Alternatives to Sora
OpenAI text-to-video model; consumer app discontinued, API access ends September 2026
It is proprietary. None of its 12 checklist rows are verified yet.
Sora is OpenAI's text-to-video and image-to-video generation model, exposed to developers through the Videos API on platform.openai.com. The consumer Sora web and mobile app was discontinued on April 26, 2026, and the Sora 2 / Sora 2 Pro API models are themselves scheduled to shut down on September 24, 2026.
Developers integrating programmatic video generation through the Videos API before its scheduled September 2026 shutdown; the consumer Sora app that formerly served ChatGPT users was discontinued on April 26, 2026.
Text-to-video and image-guided video generation with synced audio, reusable non-human 'character' assets, video extensions, and targeted video edits, available as the sora-2 and sora-2-pro models billed per second of rendered output.
A client submits a text prompt (optionally with an image reference or character asset) to POST /v1/videos, polls the returned job or receives a webhook until its status reaches completed, then downloads the finished MP4 from the video's content endpoint.
Why people leave Sora
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Ranked alternatives
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Veo is Google DeepMind's video generation model, producing text-to-video and image-to-video clips with synchronized native audio and dialogue.
HeyGen is an AI video platform for creating avatar-led videos from text or a photo, translating videos into other languages with dubbing and lip sync, and cloning voices for text-to-speech.
InVideo AI turns a text prompt into a full video by writing a script and assembling matching stock and AI-generated visuals, then adding AI voiceover, subtitles, and music, rather than generating nove.
Luma Dream Machine was the original product name for Luma AI's video generator at lumalabs.ai; the vendor's own llms.txt now warns against conflating the current Ray3.2 model with 'deprecated' Dream M.
Pika is a consumer AI video generation platform offering text-to-video, image-to-video, and video-to-video effects (Pikascenes, Pikadditions, Pikaswaps, Pikatwists, Pikaffects) through its Pika 2.5 mo.
Runway is a web, iOS and Android AI platform for generating and editing video and images from text or image prompts, built around its own Gen-4.5 model plus third-party models (Veo 3.1, Kling, Nano Ba.
Every fact and feature listed for Sora is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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Status discontinued verified 2026-08-03https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001152-what-to-know-about-the-sora-discontinuation
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Pricing model Usage-based verified 2026-08-03https://platform.openai.com/docs/pricing
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Starts at $0.10/sec verified 2026-08-03https://platform.openai.com/docs/pricing
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License Proprietary verified 2026-08-03https://openai.com/policies/terms-of-use/
FAQ
Yes. Google Veo, HeyGen and InVideo AI have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.