OpenAI shuts down Sora: app and web closed April 26, API on Sept 24, 2026; Disney's $1B deal falls through
On March 24, 2026 OpenAI announced it was "saying goodbye" to Sora, its AI video app launched six months earlier with Sora 2. The web and app experiences closed on April 26, 2026 and the Sora API on Sept 24, 2026, with no direct replacement. Press reports cite heavy compute costs (about $1M a day), falling usage and a refocus ahead of an IPO. Disney's planned $1B investment and character-licensing deal did not go ahead.
Key facts
- Announcement on X, March 24, 2026: 'We're saying goodbye to Sora… We'll share more soon, including timelines for the app and API and details on preserving your work' (NBC News, TechCrunch)
- Timeline (OpenAI Help Center): Sora web and app discontinued April 26, 2026; Sora API (sora-2, sora-2-pro) discontinued Sept 24, 2026; exports via sora.chatgpt.com/sunset
- Usage (TechCrunch, citing app-intelligence data): downloads peaked at 3.3M in Nov 2025 and fell to 1.1M by Feb 2026; ~$2.1M lifetime in-app revenue
- Cost: Sora was reported to be losing about $1M a day in compute (TechCrunch, Apr 17)
- Disney's three-year partnership and planned $1B equity investment (announced Dec 2025, giving Sora access to 200+ Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters) will not proceed; Disney said it 'respect[s] OpenAI's decision to exit the video generation business' (NBC News)
- Reasons given in reporting: compute demands, a strategic decision that OpenAI cannot pursue 'everything at once', competition with Anthropic in enterprise, and IPO preparation; OpenAI's notice gave no explicit reason
- Follow-on: on April 17 Sora lead Bill Peebles left OpenAI as it cut 'side quests' (separate entry)
What happened
OpenAI closed its consumer video product half a year after Sora 2 and its social app topped the App Store. The shutdown came in two stages: the consumer app on April 26 and the developer API on Sept 24, 2026. Resellers such as ElevenLabs removed Sora models at the same time (see the sora-2 model page). TechCrunch reported at announcement time that the Sora 2 model remained available inside ChatGPT's paid tiers. We have not confirmed whether that is still true after Sept 24.
Why it matters
It is the clearest example of a frontier lab abandoning a flagship consumer product because of compute costs. OpenAI chose to spend its GPUs on reasoning models, agents and enterprise work. It left the frontier video market to Google (Veo), ByteDance, Kuaishou and Runway, and it marked the start of OpenAI's 2026 drive to drop "side quests" ahead of an IPO.
Changelog
- 2026-10-04: created (lead from people-registry run: Weil/Peebles exit mentioned the Sora shutdown)
People
Related events
- OpenAI launches Sora 2 and the Sora social app ★★★★
- OpenAI previews Sora, a text-to-video 'world simulator' ★★★★
- Kevin Weil and Sora lead Bill Peebles leave OpenAI as it folds OpenAI for Science into other teams and sheds 'side quests' ★★
Sources (6)
- officialOpenAI Help Center: What to know about the Sora discontinuation
- pressNBC News: OpenAI is shutting down its Sora video-creation app
- pressTechCrunch: OpenAI's Sora was the creepiest app on your phone, now it's shutting down
- pressThe Decoder: OpenAI sets two-stage Sora shutdown, app closing April 2026 and API in September
- pressThe Hill: OpenAI shuts down Sora video app amid deepfake concerns
- docsOpenAI API deprecations
id: 2026-03-24-openai-shuts-down-sora · updated 2026-10-04 · open in the interactive timeline