Sora app and API shutdown
OpenAI announces it will shut down the Sora app and video API six months after launch, ending a planned Disney partnership.
App and web discontinued 2026-04-26; Videos API (sora-2, sora-2-pro) retired 2026-09-24 with no replacement. OpenAI said compute is better spent and the Sora team will focus on world simulation research for robotics; downloads had fallen month over month.
- Date
- Tuesday, 24 March 2026
- Lab
- OpenAI
- Kind
- product
- Access
- app only
Figures
| Measure | Value | Measured by |
|---|---|---|
| Sora app downloads, Nov to Dec 2025 | down 32% as reported by Engadget | independent |
OpenAI's own announcement page was not located; the API retirement dates come from its deprecations page, the rest from Engadget. The April 26 app date comes from secondary summaries (NYU Shanghai, Zilliz) and was not confirmed against OpenAI. Disney withdrew from its $1B plan per Engadget.
Sources
- engadget.com/ai/openai-is-shutting-down-its-sora-video-generation-app-211023358.html
- developers.openai.com/api/docs/deprecations
- techcrunch.com/2026/03/24/openais-sora-was-the-creepiest-app-on-your-phone-now-its-shuttin
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sora_(text-to-video_model)
This record was checked against its sources on 6 October 2026. How we check