OpenAI announced on March 24, 2026 that it was "saying goodbye" to the Sora app, shutting down both the standalone consumer application and its API. The company cited growing compute demands and a strategic refocus as the reasons, per reporting from CBS News, the San Francisco Chronicle, and TechCrunch. The shutdown was described as a phaseout rather than an instant cutoff.
The closure was notable for its broader fallout: the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the discontinuation coincided with Disney scrapping a planned $1 billion investment deal tied to Sora. An academic retrospective on arXiv also highlighted the shutdown as a case study in the challenges of scaling generative video models for consumer use.
While the Sora product is no longer available as a standalone app or API, OpenAI's statements left open the possibility that the underlying video model could persist within other products. Computerworld characterized the move as part of a broader "enterprise-first AI shift" by OpenAI. Users looking for Sora-style functionality may need to check ChatGPT Plus or other OpenAI offerings going forward.