Every Salesforce release brings new features and platform improvements, but before diving into what’s new, it’s important to know when your environments will be upgraded. Planning ahead gives you time to test critical functionality and ensure a smooth transition to Winter ‘27.
There are several agenda items to prepare for with each release, but at this point, there are only a couple of key things you need to know: 1) how to prepare your sandbox and 2) when your instance will undergo the upgrade.
Salesforce Winter ‘27 Release
The first thing you need to know is when your main Salesforce setup will switch over to the Winter ‘27 release. It’s crucial to run tests on all the key functions in your system before this happens to make sure everything keeps running smoothly. Even though Salesforce updates usually don’t come with big issues, it’s still a good idea to do these checks.
The release date for Winter ‘27 will depend on your instance of Salesforce, but the main release weekends are on:
- August 29, 2026
- October 3, 2026
- October 10, 2026
To find out the exact date your production instance will be upgraded, you can head over to Salesforce Trust, search by instance name or your domain, and hit “Maintenance”. Here, you will be able to see when the Salesforce Winter ‘27 release is currently scheduled to hit your instance so that you can plan accordingly.
If you don’t know your instance, the quickest way to find out is to head to Company Information within Setup in your Salesforce org. If you want to know more about Salesforce instances, check out our comprehensive post about how to find yours.
Winter ‘27 Sandbox Preview Information
The next thing to keep in mind is how and when your sandbox gets upgraded. This is super important because it’s your chance to test-drive the new release with your system. You can hop on a pre-release org, but remember, those won’t have any of your setups.
Salesforce gives two windows for sandbox releases, depending on if yours is a “Preview” or “Non-Preview” instance. Keep an eye out for details on sandbox previews, but it seems like most sandboxes will get the upgrade around August 29, 2026.
Winter ‘27 Pre-Release Org
As mentioned earlier, pre-release orgs are a fantastic way to get a feel for the new release before it lands in your sandboxes. Keep an eye out for the link once it’s up and running.
Winter ‘27 Release Notes
Although the dates mentioned above are some of the most important of the Salesforce release cycle, the most anticipated date is for the official Salesforce release notes. This is the first glimpse of the features and upgrades that are being applied across the Salesforce suite of products. Release notes will be linked here (when available).
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