API
OpenAI
OpenAI is removing its Sora 2 video-generation models and the Videos API from the platform — sora-2, sora-2-pro and their dated snapshots stop responding, with no direct replacement named
departs 24 Sept 2026
What this means for you
On 24 March 2026 OpenAI deprecated its Sora 2 video models and set 24 September 2026 as the date they — and the Videos API that serves them — are removed from the platform. The affected identifiers are sora-2, sora-2-pro, and the dated snapshots sora-2-2025-10-06, sora-2-2025-12-08 and sora-2-pro-2025-10-06. Unlike OpenAI's audio and Assistants deprecations, this one names no replacement model: the documentation lists no substitute, so this is a capability being withdrawn from the API, not a version bump. Anything that calls the Videos API — an app that generates clips on demand, a pipeline that renders video from prompts, a feature built on sora-2 — starts failing on the shutdown date and there is no OpenAI endpoint to point it at afterward. Deprecated models keep working until then, so nothing breaks the day you read this, but the runway is finite and there is no in-platform landing spot at the end of it.
Where to go
There is no like-for-like OpenAI replacement, so plan for a provider change rather than a model rename. If your product depends on generating video via the Videos API, evaluate other text-to-video providers and budget for the larger integration work that a different API and output format imply — this is not a one-line model-string swap like the audio-model deprecations. If the generated video is a convenience feature rather than the core of the product, the cheaper path may be to remove or gate it before the shutdown date so it fails gracefully instead of erroring. Either way, the useful thing to lock in now is the date: 24 September 2026 is when calls stop being answered.
- Third-party text-to-video providers (OpenAI names no in-platform replacement)
- Removing or gating the video feature before the shutdown date, if it is non-core
OpenAI is pulling its Sora 2 video-generation capability out of the API. On 24 March 2026 the company deprecated the Sora 2 model family, and it has set 24 September 2026 as the date the models and the Videos API that serves them are removed from the platform. The affected identifiers are sora-2 and sora-2-pro, plus the dated snapshots sora-2-2025-10-06, sora-2-2025-12-08 and sora-2-pro-2025-10-06.
What makes this different from OpenAI’s other 2026 deprecations is the absence of a landing spot. When OpenAI retired its legacy audio and realtime models, it published a direct replacement for each one, so migration was mostly a matter of updating a model string. Here the deprecations page names no substitute. This is a capability being withdrawn, not upgraded — programmatic video generation is leaving the OpenAI API on the shutdown date, and there is no OpenAI endpoint to move to afterward.
Deprecated models keep responding until the date, so nothing breaks immediately. The exposure is anything that calls the Videos API in production: a feature that turns prompts into clips, a batch pipeline that renders video, a product whose core loop depends on sora-2. All of it starts erroring on 24 September 2026 unless it has been moved off the API or switched off first.
Because OpenAI offers no replacement, the migration is a provider decision rather than a rename: evaluate other text-to-video services and budget for the integration work a different API implies, or — if the video is a nice-to-have rather than the product — remove or gate the feature before the date so it degrades cleanly instead of throwing. The one thing worth pinning down today is the deadline itself: 24 September 2026, after which the calls stop being answered.
Entry changelog
- — last reviewed.
- — Entry created from OpenAI's official API deprecations page. Announcement dated 24 March 2026; shutdown 24 September 2026; no replacement model named. Surfaced during Layer-2 discovery follow-up on the OpenAI deprecations list; written from the primary source, not the secondary reports that first flagged it.
Spot an error or a changed date? Tell us and it’s corrected the same night.