What Is Sora? OpenAI Video, Discontinuation, and Exports

Sora is OpenAI’s video-generation model and the name of its former video app. OpenAI discontinued the Sora app and web experience on April 26, 2026; the Sora API is scheduled to shut down on September 24, 2026. New users should not follow old app-signup tutorials. Status checked September 9, 2026 against OpenAI’s announcement.

What did Sora do?

Sora generated synthetic video from prompts and, depending on the version and interface, supported reference media and creative editing workflows. The model, consumer app, and API were different access layers. A historical demonstration of the model does not establish that the same feature remains available in a current product.

Is Sora still available?

The consumer app and web experience have ended. OpenAI gives a later shutdown date for the API, so it would also be inaccurate to say every Sora access route has already stopped as of this review. Any remaining integration should be evaluated against that announced deadline.

How do existing users save their work?

Open Sora’s export page, request Export, and watch for the email indicating that the archive is ready. OpenAI recommends exporting promptly and explains its deletion process in the shutdown guidance. Save your prompts and project notes alongside the outputs if you want to recreate the workflow elsewhere.

What should you use for new videos?

Choose an available model and provider around the job: text-to-video for a new scene, image-to-video for a reference image, or an editing tool for existing footage. Compare a short representative project before adopting a replacement.

Magic Hour’s text-to-video tool and image-to-video tool provide starting workflows. Check the selected model and current quote; an alternative should be judged by the result you can use, not by a promise that it recreates Sora exactly.