Sora
OpenAI's cinematic text-to-video model — now discontinued, and worth knowing about before you search for it.
About
Sora was OpenAI's text-to-video model family, later built into a social video app that let people generate short, realistic clips from prompts and place themselves into scenes. It was praised for cinematic movement, coherent scenes and synchronised sound, but OpenAI closed the Sora app and website in April 2026 and switched off the API in September 2026. It is included here so readers do not pay a lookalike site or an outdated guide for access that no longer exists.
Key features
- Text-to-video generation that turned written descriptions into short, cinematic clips
- Image-to-video and video extension for animating stills or continuing existing footage
- Multi-character scenes with an emphasis on keeping identities and interactions coherent
- Camera-style movement, including pans, zooms and travelling shots described in plain language
- Synchronised sound in its later version, with dialogue, footsteps and ambient audio matched to the picture
- A storyboard-style workflow for arranging multi-shot sequences
- A social app built around Sora 2, including personalised clips featuring the user
Pricing
Pricing is not listed here, because it could not be verified from an official source at the time of writing.
Pricing could not be verified from an official source at the time of writing, so it is not listed here — check the official site. The Sora app and website were closed in April 2026 and the API was switched off in September 2026, so there is currently no new Sora video to buy.
Best for
Readers researching what Sora was, and creators looking for a modern alternative with similar cinematic quality.
Limitations to know
AI video can contain warped movement, inconsistent faces or objects across frames, and short clip-length limits, so output needs human checking. In Sora's case the larger limitation is availability: the product is discontinued, so no new clips can be generated through it.
What users like
- Cinematic quality and smooth, natural-looking motion in short clips
- Strong handling of complex scenes, crowds and atmosphere compared with rivals of its era
- Surprisingly well-matched sound, with dialogue and movement audio lining up with the picture
- Fast idea testing, turning a rough concept into a watchable draft in minutes
What users complain about
- Hands, faces and fine details breaking down, with extra limbs or merging fingers in complex motion
- Inconsistent results across generations, with characters, clothing or objects changing between takes
- Short maximum clip lengths that suited vignettes rather than full stories
- Strict content controls that blocked some prompts, plus slow rendering and the eventual shutdown
Our editorial score
Our editorial score: 3.0/10 — our own judgement, not an aggregate of user ratings. See the full review for the reasoning.
Read the full Sora review · More Video Generation tools · All AI tools