OpenAI says goodbye to Sora
25 Mar 2026, 12:12 PMBy February, downloads of Sora had dropped to about 1.1 million from the peak of 3.3 million in November last year.
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OpenAI said it is shutting down its AI video tool Sora just months after its launch.
"We’re saying goodbye to Sora... We’ll share more soon, including timelines for the app and API and details on preserving your work," said OpenAI in an X post without disclosing further details.
The decision comes amid reports that the OpenAI team was working with Walt Disney on a project linked to Sora just earlier this week.
OpenAI, which had launched the new version of Sora last year, was conceived as an AI-first take on TikTok, replicating the familiar vertical video feed. Its standout feature, “cameos,” let users scan their faces and generate realistic deepfakes of themselves.
But the app had also created controversies soon after its launch. For instance, OpenAI had to pause generation of videos depicting civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr on Sora following the request of Dr. King’s estate after some Sora users generated “disrespectful depictions”.
The interest around the app had also began to dwindle. In November, the app peaked at roughly 3.3 million downloads across the iOS App Store and Google Play, according to mobile intelligence firm Appfigures. But the momentum didn’t hold. By February, downloads had dropped to about 1.1 million.
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