OpenAI says its video API is gone. Its own documentation cannot agree whether that has happened yet.
Four OpenAI developer pages now speak in the past tense. The model pages for
sora-2 and sora-2-pro open with:
The Sora 2 models and Videos API were shut down on September 24, 2026 and are no longer available. There is no one-to-one replacement API.
The video-generation guide and the Videos API reference carry the same notice, worded slightly differently, and say each is "retained for historical reference". Every endpoint in the reference is labelled "Deprecated".
On September 7 this desk reported that the six Sora rows were the only pending rows on OpenAI's deprecations ledger to leave the replacement column blank. The date has now passed. The column is still empty, and the rows have not moved.
Three tenses for one shutdown
The ledger says it is still ahead. The Videos API and five Sora 2 model ids still sit under the heading Upcoming deprecations, each dated 2026-09-24. It is the only section under that heading whose every date has passed. The Assistants API, whose shutdown date was August 26, has already been moved to Past deprecations. The ledger's own definition is plain: "At the time of the shut down, the model or endpoint will no longer be accessible."
The help centre says it is still coming. The Sora discontinuation article, last updated August 31, still reads:
The Sora API will be discontinued on September 24, 2026.
Its summary line still promises "the upcoming API shutdown". The API changelog has no entry dated September 24.
The model pages contradict themselves. Under that notice, the Markdown
version of the sora-2 page still lists v1/videos as "Supported", names a
default snapshot, prices video at $0.1 per second, gives rate limits by tier and
says: "Below is a list of all available snapshots and aliases for Sora 2." The
sora-2-pro page does the same.
What the endpoint says
This desk sent unauthenticated requests to OpenAI's API in three rounds, 01:09
to 02:09 UTC on September 28, the evening of September 27 in Arizona.
GET and POST /v1/videos returned 404 with an empty body. So did a route
this desk made up, and so did the retired /v1/assistants. Live routes such as
/v1/models returned 401 with a JSON error saying authentication was missing.
That fits the past-tense pages, not the ledger's heading.
The other cloud
Microsoft sells Sora 2 through Azure, and its Foundry retirement schedule, which
the page dates September 21, gives a different date. Its Azure OpenAI table
lists sora-2 version 2025-12-08 as Preview, retiring October 15, 2026,
with an em-dash in the replacement column. Microsoft's lifecycle page, in its
table for preview models, says what that means: "If no replacement exists,
customers get 30 days notice before the model retires and inference returns 410
Gone."
What you can rely on
- You call OpenAI's Videos API or a
sora-2id. OpenAI says it is shut down, and this desk's requests got a missing route's answer. No replacement is named, so this is a vendor decision, not a rename. - You run Sora 2 on Azure. Microsoft's schedule says October 15, 2026, with no replacement listed. After that its policy is 410 Gone.
- You made videos in the Sora app. The help article still points to
sora.chatgpt.com/sunsetfor export, and the final export window is still conditional: "(if we are able to offer one)".
What the record does not say
- What an authenticated request to
/v1/videosreturns. This desk holds no key. - When that notice appeared. The model pages carry no date for the edit.
- Whether OpenAI will offer anyone continued access. Its ledger says that, in some cases, developers "may be able to provision dedicated capacity for continued access after a model's shutdown date"; nothing on the Sora pages says whether that applies here.
- Whether Azure's Sora 2 is still serving today, or whether Microsoft sent the 30-day notice. This desk cannot test Azure deployments.
- Why Sora was retired. None of the pages read gives a reason.
Source links
- OpenAI — Sora 2 model page
- OpenAI — Sora 2 Pro model page
- OpenAI — Video generation guide
- OpenAI — Videos API reference
- OpenAI — API deprecations
- OpenAI — What to know about the Sora discontinuation
- OpenAI — API changelog
- Microsoft — Model retirement schedule
- Microsoft — Foundry Models lifecycle and support policy
- Hugin — September 7: six rows with no forwarding address
