OpenAI's Sora 2 Videos API is permanently shut down: with no replacement named
The Sora 2 Videos API closed permanently on 24 September 2026. No successor model exists. Developers must migrate and export data now.
On 24 September 2026, OpenAI permanently removed the Sora 2 Videos API from its platform. Every endpoint, sora-2, sora-2-pro, and all dated snapshots, now returns 410 Gone. The notice was issued six months earlier, on 24 March 2026, which gave developers the standard runway OpenAI provides for generally available models. That window has closed.
What makes this shutdown notable is one detail buried in OpenAI’s deprecations table: the recommended replacement column, which OpenAI fills in for almost every other retired model, is empty. There is no OpenAI video model to move to. If you were building on Sora, your migration path leads outside of OpenAI entirely.
What has been shut down
The deprecation covers the Videos API endpoint (/v1/videos) and every Sora 2 model alias that sat behind it:
sora-2sora-2-prosora-2-2025-10-06sora-2-2025-12-08sora-2-pro-2025-10-06
Any application calling these model IDs after 24 September 2026 receives a 410 Gone response. There is no graceful fallback. The endpoints do not redirect to another model.
The consumer-facing Sora app had already closed on 26 April 2026. The API closure on 24 September 2026 marks the full end of the Sora brand.
Why OpenAI is not offering a successor
OpenAI has not provided a public explanation for why no replacement video model is listed. The deprecations page simply leaves that column blank. This is unusual. For comparison, when OpenAI retired GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct, it pointed developers toward GPT-4o Mini. Sora 2 gets no such pointer.
The practical read is that OpenAI has stepped back from the consumer and developer video generation market for now. Whether that reflects product strategy, compute prioritisation, or something else has not been stated officially. What is stated is that video generation is, for the moment, not an OpenAI API capability.
What you need to do if you built on Sora
Export your stored content immediately
OpenAI will permanently delete all data associated with Sora accounts after the shutdown. If you have generated videos stored via the API or the app, you need to export them now. The export portal is at sora.chatgpt.com/sunset. Click Export, and OpenAI will send an email when the archive is ready for download. Once the deletion window closes, there is no recovery path.
Audit your codebase for Sora model IDs
Search your repositories and configuration files for any of the five model IDs listed above. Every reference needs to be replaced before it causes a live error in production. If any of these strings appear in prompts, environment variables, or API wrappers, they are now broken.
Choose a third-party video model
Because OpenAI names no successor, you are selecting from the wider market. Third-party analysts have pointed to a few realistic candidates at the time of writing:
- Veo 3.1 (Google DeepMind) is frequently cited for prompt fidelity and audio sync, capabilities that Sora 2 Pro also offered.
- Kling 3.0 (Kuaishou) has a developer API and handles longer clip durations well.
- Runway Gen-4.5 is established in the creative and production space with good API documentation.
One thing worth knowing before you start: prompt syntax does not transfer cleanly between these platforms. A prompt that worked well with Sora 2 will need reworking for whichever platform you move to. Budget time for that, not just the API integration itself.
Check your billing setup
ChatGPT billing and OpenAI API billing are separate systems. Having an active ChatGPT Plus or Pro subscription does not restore access to the Videos API, and it does not provide API credits. If your team has been accessing Sora through a ChatGPT plan rather than the API, the export process above still applies to your stored content.
The broader pattern in 2026
This closure does not sit in isolation. The second half of 2026 has been a dense deprecation period for OpenAI API users. The Assistants API closed on 26 August 2026. A major legacy model sunset is scheduled for 23 October 2026. If your stack touches more than one of these, it is worth treating this moment as a prompt to audit your full list of OpenAI model dependencies, not just the Sora ones.
What this means for teams planning video features
If you were evaluating Sora 2 for a future integration, the decision is now made for you. The market for AI video generation APIs is active, and the options above are production-ready. The absence of an OpenAI-blessed successor does mean there is no obvious default choice, which requires a bit more evaluation work, but it does not mean you are stuck.
For teams already in production with Sora, the priority order is straightforward: export first, migrate second. Do not leave the export until later in the assumption that the portal will remain open indefinitely. OpenAI’s language on data deletion is explicit, and the email notification about the final export window may come with limited lead time.
The Sora chapter is closed. The practical work now is making sure nothing important goes with it.