--- source: 'https://howaiworks.ai/models/sora' section: models title: Sora 2 (Discontinued) description: >- OpenAI is retiring Sora: the apps closed April 26, 2026 and the API shuts down September 24, 2026, with no OpenAI successor. tags: - Sora - OpenAI - Video Generation - AI Video - Text-to-Video - Multimodal - Sunsetting - Discontinued category: Video Generation Models developer: OpenAI developerWebsite: 'https://openai.com/' modelType: Text-to-Video Model (Retiring) releaseDate: '2025-09-30' lastUpdated: '2026-09-06' license: Proprietary status: 'Discontinued — apps ended April 26, 2026; API ends September 24, 2026' officialWebsite: 'https://openai.com/index/sora-2/' docsPage: 'https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/sora-2' pricingPage: 'https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing' --- # Sora 2 (Discontinued) > OpenAI is retiring Sora: the apps closed April 26, 2026 and the API shuts down September 24, 2026, with no OpenAI successor. ## Overview > **This model is being switched off.** The Sora web and mobile apps were discontinued on **April 26, 2026**. The API — `sora-2`, `sora-2-pro` and the whole Videos API — shuts down on **September 24, 2026**, which is **eighteen days** from this revision (September 6, 2026). OpenAI's deprecations table lists **no recommended replacement**. This page is now a reference for teams migrating off Sora, not a page to adopt from. **Sora 2 was OpenAI's video generation model, and its last.** Released on September 30, 2025, it generates video with synced audio from text or image input, and the API documentation still describes it as "flagship video generation with synced audio," capable of creating "richly detailed, dynamic clips from natural language or images." Everything in that sentence stops being purchasable in less than three weeks. The wind-down came in two stages. OpenAI notified developers on **March 24, 2026**; the consumer surfaces went on **April 26, 2026**; the API goes on **September 24, 2026**. There is no Sora 3, no announced successor, and nothing in OpenAI's catalog that generates video after that date — `gpt-image-2` (April 21, 2026) is still images only, and GPT-6 Astra (September 3, 2026) is a language model. If you have production traffic on `v1/videos`, treat September 24 as a hard cutover and pick a replacement from another vendor now — see [Pricing & Access](#pricing-access) for the live alternatives in this catalog. ## Sunset Timeline | Date | Event | |---|---| | **September 30, 2025** | Sora 2 released, alongside the iOS app | | **March 24, 2026** | OpenAI announces the discontinuation | | **April 26, 2026** | Sora web and mobile app experiences shut down | | **September 24, 2026** | API shutdown: `sora-2`, `sora-2-pro`, and the Videos API | | *(September 6, 2026)* | *This revision. Eighteen days of API left.* | The models covered by the September 24 shutdown are `sora-2`, `sora-2-pro`, `sora-2-2025-10-06`, `sora-2-2025-12-08`, and `sora-2-pro-2025-10-06`. The `v1/videos` endpoint is retired with them. ## Capabilities > **Everything in this section stops working on September 24, 2026.** It is kept as a record of what Sora 2 could do, and as a checklist of what a replacement has to cover. - **Video with synced audio**: A single generation produces both tracks together, rather than compositing audio onto silent footage after the fact. - **Text-to-video**: Natural language prompts describing the desired clip. - **Image-to-video**: Still images as a starting frame or conditioning input. - **Portrait and landscape output**: Both orientations at every supported resolution, covering social and cinematic framings. - **Two quality tiers**: `sora-2` for standard 720p generation, and `sora-2-pro` for higher-quality output, which additionally unlocks 1024p and 1080p. ## Technical Specifications - **Model IDs**: `sora-2`, `sora-2-pro` - **Snapshots**: `sora-2-2025-10-06`, `sora-2-2025-12-08`, `sora-2-pro-2025-10-06` - **Input modalities**: Text, images - **Output modalities**: Video and audio, synchronized - **Resolutions**: `sora-2` — 720x1280, 1280x720. `sora-2-pro` — those plus 1024x1792/1792x1024 and 1080x1920/1920x1080 - **Endpoint**: `v1/videos` (retiring September 24, 2026) - **Rate limits**: Tiered by usage, unsupported on the free tier. At Tier 5, `sora-2` reaches 375 requests per minute and `sora-2-pro` 150 - **Pricing**: $0.10/second (`sora-2`); $0.30–$0.70/second (`sora-2-pro`, by resolution) ## Use Cases These are written in the present tense because the API still answers today, but every one of them is a workload that needs a new home before September 24, 2026: - **Short-form social video**: Portrait clips with dialogue and sound effects generated in one pass. - **Storyboarding and previsualization**: Rapid visual drafts of a scene before committing production budget. - **Product and concept demos**: Turning a still product image into a short motion sequence. - **Marketing iteration**: Generating multiple treatments of the same brief at $0.10 per second of footage. - **Educational and explanatory clips**: Short sequences illustrating a process, with narration generated alongside the visuals. ## Performance / Benchmarks **OpenAI publishes no capability benchmark for Sora 2.** The seven-page [Sora 2 System Card](https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/50d5973c-c4ff-4c2d-986f-c72b5d0ff069/sora_2_system_card.pdf) (September 30, 2025) describes the model only in prose — "more accurate physics, sharper realism, synchronized audio, enhanced steerability, and an expanded stylistic range" — and contains exactly one table, which measures safety rather than quality. The API model reference adds nothing but a qualitative badge: performance "Higher," speed "Slow." There is no FVD, no VBench, no published win rate against any competitor, at launch or since. What OpenAI does publish is the safety stack's block and over-refusal rates. These are vendor-reported and self-graded: OpenAI ran adversarial prompts "through a helpful-only version of the video model to generate outputs, and then graded and converted to an automated evaluation." `not_unsafe` measures how effectively unsafe content is blocked; `not_overrefuse` measures how well benign content avoids false blocks. | Category (OpenAI's Table 1) | `not_unsafe` at output | `not_overrefuse` at output | |---|---|---| | Adult Nudity / Sexual Content, without use of likeness | 96.04% | 96.20% | | Adult Nudity / Sexual Content, with use of likeness | 98.40% | 97.60% | | Self-Harm | 99.70% | 94.60% | | Violence and Gore | 95.10% | 97.00% | | Violative Political Persuasion | 95.52% | 98.67% | | Extremism/Hate | 96.82% | 99.11% | Everything below comes from third parties. Note that **arena.ai** (the former LMArena) and **Artificial Analysis** are different organisations running different Elo scales; their numbers are not comparable to each other. ### arena.ai text-to-video leaderboard (fetched 2026-07-08; vote cutoff July 5, 2026) | Rank | Model | Org | Elo | Votes | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | gemini-omni-flash | Google | 1527.49 | 5,449 | | 2 | dreamina-seedance-2.0-720p | ByteDance | 1481.93 | 41,953 | | 3 | muse-video | Meta | 1458.64 | 2,152 | | 4 | happyhorse-1.0 | Alibaba-ATH | 1429.51 | 21,985 | | **5** | **`sora-2-pro`** | **OpenAI** | **1365.62** | 39,773 | | … | *(ranks 6–13: Google Veo ×6, xAI ×1, Alibaba ×1)* | | | | | **14** | **`sora-2`** | **OpenAI** | **1337.11** | 53,767 | | … | | | | | | 39 | `sora` (the original, still listed) | OpenAI | 1068.35 | 4,080 | 42 ranked models, 533,418 votes. Sora 2 is still a top-five model here — but it does not lead, and the model at #1 is Google's `gemini-omni-flash`, from the same family this page's [migration notes](#migration-notes) point to as a replacement. ### arena.ai image-to-video leaderboard: Sora 2 is absent Across 42 ranked models and 1,350,288 votes (vote cutoff June 23, 2026), **not one row belongs to OpenAI.** This is not a gap in our reading of the board. arena.ai's own model registry records both OpenAI entries as text-input only — `"publicName":"sora-2-pro" … "inputCapabilities":{"text":true},"outputCapabilities":{"video":true}` — so the arena never runs them in the image-to-video bracket, even though the Videos API accepts image input. The board is led by ByteDance's `dreamina-seedance-2.0-720p` at Elo 1473.66. ### Artificial Analysis Video Arena (fetched 2026-07-08) A different organisation on a different Elo scale. Do not compare these figures with the arena.ai numbers above. | Board | Sora placement | Elo | Board leader | |---|---|---|---| | Text to Video (30 models) | **#12**, labelled "Sora 2 (December)" | 1,095 ±9 | Dreamina Seedance 2.0 720p — 1,224 | | Text to Video (30 models) | **#18**, "Sora 2 Pro" | 1,079 ±9 | *(as above)* | | Image to Video (28 models) | **absent** | — | Dreamina Seedance 2.0 720p — 1,189 | Artificial Analysis benchmarks a snapshot it labels "Sora 2 (December)" rather than the launch build, and dates it to December 2025. ### Reading the boards Three things follow, and none of them are in OpenAI's marketing. 1. **The two arenas disagree about which Sora is better.** arena.ai puts `sora-2-pro` nine places above `sora-2`; Artificial Analysis puts the December `sora-2` snapshot six places above Sora 2 Pro. At $0.30 per second versus $0.10, the Pro premium is not obviously bought. 2. **Neither arena rates Sora 2 on image-to-video at all.** There is no independent evidence of its image-conditioned quality — from these two sources or, as far as we can find, from anyone. 3. **Sora 2 leads nothing.** Eleven months after release it is a strong mid-to-upper-table [video generation](https://howaiworks.ai/glossary/video-generation) model on the one board that ranks it well, and a mid-table one on the other. Both boards are led by models that will still exist after **September 24, 2026**, when Sora 2 will not. ## Limitations - **It stops working on September 24, 2026.** This is the limitation that outranks every other one on the page. `sora-2`, `sora-2-pro`, all three snapshots and the `v1/videos` endpoint are removed on that date; calls after it will fail. As of this revision that is eighteen days away. Anything you ship on Sora 2 now has a known end-of-life shorter than most sprint cycles. - **No successor, inside OpenAI or out of it.** The deprecations table's replacement column is empty. There is no migration path OpenAI will hand you — moving off Sora means moving to another vendor's API, with different prompt behaviour, different duration limits and a different price per second. - **No consumer surface.** sora.com and the iOS and Android apps have been gone since April 26, 2026. API access is the only remaining channel, and only until the 24th. - **A short resolution ladder.** `sora-2` is 720p only; `sora-2-pro` tops out at 1080p. No 4K, no arbitrary aspect ratios. - **Free tier excluded.** Video generation is not available on the free API tier. - **Per-second pricing.** Cost scales linearly with output duration, which makes long-form generation expensive relative to text models. ## Pricing & Access ### API pricing | Model | Resolution | Price per second | |---|---|---| | `sora-2` | 720x1280 or 1280x720 | $0.10 | | `sora-2-pro` | 720x1280 or 1280x720 | $0.30 | | `sora-2-pro` | 1024x1792 or 1792x1024 | $0.50 | | `sora-2-pro` | 1080x1920 or 1920x1080 | $0.70 | The Pro premium is not a flat multiple: it is 3x the standard model at 720p, but 7x at 1080p. Batch requests run at 50% of the standard rate. Access is through the `v1/videos` endpoint on the OpenAI Developer Platform. Rate limits scale with usage tier — the free tier does not support video generation. At Tier 5, `sora-2` reaches 375 requests per minute and `sora-2-pro` 150. **All of this ends on September 24, 2026.** The rate card above is a rate card with eighteen days left on it as of this revision; it is documented here so that migrating teams have a number to compare replacement pricing against, not because it is a price anyone should be planning around. ### After September 24, 2026 Nothing from OpenAI. If you are on the Videos API, these are the live video models documented in this catalog, and what each one costs you in switching effort: | Model | Developer | Why it is on this list | |---|---|---| | [Veo 3.1](https://howaiworks.ai/models/veo) | Google DeepMind | The closest analogue: native audio, hosted API, published per-second rate card | | [Kling 3.0](https://howaiworks.ai/models/kling) | Kuaishou | Natively generated audio, clips of 3–15 seconds, four SKUs | | [Seedance 2.5](https://howaiworks.ai/models/seedance) | ByteDance | Audio and video in one pass; the ByteDance line leads the image-to-video boards on both public arenas at the time of publication | | [Wan 2.2](https://howaiworks.ai/models/wan) | Alibaba | Apache 2.0 open weights — the only option here you can self-host, and so the only one that cannot be deprecated out from under you | | [Vidu Q3 Pro](https://howaiworks.ai/models/vidu) | ShengShu | Native audio plus reference-to-video, useful for character-locked series work | | [Hailuo 2.3](https://howaiworks.ai/models/hailuo) | MiniMax | MiniMax's video line, up to 1080p — but no generated audio, so budget for a separate audio pass | Two practical notes for the port. **Synced audio is the hard requirement to check first** — Sora 2 generates video and audio in one pass. Veo, Kling, Seedance and Vidu do too; Hailuo and Wan do not, and choosing one of those means adding a separate audio pass and a compositing step. And **per-second pricing does not carry over**: rebuild the cost model against the new vendor's rate card rather than assuming $0.10/second follows you. ### Consumer access None, and none returning. The Sora web platform and the iOS and Android apps were discontinued on April 26, 2026. OpenAI advised users to export their content before that date and did not guarantee recovery afterward. ## Migration Notes OpenAI has not designated a successor. If you are still on `sora-2` or `sora-2-pro` on September 6, 2026, you have eighteen days: 1. **Fix your deadline at September 24, 2026.** It is a removal, not a soft deprecation — there is no grace period published, and no replacement alias to fall back to. 2. **Export any assets and prompt libraries** that live behind the Videos API. The app shutdown in April took un-exported content with it; assume the same posture here. 3. **Pick a replacement this week, not next.** The candidates are listed under [Pricing & Access](#pricing-access). Google's `gemini-omni-flash-preview`, released to developers on June 30, 2026, generates and conversationally edits short 720p video and is another close analogue — see [Gemini 3.5](https://howaiworks.ai/models/gemini). 4. **Re-test your prompts, do not port them.** Video prompt behaviour is not portable between vendors; a prompt library tuned on Sora 2 will need a pass on whatever replaces it. 5. **Budget for a pricing model change.** Per-second video pricing varies widely between vendors; do not assume $0.10/second carries over. ## Ecosystem & Tools - **[Video generation guide](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/video-generation)** - How the Videos API works, while it lasts - **[Videos API reference](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/api-reference/videos)** - Endpoint documentation - **[Python SDK](https://github.com/openai/openai-python)** and **[Node SDK](https://github.com/openai/openai-node)** - Both expose the videos endpoint - **[OpenAI Developer Platform](https://developers.openai.com/)** - Model catalog and rate limits ## Community & Resources - [Sora 2 announcement](https://openai.com/index/sora-2/) - OpenAI's original launch post - [Sora 2 model reference](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/sora-2) - Pricing, modalities, rate limits - [Model deprecations](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/deprecations) - The September 24, 2026 shutdown entry - [What to know about the Sora discontinuation](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001152-what-to-know-about-the-sora-discontinuation) - OpenAI Help Center - [Sora 2 system card](https://openai.com/index/sora-2-system-card/) - Published September 30, 2025 - [OpenAI Developer Forum](https://community.openai.com/) ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Can I still use Sora? Only through the API, and only until **September 24, 2026**. The Sora web and mobile apps were discontinued on April 26, 2026. As of September 6, 2026 the `sora-2` and `sora-2-pro` endpoints still answer calls, but after the September 24 shutdown there is no OpenAI route to Sora at all — no app, no API, no successor model. ### When exactly does the Sora API shut down? September 24, 2026. OpenAI announced the deprecation on March 24, 2026 and lists `sora-2`, `sora-2-pro`, the snapshots `sora-2-2025-10-06`, `sora-2-2025-12-08` and `sora-2-pro-2025-10-06`, and the entire Videos API (`v1/videos`) under that one date. ### What should I migrate to? OpenAI recommends nothing — the deprecations table lists no replacement — so the move is to another vendor. In this catalog the live options are [Veo 3.1](https://howaiworks.ai/models/veo), [Kling 3.0](https://howaiworks.ai/models/kling), [Seedance 2.5](https://howaiworks.ai/models/seedance), [Wan 2.2](https://howaiworks.ai/models/wan) (open weights, self-hostable), [Vidu Q3 Pro](https://howaiworks.ai/models/vidu) and MiniMax's [Hailuo 2.3](https://howaiworks.ai/models/hailuo). None is a drop-in: prompt behaviour, duration limits, audio support and per-second pricing all differ. ### Is there a Sora 3? No. Sora 2 is the final version. OpenAI announced the wind-down on March 24, 2026 and, as of September 6, 2026, has neither shipped nor announced a successor video model. ### Did video generation move into another OpenAI product? No. OpenAI's April 21, 2026 image model `gpt-image-2` (surfaced in ChatGPT as Images 2.0) generates still images only, and GPT-6 Astra, released September 3, 2026, is a language model. After September 24, 2026 OpenAI's public catalog contains no video generation model. ### What does the Sora 2 API cost while it lasts? Sora 2 is $0.10 per second of generated video at 720p. Sora 2 Pro is priced per resolution: $0.30 per second at 720p, $0.50 at 1024p and $0.70 at 1080p. Batch requests run at 50% of those rates. All of it stops on September 24, 2026. ### When was Sora 2 released? September 30, 2025, launching alongside an iOS app. Sora for Android launched globally on November 5, 2025, about five weeks later. The model had a working life of just under twelve months. ### Can Sora 2 generate audio? Yes. Sora 2 outputs video with synced audio in a single generation. Its inputs are text and images; its outputs are video and audio together. This is the capability hardest to replace — several alternatives generate silent video only. ### What resolutions does Sora 2 support? `sora-2` supports 720x1280 (portrait) and 1280x720 (landscape) only. `sora-2-pro` adds 1024x1792/1792x1024 and 1080x1920/1920x1080. Both support 16- and 20-second generations. ### Why did OpenAI shut Sora down? OpenAI did not publish a reason. Its Help Center article announces the discontinuation without explaining it, and we do not speculate here. ### What happens to content created in the Sora app? OpenAI advised users to export their content before the April 26, 2026 app shutdown and did not guarantee recovery after that date. If you have assets sitting behind the Videos API, export them before September 24, 2026 for the same reason. ## Related ### Related models - [Veo 3.1](https://howaiworks.ai/models/veo) - [Kling 3.0](https://howaiworks.ai/models/kling) - [Seedance 2.5](https://howaiworks.ai/models/seedance) - [Wan 3.0](https://howaiworks.ai/models/wan) - [Vidu Q3 Pro](https://howaiworks.ai/models/vidu) - [MiniMax H3 (Hailuo 3.0)](https://howaiworks.ai/models/hailuo) --- Source: https://howaiworks.ai/models/sora — HowAIWorks.ai