OpenAI Is Shutting Down the Sora API, Here’s What Happens Next

OpenAI is permanently retiring the Sora API on September 24, 2026, four days from today. The company notified developers of the sunset date back on March 24, 2026, and it follows the earlier shutdown of the consumer Sora web app and mobile app on April 26, 2026. Once the deadline passes, every call to the Videos API, including the sora-2 and sora-2-pro models, will return a 410 Gone error instead of a video.

This matters for anyone who built a product, workflow, or automation around Sora’s API for text-to-video or image-to-video generation. If that describes you, the videos and integrations you have are about to stop working, and OpenAI has been clear that data left behind gets permanently deleted. Here is exactly what is ending, what you need to do before Tuesday, and which alternatives are worth switching to.

Quick Summary

• The Sora-2 API (models sora-2 and sora-2-pro) shuts down permanently on September 24, 2026.
• The consumer Sora app and website already shut down on April 26, 2026.
• After the API sunset, all Videos API requests return a 410 Gone error.
• OpenAI says it will permanently delete data tied to Sora usage after the shutdown and any export window close.
• Leftover Sora or ChatGPT video credits can be redirected toward Codex instead.
• Leading alternatives for API based video generation include ByteDance Seedance 2.0, Alibaba Wan 2.7, Google Veo 3.1, Runway Gen-4.5, and Kling AI.

What Happened?

Sora, OpenAI’s text-to-video and image-to-video model, is being wound down in two stages. Stage one closed the consumer facing app and website on April 26, 2026. Stage two, confirmed to developers in a notification on March 24, 2026, sets September 24, 2026, as the day the Sora-2 API itself stops accepting requests for good.

OpenAI has not published a detailed public explanation for the decision. The company’s own Sora discontinuation help center article simply confirms the dates and the practical steps developers and former users need to take, without laying out the reasoning behind retiring the product entirely rather than folding it into another API.

Key Dates You Need to Know

What Happens to Your Videos and Data

OpenAI has set up an export tool at sora.chatgpt.com/sunset for users to download content created in Sora before it disappears. The company states plainly that once the shutdown and any export window pass, “we will permanently delete any data associated with your use of Sora.” If you have not already pulled your videos and prompts, do it before September 24.

For anyone with leftover purchased ChatGPT or Sora credits, OpenAI says those credits can still be redirected to Codex use instead of being forfeited outright. If you believe you are owed a refund rather than a credit transfer, that falls under OpenAI’s general subscription refund policy, and you will need to raise it through standard billing support channels rather than expecting an automatic payout.

Who Is Affected?

Three groups feel this most directly:

Developers and agencies who integrated the Sora-2 API into an app, content pipeline, or client facing tool need a replacement API in place before September 24 or their feature breaks outright.

Individual creators who were still using Sora generated clips in an active production pipeline, even informally, need to export anything they have not already saved.

Businesses that quietly built automation (social content generation, ad variants, product demo videos) on top of the Sora API need to test a swap in alternative now rather than discovering the outage in production on September 25.

If you only ever used Sora casually through the consumer app, this second deadline does not change anything for you, since that door already closed back in April.

Best Sora API Alternatives Right Now

There is no single drop in replacement for Sora’s API, since every competing video model has its own pricing structure, resolution limits, and strengths. Based on currently published, verifiable pricing, here is where API dependent creators and developers are most likely to land.

ByteDance Seedance 2.0

Seedance 2.0 is priced around $0.30 per second for 10 second, 1080p output on a pay as you go basis, and it generates synchronized audio alongside video natively, which Sora’s API did not offer as a built in feature. It is a reasonable like for like swap for developers who were calling Sora’s API directly for programmatic video generation. (Pricing per Apiyi’s Sora API shutdown and alternatives guide.)

Alibaba Wan 2.7

Wan 2.7 is the lowest cost option in this list, starting from about $0.10 per second, and it adds a “Thinking Mode” along with precise start and end frame control for more deliberate shot composition. It is worth testing for high volume, cost sensitive workflows.

Google Veo 3.1

Veo 3.1 is not sold as a standalone pay per second API for most users. It comes bundled into Google’s AI Pro plan at $19.99 a month, which includes a limited trial of a lighter Veo 3.1 tier, or the AI Ultra plans starting at $99.99 a month (with a higher tier at $199.99 a month), which unlock fuller Veo access plus 10,000 or 25,000 Google Flow credits depending on the tier. This fits creators who want a subscription rather than metered API billing.

Runway Gen-4.5

Runway’s official pricing runs from a free 125 credit trial up to paid plans at $12, $28, and $76 a month when billed annually (or $15, $35, and $95 month to month). Gen-4.5 generation costs 60 credits per 5 seconds of video across every paid tier, which works out to roughly 52, 187, or 791 seconds of Gen-4.5 footage per month depending on the plan. Runway is a strong fit for teams that want a full creative suite (upscaling, voice cloning, project storage) rather than a bare API endpoint.

Kling AI

Kling’s tiers run from a free plan with daily expiring credits, watermarks, and no commercial rights, up through Standard ($10/month), Pro ($37/month), Premier ($92/month), and Ultra ($180/month), with credit allotments rising from 660 to 26,000 per month. A 5 second, 1080p clip without audio costs 40 credits, or 60 credits with native audio, and subscription credits expire at the end of each billing cycle, so unused capacity does not roll over. (Tier breakdown per eesel AI’s Kling pricing guide, since Kling’s own pricing page did not list tier detail at the time of writing.)

Pricing Comparison

Prices reflect publicly listed rates at the time of writing and are subject to change. Always confirm current pricing on each provider’s own pricing page before committing.

Why It Matters

This is not a feature deprecation you can quietly work around. It is a full API retirement with a hard cutoff and confirmed permanent data deletion on the other side of it. For anyone whose business, content calendar, or client deliverables depend on Sora generated video, the cost of waiting past September 24 is total loss of both access and stored content, not just a temporary inconvenience.

Limitations to Know

No single alternative matches every capability Sora’s API offered in one package. Seedance 2.0 and Wan 2.7 are metered per second rather than subscription based, which can get expensive at high volume. Veo 3.1’s fuller capabilities are gated behind Google’s pricier Ultra tiers. Runway and Kling both cap monthly output through credit systems that do not roll over, so heavy users will need to plan capacity carefully rather than assuming unlimited generation.

What Happens Next?

OpenAI has not announced a successor video API to replace Sora, and the company’s public messaging so far has focused entirely on the shutdown mechanics rather than any future product in this space. Anyone still relying on the API should treat the migration as permanent rather than waiting to see if OpenAI reverses course.

FAQs

When exactly does the Sora API shut down?
September 24, 2026. After that date, all requests to the Videos API return a 410 Gone error.

Is the Sora consumer app still available?
No. The Sora web app and mobile app already shut down on April 26, 2026. This new deadline affects the developer facing API only.

What happens to videos I already generated with Sora?
OpenAI says it will permanently delete data tied to Sora usage once the shutdown and any export window close. Export anything you want to keep at sora.chatgpt.com/sunset before then.

Can I get a refund for unused Sora credits?
Leftover purchased ChatGPT or Sora credits can be redirected to Codex use instead. For refunds, OpenAI directs users to its standard subscription refund policy.

What is the closest alternative to Sora’s API?
There is no exact match, but ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 is the closest in structure for developers who want metered, pay-as-you-go API access with native audio generation.

Pricing checked: September 20, 2026. Deal checked: not applicable, this article covers a service shutdown, not a promotional offer.

For more on how AI models and pricing keep shifting, browse our Tech coverage, and check our in-depth reviews as we add dedicated looks at Runway, Kling, and Veo in the weeks ahead.