OpenAI will discontinue its Sora AI video generation app. The Sora team stated that more details will be released soon, including the timeline for shutting down the app and API, as well as instructions on how users can preserve their creations.
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OpenAI first previewed Sora in February 2024. The team released the standalone app in September 2025. However, it will now shut down roughly six months after launching.
According to the Wall Street Journal, CEO Sam Altman told staff that OpenAI is winding down all products using video models. The Sora team will shift to longer-term projects, including robotics.
The move comes after The Walt Disney Company signed a landmark deal with OpenAI. Under the three-year licensing agreement, Sora was expected to generate videos from prompts using a library of 200+ characters from Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney is now also walking away from the $1 billion agreement.
Aakash Gupta, an author and podcast host, noted that Anthropic reached $19 billion in annualized revenue by early 2026 with a focused approach on chat and code, and computer use, without branching into video, image generation, or consumer social products. OpenAI appears to have taken notice.
“OpenAI looked at where every dollar of market growth was coming from and saw the answer: coding and enterprise. So now they’re copying the model. ChatGPT, Codex, and the browser merge into one app,” Gupta said.
The shift makes financial sense. Sora’s total consumer revenue across iOS and Android since September totaled just $1.4 million. Every video generation is eating into GPU capacity that could have powered inference for core products.
“OpenAI’s own head of Sora announced generation limits because chips couldn’t keep up. At $14 billion in projected 2026 losses, every GPU matters,” he added.
Thus, Sora app’s shutdown marks a clear pivot for OpenAI toward the enterprise-focused, code-and-chat model that has already proven profitable for its biggest rival.
