Salesforce CPQ (configure, price, quote) is the Salesforce add-on that turns a product catalog, pricing rules and discount approvals into accurate, branded quotes inside Sales Cloud. Since 2026 it is end of sale but not end of life: existing customers keep it and its support, while new customers buy Revenue Cloud Advanced instead.
This guide was first published in 2020 as tips for a successful CPQ implementation. It has been rewritten for 2026: how CPQ works, what the end-of-sale decision means for you, how CPQ compares with Revenue Cloud Advanced, and how to plan either an implementation or a migration.
What is Salesforce CPQ?
CPQ stands for configure, price, quote. It covers the steps between a sales rep choosing products and a customer receiving a quote they can sign:
- Configure: pick products and options that are valid together, often as bundles, so a rep can't sell an incompatible combination.
- Price: apply list prices, volume or term discounts and pricing rules, so every quote follows the same logic.
- Quote: generate the quote document, send it for approval when a discount crosses a threshold, and hand the accepted quote on to a contract and an order.
A worked example: a rep selling industrial equipment picks a base machine, and the configurator only offers the attachments that fit it. Pricing then applies the customer's volume discount and a multi-year term discount; because the total discount crosses the rep's limit, the quote goes to a manager for approval. Once approved, the quote document is sent for signature and the accepted quote becomes a contract and an order.
In Salesforce, CPQ runs on the same records as the rest of Sales Cloud (accounts, opportunities, products and price books), which is why it became the default quoting tool for Salesforce customers. Salesforce's own CPQ and revenue management page now presents this capability under Revenue Cloud.
Why do sales teams use CPQ?
CPQ replaces spreadsheet quoting with one set of product, pricing and approval rules, so quotes are faster and consistent. Salesforce's CPQ and revenue management page says product, pricing and approval rules "live on a single platform", so a change applies across every sales channel, and that the result accelerates deal cycles and improves compliance. In practice teams see:
- fewer quotes with invalid product combinations or wrong prices;
- discounts that follow policy, with approvals only where a threshold is crossed;
- faster turnaround, because reps stop waiting on finance or engineering for a price;
- cleaner data for forecasting and renewals, because every quote line is a record.
The same page says simple deployments can go live in weeks, while enterprise implementations with complex configuration rules typically take 3 to 6 months.
Is Salesforce CPQ end of life?
No. As of November 2026, CPQ is end of sale for new customers but still supported for existing ones, with no end-of-life date. Salesforce's page "Salesforce CPQ is end of sale, not end of life" (dated 10 July 2026) sets out the position:
| Question | What Salesforce says |
|---|---|
| Can existing customers keep CPQ? | Yes: they can continue using it, buy additional users, renew licenses and receive support. |
| Can new customers buy it? | No: Salesforce no longer sells new CPQ licenses to new customers. |
| Is there an end-of-life date? | No: Salesforce has not announced one. |
| Is migration forced? | No. |
| What is the successor? | Revenue Cloud Advanced (RCA), with Revenue Cloud Billing as a complementary product for usage rating, invoicing, payments and collections. |
The page also says CPQ is moving into a maintenance phase and "will not receive new features or innovations". It says approximately 15% of Revenue Cloud Advanced customers are companies that migrated from Salesforce CPQ. In other words, most RCA customers are new to it, and most CPQ customers have not moved yet.
Salesforce CPQ vs Revenue Cloud Advanced: what's the difference?
CPQ is a managed package for configure, price and quote; Revenue Cloud Advanced is built into the core platform and covers the wider revenue lifecycle. The biggest difference is architectural. Salesforce's migration page describes CPQ as built as a managed package sitting on top of the Salesforce platform, while Revenue Cloud Advanced is built into the core platform.
| Salesforce CPQ | Revenue Cloud Advanced | |
|---|---|---|
| How it is built | Managed package on top of the platform | Built into the core Salesforce platform |
| Who can buy it | Existing customers only (renewals and extra users) | New and existing customers |
| Scope | Configure, price, quote, then contract and order | Catalog, pricing, quoting, ordering and asset lifecycle, with native contract management, order orchestration and invoice management |
| Integration | Package objects and APIs | API-first: catalog, pricing, ordering, lifecycle and billing APIs, which Salesforce counts at 150+ APIs and invocable actions |
| Billing | Separate | Revenue Cloud Billing, a complementary product |
For a team that quotes simple products and is happy with CPQ, the managed package keeps working. For a team that sells subscriptions, usage-based products or multi-step orders, or that wants agents and APIs to act on pricing, RCA is where Salesforce is investing.
Where CPQ fits in quote-to-cash
Quote-to-cash is the full chain from a priced quote to cash in the bank: configure and price, quote and approve, contract, order, invoice, collect. CPQ covers the first half of that chain. Billing, invoicing and collections need another product, which in the current Salesforce lineup is Revenue Cloud Billing. When you scope a project, decide which steps of the chain are in scope; it is the most common source of quoting projects that grow mid-way.
Should you implement CPQ, migrate to RCA, or wait?
New customers should plan for Revenue Cloud Advanced; existing CPQ customers can stay and migrate at a natural moment, or sooner if CPQ is causing pain. It depends on where you start:
- You are new to Salesforce quoting: CPQ is not for sale to you, so plan for Revenue Cloud Advanced from the start.
- You run CPQ and it works: there is no deadline. Keep it, and plan a migration when a renewal, a new product line or a pricing redesign gives you a natural moment.
- You run CPQ and it hurts: slow quotes, a tangle of price rules or a manual billing hand-off are good reasons to move sooner, because a migration is the moment to redesign rather than copy.
Salesforce's migration page lists four migration paths, from least to most redesign:
- Lift and shift: move the existing CPQ configuration and data into RCA with minimal redesign, when speed and continuity matter most.
- Selective transformation: migrate the core model while rationalising the catalog and redesigning the pricing logic.
- Full rationalisation: redesign the catalog, pricing and transactional data to use what RCA adds for subscriptions, assets, renewals and consumption.
- New business unit or product line: build RCA around the future design and keep CPQ data as history.
It also lists four rollout models: big bang, pilot-first, a bridge that routes new business to RCA while existing CPQ contracts run to renewal, and a cohort rollout by region, business unit or selling model. Salesforce's end-of-sale page puts a typical migration at 3 to 6 months from discovery to go-live. Treat the data move like any other migration, with trial loads and reconciliation; our data migration strategies guide covers the method.
How to make a CPQ or Revenue Cloud project succeed
Clean the catalog, write down pricing rules, set sensible approvals and test with real deals. The advice from the original 2020 version of this post still holds, whichever product you implement:
- Clean the product catalog first. Retire products nobody sells and settle bundle and option rules before anything is built. Pricing logic built on a messy catalog stays messy.
- Write pricing rules down before configuring them. List every discount, approval threshold and exception with the person who owns it. Unwritten rules become hard-coded workarounds.
- Design approvals around real thresholds. Approvals that fire on every quote get rubber-stamped; approvals that never fire hide risk. Our guide to the Salesforce approval process covers the options.
- Agree the quote document early. Templates, terms and branding are where sales leaders have strong opinions; settle them in design, not testing.
- Decide the hand-off to contracts, orders and billing. Most quoting projects that overrun do so at the edges: the contract, the order or the invoice.
- Test with real deals. Rebuild a sample of last quarter's actual quotes in the sandbox and compare the totals line by line.
- Train reps on the why, not only the clicks. Adoption follows when reps see quotes going out faster and approvals coming back sooner.
Getting help
Techila is a Salesforce Summit Partner. Our Revenue Cloud services cover new Revenue Cloud Advanced implementations and moves from CPQ, and our CPQ integration page covers connecting quoting to the rest of your systems. If you are weighing whether to migrate now or at renewal, talk to us about your catalog and pricing; for platform moves of other kinds, see our migration guides.
Frequently asked questions
Is Salesforce CPQ end of life?
No. Salesforce describes CPQ as end of sale, not end of life, and says it has not announced an end-of-life date. Existing customers can keep using it, renew, buy additional users and receive support.
Can a new customer still buy Salesforce CPQ?
No. Salesforce no longer sells new Salesforce CPQ licenses to new customers. It points them to Revenue Cloud Advanced, with Revenue Cloud Billing for invoicing, payments and collections.
What replaces Salesforce CPQ?
Revenue Cloud Advanced (RCA), which Salesforce calls the successor to CPQ. CPQ is a managed package on top of the platform; RCA is built into the core Salesforce platform and exposes its catalog, pricing, ordering and lifecycle functions through APIs.
Do existing CPQ customers have to migrate?
No. Salesforce says there is no forced migration. Many teams plan a move anyway, for example by sending new business to Revenue Cloud Advanced while existing CPQ contracts run to renewal.
How long does a CPQ to Revenue Cloud Advanced migration take?
Salesforce puts a typical migration at 3 to 6 months from discovery to go-live. The real figure depends on the size of the product catalog, how complex the pricing logic is and how clean the quote and contract data are.