Sora Alternatives After the Shutdown: What Replaces the Sora App in 2026, by What You Used It For
Live figures last changed · 5 min read · The GenMagic team
Sora is gone: OpenAI discontinued the Sora web and app experiences on April 26, 2026 and the Sora API on September 24, 2026, and you can still export your old videos at sora.chatgpt.com/sunset ( OpenAI's help center). The video models that replace it for most people are Google's Veo 3.1 for short clips with sound and dialogue, Wan 3.0 for long takes and for putting a real person from a photo into a scene, and Kling, Seedance, Hailuo and Grok Imagine for everything in between.
This guide covers what happened to Sora, saving your Sora videos, the replacement for each thing people used Sora for, apps with plans versus paying per clip, and questions.
A note on who wrote this: GenMagic is a studio where you pay per clip for the video models named here; it never offered Sora. OpenAI's dates and wording come from its help center and API deprecation page, read November 10, 2026. Developers moving code off the Sora 2 API: our Sora 2 API guide covers the drop-in replacement.
Table of contents
- The short answer
- What happened to Sora
- Saving your Sora videos
- What replaces Sora, by what you used it for
- Apps with plans, or paying per clip
- Questions
The short answer
- Sora's app and website closed April 26, 2026; its API closed September 24, 2026. OpenAI names no replacement of its own.
- Your videos: export them at sora.chatgpt.com/sunset while OpenAI offers it; after the final export window, OpenAI says it deletes the data.
- Quick clips with sound and dialogue: Veo 3.1.
- You in the video (Sora's cameos): Wan 3.0 with your own photo as the first frame or a reference.
- Long single takes: Wan 3.0 or Seedance 2.5, up to 30 seconds with sound.
- Paying per clip instead of a plan: on GenMagic an 8-second Veo 3.1 Lite clip with sound at 720p costs $0.60 today, from a top-up of $5 that never expires.
What happened to Sora
OpenAI announced the shutdown in March 2026. Its help center gives the dates: "The Sora web and app experiences were discontinued on April 26, 2026" and "The Sora API will be discontinued on September 24, 2026." On its API deprecation page, OpenAI adds: "There is no one-to-one replacement API" ( deprecations).
OpenAI's help center gives no reason. Reporting at the time pointed to a shift of priorities and compute away from video; Disney, which had announced a character-licensing deal with OpenAI for Sora in December 2025, said it respected "OpenAI's decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere" ( TechCrunch, Euronews).
Saving your Sora videos
- Go to sora.chatgpt.com/sunset and click Export; OpenAI emails you when the export is ready.
- Download it as soon as the email arrives: OpenAI says it will notify you by email before any final export window, and that after it "we will permanently delete any data associated with your use of Sora."
- Bought credits are not lost: OpenAI says "any purchased ChatGPT/Sora credits can still be used for Codex"; refunds go through ChatGPT's subscription refund process.
What replaces Sora, by what you used it for
| You used Sora for | Replacement | Why | Per clip on GenMagic today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short clips with sound and dialogue | Veo 3.1 Lite | Sound, speech and lip-sync from one prompt | $0.60 for 8 s at 720p |
| The best-looking shots | Veo 3.1 | Google's top model, up to 4K | $4.80 for 8 s at 720p |
| Putting yourself in a scene (cameos) | Wan 3.0 | Accepts photos of real people as the first frame or a reference | $1.28 for 10 s at 720p |
| Long single takes | Wan 3.0, Seedance 2.5 | Up to 30 seconds in one take, with sound | $3.83 for 30 s of Wan 3.0 at 720p |
| Characters and motion | Kling 3.0 | Faces, gestures and action | $0.95 for 5 s at 720p |
| Cheap drafts and memes | Seedance 2.0 Mini, Grok Imagine Video 1.5 Lite | The lowest prices per second | $0.25 for 5 s of Seedance 2.0 Mini at 480p |
On cameos, a note on consent: Sora's cameos only used people who had recorded themselves and allowed it. Do the same: put only yourself, or someone who agreed, into a video, and never make a real person say or do something they did not agree to. Seedance refuses reference images with realistic human faces; Wan 3.0 accepts them. To make a single photo talk, see AI talking photo.
Apps with plans, or paying per clip
Sora came with a ChatGPT plan. Each replacement's own app sells it through a plan of its own, and each guide below lists the plans, the credits and what a clip costs on each:
- Veo 3.1: Google's AI plans in the Gemini app and Flow. Every way to use Veo 3.1 without a subscription.
- Grok Imagine: video starts on Grok's Premium plan. Grok Imagine without a subscription.
- Kling: Kling's own plans and credit packs. Kling without a subscription.
- Hailuo: MiniMax's Hailuo app plans and top-ups. Hailuo without a subscription.
If you made videos now and then, paying per clip costs less than another monthly plan: on GenMagic one balance runs every model above, each clip's price shows before you generate, and top-up credit never expires. Every model and its price: the pay-as-you-go AI video generator.
Alternatives to other video models: Veo 3, Kling, Runway, Hailuo, Seedance, Grok Imagine.
Questions
Is Sora still available? No. The Sora app and website closed on April 26, 2026, and the Sora API on September 24, 2026.
Is Sora 2 coming back? OpenAI has announced no return as of November 10, 2026. Its own Sora 2 page now says the Sora product is no longer available as of April 26, 2026, and the API's shutdown notice says "There is no one-to-one replacement API." The apps that replace it for everyday video are compared above.
Can I still download my Sora videos? Through sora.chatgpt.com/sunset, while OpenAI offers the export. After its final export window, OpenAI says it permanently deletes Sora data.
What is the closest alternative to Sora 2? For short clips with sound and dialogue, Veo 3.1; for putting yourself into a scene, Wan 3.0 with your own photo; for long takes, Wan 3.0 or Seedance 2.5.
Is there a free Sora alternative? Most video apps give a small free allowance with limits. On GenMagic, a new account gets $0.50 of credit once its email is verified, enough for about 6 seconds of Veo 3.1 Lite at 720p with sound.
What happens to my Sora credits? OpenAI says purchased ChatGPT/Sora credits can still be used for Codex; for refunds it points to ChatGPT's subscription refund process.