The verdict
Update — OpenAI discontinued Sora on April 26, 2026. The standalone app and website are shut down, and the API is in a maintenance-only wind-down with no new sign-ups; OpenAI pointed to compute and cost pressure and a refocus on core products. We're keeping this page because the demand didn't disappear with the product — if you're here, you probably want what Sora did: text-to-video, longer narrative clips, the Sora 2 look. Our pick for that now is Kling, which we run for our own short-form work — it does text-to-video and image-to-video with stronger motion control than Sora had, and there's a free tier to test it. Runway and Luma are the next options for longer or more cinematic shots, and Pika for fast social cuts. What made Sora notable still holds historically: it pushed 60-second clips and multi-character coherence when rivals capped at 5–10 seconds. But as a tool you can use today, it's gone — start with Kling below; it's the closest replacement without the OpenAI bundle Sora required.