OpenAI shuts down Sora — web/app gone April 26, API ending September 24

OpenAI announced in March 2026 that the Sora web and app experiences would discontinue April 26, 2026, with the API following on September 24. The shutdown reflects shifting OpenAI strategy away from standalone video generation and toward integration of video capabilities into ChatGPT and its successors.

Sora was the brand name that introduced consumer audiences to text-to-video generation. Pulling the standalone product cedes the consumer-creative market to Veo, Kling, Runway, and the increasingly capable open-source alternatives — including LTX-2.3 Fast, which leads the text-to-video arena leaderboard at 1,924 ELO.

Strategically OpenAI is betting that video is a feature of conversational AI rather than a product. The acquisition by SpaceX of xAI suggests a parallel calculation: video alone is not a defensible business; integration into a broader AI product is.

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