OpenAI Shuts Down Sora as Standalone Product
OpenAI first unveiled Sora in February 2024 and launched the video-generation service that December, seeking to turn text-to-video technology into a consumer product. Ending its standalone operation signals that the company is reassessing Sora's high computing costs, user demand and commercial positioning while bringing its video capabilities into the ChatGPT ecosystem.
OpenAI announced that it would shut down the Sora iOS app, API and Sora.com, ending Sora's run as a standalone product. Reports said the Sora app was being discontinued about six months after launch. The company is redirecting resources toward world simulation and enterprise products and integrating video generation into ChatGPT. Disney also reportedly withdrew plans for a $1 billion investment and licensing partnership.
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The history behind this eventOpenAI Plans to Bring Sora Video Generation to ChatGPT in Push for 1 Billion Users
OpenAI's Sora generates videos from text prompts and has primarily been offered through a standalone app. The company now plans to add the feature to ChatGPT, using its large existing user base to drive adoption. The move could also determine whether OpenAI can broaden its revenue streams enough to support the high inference costs of video models.
As of July 20, 2026, OpenAI planned to use the Sora integration to increase ChatGPT's weekly active users from 900 million to more than 1 billion. The standalone Sora app will continue operating, but the company has not announced a launch date, pricing model or investment amount for the built-in ChatGPT feature.
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