Sora 2's API is gone. What replaces it?

OpenAI removed the Videos API and every sora-2 model on September 24, 2026, and it named no replacement. Anything that still calls sora-2 or sora-2-pro now fails, so you need a new video provider and a new pricing model.

What did OpenAI actually remove?

Sora 2 is OpenAI's video generation model, and its API surface was the Videos API. OpenAI's deprecations page lists the Videos API plus sora-2, sora-2-pro and three dated snapshots as removed on September 24, 2026. The replacement column is empty.

OpenAI announced the shutdown on March 24, 2026, and the consumer app closed on April 26, while Kingy.ai's shutdown guide reports that endpoints now return 410 Gone and that Sora account data is deleted permanently with no recovery option.

There is no drop-in successor, because OpenAI points to no newer video model in its documentation, so you must choose a different vendor and revalidate your output.

How do the replacement prices compare?

Most Sora 2 users will land on a hosted API, and the fairest comparison is price per second of finished video, with Sora 2's rates below implied from a Spheron cost table that lists $0.50 to $1.00 for a 5 to 10 second 720p clip.

Veo 3.1 is Google's video generation model, sold through the Gemini API in Standard, Fast and Lite tiers. Google's Gemini API pricing page lists the rates below, and every tier includes audio by default.

Model	Resolution	Price per second	10-second clip
Sora 2 (removed)	720p	about $0.10	about $1.00
Sora 2 Pro (removed)	1080p	about $0.70	about $7.00
Veo 3.1 Lite	720p	$0.05	$0.50
Veo 3.1 Lite	1080p	$0.08	$0.80
Veo 3.1 Fast	720p	$0.10	$1.00
Veo 3.1 Fast	1080p	$0.12	$1.20
Veo 3.1 Standard	720p or 1080p	$0.40	$4.00
Veo 3.1 Standard	4K	$0.60	$6.00

The clip column is the per-second price multiplied by ten, and the Sora rows are derived from 5 to 10 second clip prices, so treat them as approximate.

Three comparisons stand out from the table: Veo 3.1 Fast at 720p costs the same as Sora 2 did, Veo 3.1 Lite halves that price, and Veo 3.1 Standard at 1080p costs $0.40 per second against roughly $0.70 for Sora 2 Pro.

Other vendors exist as well, such as Kling and Seedance, and third-party listings put Kling 3.0 Turbo at $0.18 per second at 720p on one reseller. Seedance 2.0 lists a wide range of $0.04 to $0.78 per second on AniKuku's pricing guide. Reseller prices vary, so confirm with the vendor before you commit.

Should you self-host instead?

Only if you already operate GPUs and have no European exposure, because self-hosting an open model can undercut hosted prices on spot hardware. Spheron's table puts Wan 2.2 at about $0.35 to $0.94 for a 720p clip on spot hardware, against $0.50 to $1.00 for Sora 2.

The catch is hardware, since Spheron reports that Wan 2.2 needs 40 to 48 GB of VRAM at 480p and 65 to 80 GB at 720p. HunyuanVideo 1.5 is Tencent's open video model, and although it runs on 14 GB of memory with offloading, its license excludes commercial use in the EU, UK and South Korea.

That license line matters most for European teams, because a company based in the EU cannot use HunyuanVideo commercially, and every open-weight license deserves a careful reading before you build a product on it.

What should you do this week?

Treat this as a migration rather than a simple swap, and work through these steps in order.

1. Find every call. Search your code for sora-2, sora-2-pro and any Videos API client. Include scheduled jobs and internal tools.
2. Save what you still have. Kingy.ai reports that Sora account data is gone after the cutoff. Check whether you kept your own copies of generated clips and prompts.
3. Price your volume. Multiply your monthly seconds of video by the table above. Include the audio you actually need.
4. Put a thin wrapper around the provider. One internal function that takes a prompt and returns a video makes the next switch cheap. OpenAI's earlier shutdown of the Assistants API, covered in The Assistants API shuts down August 26. Port it now., showed the same lesson.
5. Test your prompts on the new model. Styles differ. A prompt tuned for Sora 2 can look different on Veo or Kling.

Which replacement fits which team?

Pick a replacement by your volume and your legal constraints rather than by brand.

• Small volume, want the least risk: Veo 3.1 Fast. It matches Sora 2's price and comes from a large vendor with public pricing.
• Lots of drafts and previews: Veo 3.1 Lite at $0.05 per second at 720p.
• Final 1080p output: Veo 3.1 Standard at $0.40 per second.
• Own GPUs, US-only business: an open model such as Wan 2.2, after a license check.
• EU business: stay on a hosted API. Do not self-host HunyuanVideo.

Does switching providers change your EU obligations?

Not the price, but the labelling duty stays with you. Under the EU AI Act, deployers of a system that generates video constituting a deepfake must disclose that the content was artificially generated, and the European Commission says these transparency obligations apply from August 2, 2026, according to its Article 50 guidance. The rules for that duty are explained in Do You Have to Label AI Content? The Aug 2 Rules.

For a European team, that means any new provider you choose should be able to mark its output, and your own publishing workflow should be ready to label it. Ask each vendor how it handles that before you sign.