Sora Pricing 2026: Sora 2 Pricing, Sora Cost and Sora API Pricing Before the September 24 Shutdown
Every rate on this page came off OpenAI's own developer documentation: the per-second card for sora-2 and sora-2-pro, both the standard and the batch tier, and the deprecation entry that removes all of it on September 24, 2026. Then we did the part the rate card leaves to you, turning dollars per second into dollars per clip and dollars per finished ad. If you are here because you need ads and not model seconds, paste a product URL on the right.
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Sora is priced per second of video, not per month. The published rate is $0.10 a second for sora-2 and $0.30, $0.50 or $0.70 a second for sora-2-pro depending on whether you render at 720p, 1024p or 1080p, with a batch tier at exactly half those numbers. So an 8 second clip runs from $0.80 to $5.60. The number that matters more than any of these: OpenAI's deprecations page removes the Videos API and every Sora model ID on September 24, 2026, and the recommended replacement column for those rows is empty. There is no OpenAI video model to move to. Meanwhile the price list still shows the full rate card with no shutdown warning anywhere near it, which is why people are still budgeting against a model that is being switched off. If you are pricing Sora because you need video ads, the honest answer is that you now need a different vendor. We build finished ads rather than sell seconds, and the whole category sits on one page in our AI UGC pricing pillar. For the closest like-for-like API, see Veo 3 pricing.
$0.10
sora-2 per second, 720p
$0.70
sora-2-pro per second, 1080p
Sep 24
Videos API removed, 2026
None
Replacement OpenAI names
You are pricing a model that is switched off on September 24, 2026
This is the first thing anyone budgeting for Sora needs to know, and it is not on the pricing page. OpenAI's deprecations page carries a single entry covering the Videos API and every Sora model, announced on March 24, 2026 with a shutdown date of September 24, 2026. The consumer app went first, closing on April 26, 2026. What remains until the end of September is API access only, and then the model IDs stop resolving.
The replacement column is empty
Most OpenAI deprecations point you at a successor model, which is what makes them routine. This one does not. The recommended replacement field for the Videos API and for each Sora model ID is blank, and no successor video model has been announced. Migration is not an upgrade path here, it is a change of vendor.
The price list carries no warning
Open the API pricing page today and the video generation section still lists sora-2 and sora-2-pro in full, including the discounted batch rates. The model reference page has no deprecation banner either. The end-of-life date lives on a separate page, so the natural reading path shows a live product.
Five identifiers stop working at once
It is not only the friendly aliases. The removal covers sora-2 and sora-2-pro plus three pinned snapshots, sora-2-2025-10-06, sora-2-2025-12-08 and sora-2-pro-2025-10-06. Pinning a dated snapshot, the usual defense against a model changing under you, buys nothing here.
| What OpenAI published | Detail |
|---|---|
| Announcement date | March 24, 2026 |
| API shutdown date | September 24, 2026 |
| App and web shutdown | April 26, 2026 |
| Systems removed | Videos API |
| Model aliases removed | sora-2, sora-2-pro |
| Snapshots removed | sora-2-2025-10-06, sora-2-2025-12-08, sora-2-pro-2025-10-06 |
| Recommended replacement | None listed |
| Notice period | Six months |
Sora 2 pricing: every published per-second rate
Sora bills per second of generated video, with no seat fee, no monthly minimum and no credit pack. The rate depends on which of the two models you call and, for the pro model, which frame size you ask for. The batch column is the discounted asynchronous tier, and it is exactly half the standard rate on every row.
| Model | Resolution | Pixel dimensions | Standard, per second | Batch, per second |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sora-2 | 720p | 720x1280 portrait, 1280x720 landscape | $0.10 | $0.05 |
| sora-2-pro | 720p | 720x1280 portrait, 1280x720 landscape | $0.30 | $0.15 |
| sora-2-pro | 1024p | 1024x1792 portrait, 1792x1024 landscape | $0.50 | $0.25 |
| sora-2-pro | 1080p | 1080x1920 portrait, 1920x1080 landscape | $0.70 | $0.35 |
Consumption billing cuts both ways. A quiet month costs nothing at all, which no subscription tool can match, and a heavy month has no ceiling to protect you. There is also no prepaid balance to strand when the models are withdrawn, which is a genuine advantage over the credit-pack vendors during a shutdown.
The $0.10 rate everyone quotes cannot render 1080p
Almost every roundup leads with $0.10 a second, and that figure is real, but it belongs to sora-2, which offers one frame size: 720p. If you need 1080p, and for paid social placements you generally do, sora-2 cannot produce it at any price. You have to call sora-2-pro, where 1080p costs $0.70 a second. That is seven times the number in the headline, and it is the rate that actually applies to advertising work.
Seven times, not three
Comparing the two models at the same frame size, sora-2-pro is three times the price: $0.30 against $0.10 at 720p. But that is not the choice an advertiser faces. The real comparison is the cheapest route to 1080p, $0.70, against the headline rate, $0.10, and that gap is sevenfold.
1024p is the quiet middle
The 1024x1792 tier at $0.50 a second gets almost no attention and is a reasonable compromise for feed placements where the asset is viewed on a phone. It is 29 percent cheaper than 1080p while still clearing 720p comfortably on a vertical crop.
Batch halves it, at a cost
The batch tier takes 1080p from $0.70 to $0.35 a second, which is the single biggest lever on this rate card. The tradeoff is asynchronous turnaround, so it suits bulk production of a planned campaign and not the iterate-while-you-watch loop most creative teams actually work in.
Sora cost per clip at the lengths people actually render
Per-second pricing is hard to feel. These are the standard rates multiplied out across the clip lengths that come up in real ad work. Halve any figure for the batch tier.
| Clip length | sora-2, 720p | pro, 720p | pro, 1024p | pro, 1080p |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 seconds | $0.40 | $1.20 | $2.00 | $2.80 |
| 8 seconds | $0.80 | $2.40 | $4.00 | $5.60 |
| 10 seconds | $1.00 | $3.00 | $5.00 | $7.00 |
| 15 seconds | $1.50 | $4.50 | $7.50 | $10.50 |
| 30 seconds | $3.00 | $9.00 | $15.00 | $21.00 |
One more property of per-second billing worth naming, because it is the opposite of how credit-based tools behave: a 4 second clip genuinely costs half of an 8 second clip. On the credit vendors the charge is flat per generation, so rendering short throws away footage you already paid for. Here, short renders are cheap.
What one finished 30 second ad really costs on Sora
The cost-per-clip table assumes every generation is usable, and no creative process works that way. A 30 second spot is roughly four 8 second shots, and in practice you render each shot about three times before one is worth cutting. That means generating 90 seconds to keep 30. Here is the same ad priced at one take, two takes and three takes per shot.
| Takes per shot | Seconds generated | sora-2, 720p | pro, 1080p | pro, 1080p batch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One take, nothing wasted | 30 | $3.00 | $21.00 | $10.50 |
| Two takes per shot | 60 | $6.00 | $42.00 | $21.00 |
| Three takes per shot, realistic | 90 | $9.00 | $63.00 | $31.50 |
| Five takes on a hard concept | 150 | $15.00 | $105.00 | $52.50 |
So the honest working figure for one 1080p ad is about $63, or $31.50 if you can live with batch turnaround. That is cheap against a production crew and expensive against a tool that bills in finished ads: our own Starter plan is $49 a month for 100 ads, which is roughly the price of three-quarters of one Sora ad at 1080p. The comparison is not quite like-for-like, because Sora gives you a raw generative model and we give you a scripted UGC ad with a creator and captions, and that difference is the whole point of the next section.
Where the money goes after September 24
Since OpenAI names no successor, the practical question is which per-second API to point your pipeline at. The closest like-for-like is the Gemini API's Veo 3.1 family, which bills the same way, per second of output with audio included. Putting the two rate cards side by side produces a result most people migrating do not expect.
| Route | Per second, 1080p | 8 second clip | Still available after Sep 24 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sora 2 Pro, standard | $0.70 | $5.60 | No |
| Sora 2 Pro, batch | $0.35 | $2.80 | No |
| Veo 3.1 Standard | $0.40 | $3.20 | Yes |
| Veo 3.1 Fast | $0.12 | $0.96 | Yes |
| Veo 3.1 Lite | $0.08 | $0.64 | Yes |
The forced migration is a price cut
At 1080p, Sora 2 Pro costs $0.70 a second. Veo 3.1 Fast costs $0.12 and Lite costs $0.08. On an 8 second clip that is $5.60 against $0.96 and $0.64, so the cheaper Veo tiers run roughly six to nine times less than the model you are being moved off. Even Veo 3.1 Standard at $3.20 undercuts Sora Pro's standard 1080p rate. Nobody enjoys a forced migration, but this one lands in your favor on unit price.
Where Sora genuinely wins, and it is not price
Sora's reputation was built on prompt adherence and physical plausibility in complex shots, and the sora-2-pro 1080p tier remains a strong generator right up to the day it is withdrawn. If you have a pipeline tuned to its quirks, nothing here says the output was poor value. The problem is simply that on September 24 the endpoint stops answering, and quality you cannot call is worth nothing.
The other thing to weigh is what a per-second model does not give you. Both Sora and Veo hand back a clip from a prompt. Neither writes the hook, casts a recognizable presenter, holds that presenter consistent across a batch, or burns in captions. On a raw model those are your problem, and on an ad platform they are included. If you would rather compare tools that sell finished ads, our best AI UGC ad generator roundup does that comparison, and text to video AI covers the brief-to-video route.
Who should buy what, now that the clock has run out
You have a live Sora pipeline
Swap the endpoint before September 24 rather than after. Both APIs bill per output second, so your cost model barely changes and your unit price falls. Budget a day for prompt work: a prompt tuned for Sora rarely transfers cleanly, and the failure mode is subtle, usually motion and pacing rather than an obvious error.
You were about to start on Sora
Do not. Whatever you build against those model IDs has a working life measured in days, and there is no in-place upgrade at the end of it. This is the clearest decision on the page, and the only reason it needs stating is that the price list still reads as a live product.
You just want ads that run
Then a raw video model was always an odd fit, and the shutdown is a good moment to notice it. You were going to spend $63 and a day of prompting per 1080p spot, then still need a script, a presenter and captions. Buying finished ads skips the model layer entirely, and it is the reason we bill in ads rather than seconds.
Sora pricing questions, answered
How much does Sora cost?
Sora is billed per second of generated video through the OpenAI API, not as a monthly license. The sora-2 model costs $0.10 a second at 720p. The sora-2-pro model costs $0.30 a second at 720p, $0.50 at 1024p and $0.70 at 1080p. A batch tier halves every one of those rates. There is no seat price and no minimum plan.
Is Sora shutting down?
Yes. OpenAI's own deprecations page lists the Videos API and every Sora model with an announcement date of March 24, 2026 and a shutdown date of September 24, 2026. The consumer Sora app and web experience closed earlier, on April 26, 2026. After September 24 the model IDs stop resolving, so any pipeline still calling them breaks.
How much does Sora 2 cost per video?
Because billing is per second, the clip length sets the price. An 8 second clip costs $0.80 on sora-2 at 720p. The same clip on sora-2-pro costs $2.40 at 720p, $4.00 at 1024p and $5.60 at 1080p. A 10 second clip costs $1.00 and $3.00, $5.00 or $7.00 respectively. Batch submissions cost exactly half.
What is Sora API pricing?
The Sora API price is quoted per second of output video. Standard rates are $0.10 a second for sora-2 at 720p, and $0.30, $0.50 and $0.70 a second for sora-2-pro at 720p, 1024p and 1080p. The batch tier is $0.05 for sora-2 and $0.15, $0.25 and $0.35 for sora-2-pro. Both rate cards are removed on September 24, 2026.
Is Sora free?
No. There is no free tier on the Sora API. Every second of output is metered from the first request, starting at $0.10. The consumer app that some users reached through a ChatGPT subscription was discontinued on April 26, 2026, so that route no longer exists either. The only remaining access is paid, per second, until September 24.
Does Sora have a license fee?
There is no separate Sora license or seat fee to buy. It is consumption billing on the OpenAI API, charged by the second of video produced, so a month with no generations costs nothing and a heavy month has no ceiling. That is the opposite of the subscription model most video tools use, where a fixed fee buys a fixed credit allowance.
What is replacing Sora?
Nothing from OpenAI. The recommended replacement column on OpenAI's deprecations page is empty for the Videos API and for every Sora model ID, and no successor video model has been announced. Migration means moving to another vendor entirely. For 1080p ad work the Gemini API's Veo 3.1 tiers are the closest like-for-like, and they price lower per second.
When does the Sora API shut down?
September 24, 2026. On that date OpenAI removes the Videos API along with the model aliases sora-2 and sora-2-pro and the dated snapshots sora-2-2025-10-06, sora-2-2025-12-08 and sora-2-pro-2025-10-06. Developers were notified on March 24, 2026, which gave exactly six months of notice.
Why is Sora still on the pricing page if it is shutting down?
OpenAI has not pulled it. The video generation section of the API pricing page still carries the full sora-2 and sora-2-pro rate card, including the discounted batch tier, and the model reference page carries no deprecation banner at all. The end-of-life date lives only on the separate deprecations page, so a buyer reading the price list sees no warning.
Is Sora 2 Pro worth the extra cost?
It depends entirely on resolution. sora-2 is limited to 720p, so if you need 1080p for paid social you have no choice and must pay sora-2-pro's $0.70 a second, seven times the headline rate. If 720p is acceptable, sora-2-pro at $0.30 a second is triple the price for the same frame size, and the case is much weaker.
What does a 30 second Sora ad cost?
Thirty seconds of finished 1080p footage is $21.00 of sora-2-pro time if every take lands first. Ad work does not behave that way. Allow three takes per shot, which is normal, and you generate 90 seconds to keep 30, so one finished 30 second ad costs $63.00. On the batch tier the same ad is $31.50.
Can I still buy Sora API credits?
Sora never used a credit pack. It drew on your normal OpenAI API balance and billed per second, so there is no separate credit stock to buy down or strand. That is one small mercy of this shutdown: unlike credit-based video tools, there is no prepaid balance left unusable when the model IDs stop resolving on September 24.
Buy ads, not model seconds
If you came here to budget a Sora pipeline, the budget is now a migration. Skip the model layer: paste a product URL and get a finished UGC ad with a script, a creator and captions, counted in ads rather than seconds, on an endpoint nobody is switching off next week.