What is ChatGPT Sora: The AI Tool Everyone Is Talking About

Sora Status in November 2026

Sora is gone. OpenAI discontinued the Sora web and app experiences on April 26, 2026. The Sora API followed on September 24, 2026, according to OpenAI's help center (checked November 2, 2026).

• Can I still make videos with Sora? No. The app, the web version and the API are all off.
• What about my old videos? OpenAI's export page is sora.chatgpt.com/sunset. The steps are below.
• I bought credits. OpenAI says purchased ChatGPT/Sora credits can still be used for Codex.
• What should I use now? See the alternatives table further down.

The rest of this page started as our December 2024 launch guide. We've rewritten it as a record of what Sora was and kept the parts that still help.

OpenAI opened ChatGPT Sora to Plus and Pro subscribers in December 2024 and closed it in 2026.

If you landed here looking for Sora, this page covers what it was, the exact shutdown dates, how to get your videos out, and which tools people use in its place.

ALSO READ: How to Protect AI from Prompt Injection Attacks

What is ChatGPT Sora?

ChatGPT Sora was OpenAI's text-to-video tool. You described a scene in words and Sora generated a short clip from it. It could also extend an existing short video. Its web app lived at sora.chatgpt.com, which is why so many people still search for "sora chatgpt" and "sora.chatgpt.com".

It's discontinued now, and you can't sign up for it or generate anything new. The web app, including its Explore feed at sora.chatgpt.com/explore, shut down on April 26, 2026. For old videos, OpenAI points you to the export page at sora.chatgpt.com/sunset, and the steps are further down this page.

Sora Timeline: From Preview to Shutdown

Date	What happened	Source
February 15, 2024	OpenAI previews Sora with sample clips	Wikipedia
December 9, 2024	Public release for ChatGPT Plus and Pro users in the US and Canada	Wikipedia
September 30, 2025	Sora 2 launches with an iOS app	Wikipedia
About two months later	Android app follows	Wikipedia
March 24, 2026	OpenAI announces it's discontinuing Sora	Wikipedia
April 26, 2026	Sora web and app experiences discontinued	OpenAI Help Center
September 24, 2026	Sora API discontinued	OpenAI Help Center

That left developers six months between the announcement and the API shutdown, and app users about one month.

How Sora Worked

While it was running, making a Sora video took three steps:

1. Prompt. You described the scene in plain words, for example: "Create a peaceful video of a sunrise over mountains with birds flying in the background."
2. Settings. You picked the video settings and generated the clip.
3. Review. You previewed the result, then downloaded it or rewrote the prompt and tried again.

Sora 2 added social media features to the app, and every Sora 2 video carried a visible, moving watermark. By October 7, 2025, 404 Media was already reporting that third-party tools for stripping that watermark had become common.

Can You Still Export Your Sora Videos?

Here's the export route from OpenAI's help center, as listed on November 2, 2026:

1. Go to sora.chatgpt.com/sunset.
2. Click Export.
3. Wait for the email. OpenAI sends one when your export is ready.

Don't put this off. OpenAI says it'll email you before any final export window begins, and that once that window passes, it permanently deletes the data tied to your Sora use. If the sunset page no longer loads for you, the help center doesn't describe another way to get your videos back.

Money left over? OpenAI points refund questions to its ChatGPT subscription refund article, and any purchased ChatGPT/Sora credits can be spent on Codex.

Sora Alternatives: What Works Now, and What's Free

OpenAI didn't name a successor to Sora. The tools below make AI video today, and we checked each one's free option on its own pricing or plans page on November 2, 2026. They aren't ranked, because the right pick depends far more on your budget and on the subscriptions you already pay for than on any feature list.

Tool	Free option, as the vendor states it	Paid entry point	Source
Gemini app (Gemini Omni video model)	None on the Free plan; free Google AI Pro for a year for eligible US college students	Google AI Plus, $4.99/month, includes video generation	Gemini video page, plans
Runway	Free plan with 125 one-time credits	Standard, $15/month ($12/month billed annually)	Runway pricing
Grok Imagine	Video isn't on the free plan: xAI's plan comparison lists video generation from Premium up	The X Subscription Premium, $30/month	xAI pricing
Pika	Free plan with 0 monthly credits (credit packs only)	Starter, $10/month	Pika pricing

So what replaced Sora for free? Among the tools we checked, none offers a permanent free allowance for video. The closest options:

• Runway's 125 starter credits. By Runway's own math, its Gen-4.5 model uses 12 credits per second of video, so treat them as a trial.
• A free year of Google AI Pro, if you're an eligible US college student who redeems it by December 31, 2026.

Moving to Gemini? Google says Gemini Omni is replacing Veo in the Gemini app, and the prompt structure in our Veo prompting guide is a solid place to start. Whatever tool you pick, a clear script makes the clip better, and our ChatGPT prompts for video scripts handle that part.

Why Was Sora Shut Down?

OpenAI didn't give a specific reason in its shutdown notice. The announcement came on March 24, 2026, and OpenAI's partnership with Disney, which had licensed Disney characters for use in Sora, ended along with it.

Press coverage linked the decision to compute shortages, cost pressure and a broader shift toward enterprise products, as Wikipedia's Sora article summarizes. Treat any single "real reason" story with care: those are reports, and OpenAI hasn't confirmed them.

Conclusion: What is ChatGPT Sora: The AI Tool Everyone Is Talking About

Sora is a closed chapter. The app has been off since April 26, 2026. The API followed on September 24.

If you still have videos in it, try the export page today. If you need a replacement, decide by budget:

• A free trial with no subscription: Runway's starter credits.
• A plan you may already pay for: Google AI Plus or Pro, which include video in the Gemini app.
• You live on X anyway: Grok Imagine on The X Subscription.

Our Sora 2 prompting guide stays up as a record of how people prompted it.

Sora FAQ

Did ChatGPT stop Sora?

Yes, OpenAI did. ChatGPT keeps running; only Sora was retired, the app and web version on April 26, 2026 and the API on September 24, 2026.

Is Sora associated with ChatGPT?

It was. Sora first opened to ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscribers, and its web app ran at sora.chatgpt.com.

What is a Sora ChatGPT account?

There's no separate product by that name. Sora launched for ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscribers and ran on sora.chatgpt.com, so people use the phrase for the ChatGPT login they used there. Closing Sora didn't close ChatGPT, and OpenAI handles Sora refund questions through its ChatGPT subscription refund process.

Is Sora AI free?

It isn't available at any price now.

How do you use Sora AI for free?

You can't anymore. The free routes that still exist belong to other tools, and the alternatives table above lists what each vendor actually gives away.

Keep going: the prompt library has AI design prompts and Midjourney prompts ready to copy and run.