Specialist maintenance is part of the Summer ’25 cycle. The badge is already available and is due on August 21, 2026.
Q. Do Foundations or Accredited Professional certifications need maintenance?
Foundations certifications don’t have a maintenance requirement and won’t expire once earned. For Accredited Professional credentials, Salesforce has announced that the entire AP maintenance program is being revamped, so no action is required at this time.
Q. Are Tableau certifications part of the Spring ’26 release?
No. Tableau maintenance is offered through the Winter ’26 Tableau Certification Maintenance badge, which covers Tableau Architect, Tableau Consultant, Tableau Data Analyst, and Tableau Server Administrator credentials.
Final Thought
The Spring ’26 maintenance release is one of the biggest of the year, largely because it includes the Platform Administrator badge, which alone maintains eight of the most popular Salesforce certifications. If you’re an admin, a consultant on Sales, Service, Experience, Field Service, Education, or Nonprofit Cloud, or you hold the Platform Administrator II role, this is the release you need to pay attention to.
Block an hour, complete the badge, and put your certification worries aside until next year. And bookmark the official Salesforce Certification Maintenance Schedule, it’s the single source of truth and always reflects the current cycle.
Source: Salesforce Certification Maintenance Schedule (official). All maintenance badge names, release dates, and due dates in this article are drawn directly from the official Salesforce Help page.
