Pictory
Turn long-form text and video into short, shareable clips.
Sora Review
An AI model that creates realistic and imaginative video scenes from text instructions.
Our take
Sora offered a groundbreaking glimpse into the future of AI video generation, but its high costs and legal hurdles ultimately made it a brilliant but short-lived experiment.
Getting our hands on Sora felt like stepping into the future. The ability to generate up to a minute of cohesive, 1080p video from a simple text prompt was genuinely revolutionary. We could create complex scenes with multiple characters, specific motions, and a surprising degree of artistic flair, making it an incredible tool for rapid prototyping. Whether starting from text, a still image, or even extending an existing clip, the output was often stunningly realistic and imaginative, far surpassing other tools on the market at the time.
However, the magic had its limits. We regularly saw Sora struggle with the basic laws of physics or cause and effect, leading to bizarre and unusable artifacts. Spatial awareness was another weak point, with the model frequently confusing 'left' and 'right'. These technical flaws, combined with significant copyright controversies and staggering operational costs—reportedly around $1 million a day—created a perfect storm. Its eventual discontinuation, while disappointing, wasn't a total surprise, cementing Sora's legacy as a powerful but unsustainable pioneer.
Best for creative professionals and marketing teams who needed to rapidly prototype high-quality video concepts without a full production crew.
How we rate Sora
Best for — ratings by use case
No tool is equally good at everything. Here's how Sora scores for different jobs.
Pros & cons
- Can generate realistic and imaginative video scenes.
- Ability to create complex scenes with multiple characters and specific types of motion.
- Can generate video from text, images, or extend existing videos.
- The consumer app and web version were shut down on April 26, 2026, with the API being discontinued on September 24, 2026.
- Struggles with accurately simulating complex physics and understanding cause and effect.
- May confuse spatial details, such as left and right.
- Faced significant copyright issues and criticism for its opt-out policy for copyrighted material.
- High operational costs, reportedly around $1 million a day, contributed to its discontinuation.
Key features
| Text-to-Video Generation | Yes |
| Image-to-Video Generation | Yes |
| Extend Existing Videos | Yes |
| Maximum Video Length | Up to 1 minute |
| Maximum Resolution | 1080p |
| Aspect Ratios | Widescreen, vertical, and square |
| Synchronized Audio and Dialogue | Introduced with Sora 2 |
| Visible Watermarks | Yes, by default |
| Content Provenance | C2PA metadata included |
Sora pricing
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Plus | $20/mo | Included access to Sora, which is now discontinued. |
Sora FAQ
What was Sora?
Sora was an AI model from OpenAI that could create realistic and imaginative video scenes, up to one minute long, from text instructions. It could also generate video from a still image or extend existing video clips.
Why was Sora shut down?
Sora was discontinued due to several factors, including extremely high operational costs (reportedly $1 million per day), significant copyright issues regarding its training data, and criticism over its opt-out policy for copyrighted material.
What were Sora's main limitations?
Sora struggled to accurately simulate complex physics and often failed to understand cause and effect. It also had issues with spatial details, such as confusing left and right, and could produce inconsistent or illogical results in complex scenes.
Did videos made with Sora have watermarks?
Yes, videos generated by Sora included a visible watermark by default. They also contained C2PA metadata to indicate that the content was AI-generated.
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