Sora 2: why it shut down and what to use today

You cannot write about AI video without Sora 2: it is the name that opened the era. And now it must also be told for how it ends: OpenAI closed the app and the site on April 26, 2026, and on September 24 it switches off the API too. This guide was born to explain how to use it; today I tell you what it was, what to save if you have clips in there and which engines take its place.

When it arrived, being in the industry in Italy helped me see it from the right point of view: people used it and recognized it in their feeds. Then the others arrived, all together, quality stopped being the privilege of one, and in the end Sora left. The map of the engines that remain is in the main guide create videos with AI.

The throne no longer exists, and in the end even the one who built it left: today you choose the engine for the scene, not for the brand. But Sora's storyboard remains a piece of history: nobody has built it an heir yet.

What Sora 2 was (and whose it was)

Sora 2 was the video generation model of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. You gave it a description, or a whole project, and it generated video with camera, movement and synchronized audio: the rain had its noise, characters spoke with lips following the words. It lived inside the OpenAI ecosystem: you found it in ChatGPT and in the Sora app, not elsewhere. Until April 26, 2026.

The difference with the other engines was not quality, which by then was widespread: it was the way it took the text. You did not describe a shot to it: you described a video, and it organized it into scenes. It was the model that treated your prompt as a project, not as a photograph to animate.

It used to do a lot. Then the competition arrived

Honesty first, because it is the reason this guide exists in this form. When it arrived, Sora 2 was the name of AI video: anyone trying to generate a video, in Italy and beyond, started there. The cameos with your own face filled the social feeds and taught the audience what generated video was.

Then that advantage was gone, and pretending otherwise would do you a bad service: the competition is relentless, because a great many tools make quality video.

• Google's Veo 3 executes the written scene with more precision and generates synchronized audio with the same naturalness;
• Kling moves bodies better than anyone, with a free plan that renews credits every day;
• ByteDance's Seedance holds scenes with several actions together and reaches thirty seconds in one generation;
• the directing platforms put several engines in the same place, with tools the engine alone does not have.

Whoever chooses "the best one" today is asking the wrong question: quality is the starting point, not the difference. The difference is what each one does best, and Sora 2 did one thing better than everyone.

The shutdown: the dates that matter

OpenAI communicated the discontinuation with precise dates, and it is worth knowing them if you have something in there:

• app and site closed since April 26, 2026: you can no longer generate from ChatGPT or the app;
• the API stays on until September 24, 2026: those working via API must migrate before that date;
• content gets exported from the Sora sunset page (sora.chatgpt.com/sunset): press Export, wait for the email, download. Once the discontinuation has passed, OpenAI deletes the data permanently.

If you have clips that matter, do not wait for the last week: the export is the only thing left of Sora when everything else is off.

The legacy: the storyboard

The storyboard mode is the reason Sora 2 stays in the history of AI video even now that it is gone. The video got organized in segments on the timeline: every piece got arranged on its own, you regenerated the one you did not like without touching the rest, and the scene reached up to twenty-five seconds while keeping the directing.

Translated into real work: it was editing inside generation. On the other engines you redo the clip; there you redid the second that did not work. For a two line dialogue where the first was good and the second was not, it was the difference between ten minutes and an afternoon. It is the piece that is missed most today: no engine has segment directing this mature, and that directing gets redone in editing or with the directing platforms.

The second piece of land nobody had taken from it were the cameos: the possibility of putting a recurring person inside the scenes, yourself included. You uploaded the references and the character stayed recognizable from one clip to the next. For creators making series with a fixed face it was the most direct shortcut; in work for brands I used it little, because there the product consistency was better handled with the references of the other platforms.

Sora 2 free: what the free plan was

While it was active, it could be tried free with precise limits: a few generations per day, at lower resolution and with watermark. Enough to understand what kind of tool it was and to try the storyboard, not to build a project. Today that route no longer exists.

The real free routes of now: Kling renews 66 credits every day and teaches more with continuity; Veo in Gemini gives about three videos per day. The complete picture is in the guide free AI video generators.

Have videos on Sora? Save them in five steps

1. Enter the sunset page with the ChatGPT account you used for Sora: the address is sora.chatgpt.com/sunset.
2. Press Export and confirm: the preparation of the archive with your content starts.
3. Wait for the email: it arrives when the archive is ready for download.
4. Download and keep the files elsewhere: once the discontinuation has passed, OpenAI deletes the data associated with Sora permanently.
5. If you used the API, plan the migration before September 24, 2026: after that date there is nothing left to migrate.

On Sora the prompt had a different shape than elsewhere: not the shot alone, but the small project. An example I used for first tries, designed for the storyboard:

A paper boat sails down a rainy gutter, meets a leaf and carries it along, then slips under a bridge into the light; camera follows at water level, overcast afternoon, rain and distant traffic.

Three moments in order, connected, the camera declared once, light and audio named. It was the format Sora translated into scenes best: the moments became segments, and the segments got adjusted one at a time. It is also the format I carry with me on the other engines: describing the video as a project makes today's generations more precise. The general rules of the video prompt, including the traps, are in the dedicated section of the main guide.

How much Sora 2 cost

Sora 2 was not bought separately: you paid with the ChatGPT subscription. The picture as it was while the service was active:

The honest limits it had

• Quality was no longer a reason to choose it. Veo 3 followed the directing with more precision, Kling moved bodies better, Seedance held the sequences: they were all television grade.
• The free plan was tight. A few generations per day, low resolution, watermark: right for getting it, little for practicing every day the way Kling allowed instead.
• It lived only in the OpenAI ecosystem. You did not find it mounted in the directing platforms: those working with several engines and tools around go through Higgsfield, where Sora is not.
• The storyboard was the only land nobody had taken from it, and while it was active it was worth it: but if your work was bodies, precision or sequences, the siblings were faster.
• English paid double there too. It accepted Italian, but projects written in English became scenes with more precision.

How I split the scenes today

The place that was Sora 2's, projects with a timeline to govern and recurring faces, today is taken by editing work and image references: segment directing has no direct heir. The rest goes as always:

• the shot written to the millimeter: Veo 3 executes it with more precision;
• the people who must look alive: Kling moves bodies better than anyone;
• the scenes with several actions in a row: Seedance remembers them all;
• the whole projects, with several engines and directing around: Higgsfield.

The guides of the video path

• Create videos with AI, the complete map of the engines (the pillar of this guide);
• Free AI video generators, all the ways at zero cost;
• Veo 3, the engine that executes the written scene;
• Kling AI, the realist, and the best free school;
• Seedance, the interpreter of scripts;
• Higgsfield, the directing platform.

Sources

• OpenAI help center, the Sora discontinuation (dates, export, data deletion): help.openai.com
• OpenAI, Sora: openai.com
• Clip duration, cameos and plans: as they were while the service was active, last check August 2026; the shutdown dates are verified as of September 2026 on the OpenAI help center