What happened
Sora 2 came out in autumn 2025 and quickly became one of the most discussed video models: realistic physics, sound, its own app with a video feed. Less than six months later OpenAI announced the shutdown.
Timeline according to OpenAI’s official help article:
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| March 2026 | OpenAI announced the Sora shutdown and warned developers that the API would be switched off |
| 26 April 2026 | the Sora web version and app were closed |
| 24 September 2026 | the Sora API, through which the model ran in third-party services, was switched off |
After the API was switched off, Sora 2 stopped working everywhere, including the aggregators that had connected it for their users.
Why it was shut down
OpenAI did not give a detailed official explanation. Industry publications cite two reasons: video generation requires enormous computing resources that the company decided to direct to other products, and the Sora team moved on to other research.
What about your videos and money
- Videos. OpenAI offered to export them on the sora.chatgpt.com/sunset page with an Export button. After the final export window, the data is deleted permanently.
- Credits. According to OpenAI’s help article, purchased ChatGPT and Sora credits can be spent in Codex.
- Subscription. Refunds go through the standard ChatGPT refund procedure.
What to use instead of Sora 2
The good news: during 2026 competitors caught up with Sora and in some ways overtook it.
| What you did in Sora | Replacement | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Photorealistic scenes with sound | Veo 3.1 | detail, light, native sound and speech |
| People, facial expressions, camera movement | Kling v3 | the strongest with people, works calmly with photos of people |
| Long story clips | Seedance 2.5 | up to 30 seconds in one take versus 12 on Sora 2 Pro |
| Clips with a character across several scenes | Seedance 2.0 and 2.5 | keep the character consistent from references |
| Complex physics (water, fabric, collisions) | Veo 3.1, Seedance 2.5 | the best at physics among the available models |
| Quick cheap clips for social media | Veo 3.1 Lite, Seedance 1.5 Pro | several times cheaper than Sora 2 Pro |
Veo 3.1: the closest replacement for the «cinematic» look
If you liked Sora for photorealism, light and sound, start with Veo 3.1. The model generates video together with speech and sound effects and handles lighting and texture well. The downside: up to 8 seconds at a time. Veo 3.1 review.
Kling v3: people and camera
For clips with people, Kling v3 is often even better than Sora: natural facial expressions, confident camera movement. And it is more relaxed than others about photos of real people. Kling v3 review.
Seedance 2.5: long stories
What Sora never had: 30 seconds in a single pass, up to 50 references, editing of individual fragments. For story clips it is currently the strongest option. Seedance 2.5 review.
How to move a prompt from Sora
Sora prompts carry over almost unchanged, but there are three adjustments:
- Clip length. Sora 2 Pro made up to 12 seconds. For Veo, shorten the action to 8 seconds; for Seedance 2.5, on the contrary, you can lay the scene out by timecodes over 30 seconds. How to do it: Seedance 2.5 prompts.
- Dialogue. If your character spoke in Sora, keep the line in quotation marks for Veo, the model also generates speech.
- Real people. Seedance filters real faces more strictly. If the scene has a recognisable person from a photo, use Kling.
Comparison of models for every task: which AI to choose for video.
In short
Sora is shut down: the app since 26 April 2026, the API since 24 September 2026. You can no longer generate video in Sora 2 anywhere. Instead, use Veo 3.1 for photorealism and sound, Kling v3 for people and camera movement, and Seedance 2.5 for long story clips up to 30 seconds.
