Salesforce Open CTI Retirement 2028 Explained: Salesforce Voice, Sales Dialer and Agentforce Voice

By Yatheendra, Founder, Brilo AI. Dates and prices last checked October 29, 2026.

Short answer: Salesforce Open CTI reaches end of life on February 28, 2028, with the Spring '28 release. After that date, Open CTI softphones, call center adapters, softphone layouts and custom CTI code stop working. Existing orgs can keep using Open CTI until then, but newly created Agentforce Service orgs can't set it up at all. Salesforce's replacement is Salesforce Voice. Sales Dialer is also scheduled for retirement and gets no new features, though Salesforce hasn't published its end date.

If your reps use a softphone inside Salesforce today, from Five9, RingCentral, Aircall, Talkdesk or an AppExchange CTI, you have roughly 16 months to decide what replaces it.

And the naming doesn't help. Search for answers and you'll find Voice Calls, Service Cloud Voice, Sales Dialer, Agentforce Contact Center and Salesforce Voice, which reads like five separate products. They overlap. This page maps them, prices them and dates them, then gives you a decision guide.

What is Salesforce Open CTI?

Salesforce Open CTI is a JavaScript API that lets a third-party phone system place a softphone inside the Salesforce console, with screen pops, click-to-dial and call logging. Telephony vendors use it to build call center adapters, usually distributed on AppExchange. Salesforce put Open CTI into maintenance mode in 2020 and will retire it on February 28, 2028, replacing it with Salesforce Voice.

Did you know?

Open CTI hasn't had a new feature since 2020. Salesforce moved it to maintenance mode six years before announcing the retirement date, according to its Trailhead module on Open CTI to Voice migration.

The Salesforce Open CTI retirement timeline

The February 16, 2026 date comes from Trailhead. Salesforce's Help notices describe the block on new Agentforce Service orgs as "effective immediately".

What stops working, and what doesn't

On end of life, Salesforce says four things stop for every org:

• The Open CTI JavaScript API itself

• Call center adapters, the AppExchange packages your telephony vendor built

• Softphone layouts and call center definition files

• Custom CTI logic, meaning screen pops, routing rules and any code built on the API

What keeps working: your phone system, your numbers, and anything that talks to Salesforce through the standard REST or SOAP APIs. An integration that creates Tasks or updates records over the API isn't an Open CTI integration, even if it handles phone calls.

How to check whether you're affected: in Setup, search for Call Centers. If you see a call center definition with users assigned who aren't on Salesforce Voice, you're running Open CTI. Next, ask your telephony vendor which Salesforce Voice path it supports, and by when.

Salesforce Voice vs Service Cloud Voice vs Agentforce Contact Center

Salesforce Voice and Service Cloud Voice are the same product. Service Cloud Voice is the older name, and Salesforce now calls it Salesforce Voice. Help pages and pricing pages still use both, which is why search results look inconsistent. It runs telephony natively in the console with Omni-Channel routing, real-time transcripts and Agentforce on top.

It comes in two shapes:

Contact Center editions, marketed as Agentforce Contact Center, bundle voice with the rest of the service console. They list at $125 per user per month with platform voice minutes included, and Contact Center Plus at $250. Salesforce's add-ons page now refers to Core, Advanced and Max editions, so these names may change.

Most Salesforce Voice configurations need Enterprise, Unlimited or Developer Edition.

Sales Dialer is frozen

Sales Dialer, formerly Lightning Dialer, is the rep-seat dialer for Sales Cloud: click-to-call, call lists, local presence and voicemail drop. Every Sales Dialer Help page now carries the same line: "Sales Dialer is scheduled for retirement. No new features or enhancements are being added."

As of Salesforce's October 16, 2026 retirements list, Sales Dialer has no published end-of-life date, and Salesforce recommends moving to Salesforce Voice. If you're buying a dialer now, avoid a multi-year commitment to it.

Limits worth knowing if you're still on it:

• Outbound calls go to the US and Canada only

• Live calls don't work in sandboxes

• Users need the Edit Tasks permission, or their calls aren't logged

Agentforce Voice, the AI agent layer

Agentforce Voice is Salesforce's AI agent that answers or places calls. It runs on Salesforce Voice, so it doesn't replace your telephony; it needs a voice channel underneath.

It's priced per action. Each Agentforce Voice action uses 30 Flex Credits in production, and Flex Credits list at $500 per 100,000, which makes one action $0.15. Salesforce's own worked example uses 4 actions per call, so roughly $0.60 per call, or $180 for 300 calls a month, before the Salesforce Voice or Contact Center licence. Some contracts bill Agentforce Voice by the minute instead.

We run the full cost comparison in Agentforce Voice pricing and alternatives.

Which path fits your team

Start from what your team actually uses the phone for.

1. You run a contact center on Five9, Genesys, NICE or similar, inside the Service Console. Move to Salesforce Voice with partner telephony. Ask your vendor for its Partner Telephony connector and a migration date now. Salesforce's developer migration guide is written for those vendors.

2. You're a small or mid-sized sales team on an AppExchange CTI softphone. Find out whether your vendor is moving to Salesforce Voice or building its own integration that doesn't rely on Open CTI. Our best CTI for Salesforce guide splits the market by architecture.

3. You're on Sales Dialer. It works today, but it's frozen. Plan a move to Salesforce Voice or a third-party dialer by your next renewal.

4. Most of your calls are routine: bookings, after-hours enquiries, order status, lead intake. This is where an AI voice agent fits, either Agentforce Voice inside Salesforce or an independent agent that connects over the API. It can sit in front of whichever phone system you keep, answer first, and hand over to a person with the record already updated.

5. You're a new Agentforce Service org. Open CTI isn't available to you. Start on Salesforce Voice.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Assuming every phone integration is affected. Only Open CTI softphones and adapters are. API-based integrations aren't.

• Waiting for your vendor to raise it. Ask now, and get a migration date in writing.

• Signing a long Sales Dialer contract because it still works today.

• Comparing Salesforce Voice prices without the minute bundles, Contact Center licences and Agentforce actions you'd stack on top.

Pro tips

• Inventory every custom screen pop and routing rule built on Open CTI now. That code doesn't migrate itself.

• If you're moving to Salesforce Voice anyway, decide at the same time which routine calls an AI agent should take first.

• Put the February 28, 2028 date in your renewal calendar against every telephony contract.

Where an independent AI voice agent fits

An AI voice agent that connects to Salesforce over the API, using an External Client App and an integration user, doesn't touch Open CTI. It answers the phone on its own numbers or numbers you forward, reads the record mid-call, and writes Tasks, Cases and field updates back.

Brilo connects through an External Client App and writes to Salesforce through the API, with nothing installed in the org. Brilo doesn't replace a rep softphone, though. If your reps click to dial from the console, you still need one of paths 1 to 3 above.

The Salesforce Open CTI retirement is a deadline, not an emergency. You have until February 28, 2028, but vendor migrations take time. See what Brilo writes to the record on the AI voice agent for Salesforce page, compare options in 8 best AI voice agents for Salesforce, or, if you run a contact center on Service Cloud, see Brilo with Salesforce Service Cloud.