Sora App Shutting Down: AI Tool to Integrate with ChatGPT

OpenAI announced Tuesday it is discontinuing its Sora AI video generation tool, just months after unveiling the technology and securing a $1 billion investment from Disney. The decision, reported first by the Wall Street Journal, impacts both the standalone Sora app and developer access to the underlying API, with no plans to integrate the feature into ChatGPT, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

“We’re saying goodbye to Sora,” the Sora team stated in a post on X, thanking users for their contributions and acknowledging the disappointment the news would cause. The company indicated it would share further details regarding timelines for the shutdown and options for users to preserve their created content.

The move comes as a surprise given the significant hype surrounding Sora, which demonstrated the ability to generate videos up to a minute long from text prompts. Disney’s investment, announced in December, included plans to license its characters for use within Sora and integrate AI-generated videos into Disney Plus. That deal is now also coming to an end, according to reports from The Hollywood Reporter.

OpenAI has not publicly explained the reasoning behind the decision. However, the shutdown follows Altman’s recent internal declaration of a “code red” situation, prompted by concerns over ChatGPT losing ground to Google’s Gemini chatbot. According to data from January 2026, ChatGPT’s market share had fallen to 65%, while Gemini’s traffic had quadrupled.

Despite the closure of the standalone app, OpenAI is reportedly considering integrating Sora’s capabilities directly into ChatGPT. This strategy, as reported by The Information, could potentially address the competitive pressure from Gemini by allowing ChatGPT’s 900 million weekly users to create AI videos without leaving the platform. However, such a move is expected to significantly increase costs and usage.

The Sora team’s statement offered little clarity on the future of the technology, stating only that more information would be forthcoming. OpenAI has not yet responded to requests for comment regarding the specific reasons for the shutdown or the timeline for integrating Sora into ChatGPT.