What happened to Sora?
OpenAI shut Sora down. It announced the closure on March 24, 2026, discontinued the app and website on April 26, 2026, and set the developer API to end September 24, 2026. Reporting says Sora cost about $1 million a day to run while barely earning revenue, so OpenAI cut it to focus on core AI products.
Why — the first-principles explanation
Sora's story is a classic case of a hyped product that couldn't pay for itself. It launched as a viral hit — the Sora 2 app hit the top of Apple's App Store in late 2025 — but virality isn't the same as sustainability. Generating video is one of the most compute-hungry things an AI can do, and each free clip cost OpenAI real money in GPU time.
The numbers, as reported, were brutal. Sora ran up roughly $1 million per day in operating costs while generating only about $2.1 million total from in-app purchases across its entire life. Usage also faded: it peaked near 1 million users and slid below 500,000. Meanwhile those same scarce GPUs were needed for OpenAI's money-making products — reasoning models, coding tools, and enterprise services. Keeping Sora alive was, in effect, spending the company's most valuable resource on its least profitable product.
So OpenAI pulled the plug. It announced the shutdown on March 24, 2026 (a short goodbye post on X), turned off the app and sora.com on April 26, 2026, and scheduled the API to end September 24, 2026. A reported $1 billion Disney partnership dissolved with it. For users, the key consequence is data deletion after the cutoffs — anyone who wanted their videos needed to download them first.
An example that makes it click
Sora was like a food truck that drew huge lines but gave almost everything away free. It spent about $1,000 an hour on ingredients and made back only pocket change. The owner realized the same kitchen could cook profitable catering orders instead, so after six months, they parked the truck for good and moved the stove to the catering business.
Key facts
- OpenAI announced Sora's shutdown on March 24, 2026.
- The app and website were discontinued on April 26, 2026; the API ends September 24, 2026.
- Sora reportedly cost about $1 million per day and earned about $2.1 million total from in-app purchases.
- Usage peaked near 1 million users and fell below 500,000.
- A reported $1 billion Disney partnership dissolved with the shutdown.
OpenAI's text-to-video model for short cinematic clips.
Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no cost to you.▶ The 60-second explainer (script)
What happened to Sora? OpenAI shut it down. Sora launched in 2025 as a viral hit, even topping the App Store, but it couldn't pay for itself. Making AI video is incredibly expensive, and reporting says Sora cost about a million dollars a day to run while earning only around two million total from in-app purchases over its whole life. Users faded too, from nearly a million down below five hundred thousand. Those same powerful chips were needed for OpenAI's profitable products like coding and enterprise tools. So OpenAI announced the shutdown on March 24, 2026, closed the app and website on April 26, and set the developer API to end on September 24, 2026. Even a reported billion-dollar Disney deal fell apart. If you had Sora videos, you needed to download them before your account data was deleted.
What authoritative sources say
People also ask
Is Sora gone for good?
The consumer app and website are gone as of April 26, 2026; the developer API ends September 24, 2026.
Why did OpenAI shut down Sora?
It cost about $1 million a day to run while earning little, diverting compute from profitable products.
What happened to my Sora videos?
Account data was set to be deleted after the shutdown, so users had to download clips beforehand.
Did a Disney partnership end too?
Yes. A reported $1 billion Disney partnership dissolved when Sora was shut down.