Sora is OpenAI’s text-to-video service, known for its short-form social video app and the web experience at sora.chatgpt.com, where people generated clips from written prompts. Creators used it for storyboards, social content, and quick concept videos, so any disruption cut projects off mid-render. There is a major twist here: OpenAI discontinued the consumer app and web experience on April 26, 2026, and only the developer API remains, until it sunsets on September 24, 2026. For the current verdict on what is still running, start with the live status at the top of this page.
Common reasons Sora stops working
- The consumer app is discontinued. OpenAI announced the shutdown on March 24, 2026 and switched off the apps and sora.chatgpt.com on April 26, 2026. If the app will not load, that is the shutdown, not an outage.
- Heavy load and full queues. At peak times Sora rejected new generations with under heavy load errors, and the remaining API can still throttle requests when demand spikes.
- Generations stuck at 99 percent. The most widely reported Sora bug in early 2026 was a progress bar frozen at the very end, with the finished clip never delivered.
- Silent generation failures. Repeated video failed to generate errors, with credits still consumed on every attempt, usually pointed to a backend problem rather than a bad prompt.
- Region restrictions. Consumer access only covered the US, Canada, Japan and South Korea; everyone else saw a not available in your country message that looked like downtime.
- Account and sign-in problems. Sign in with ChatGPT login loops, invite-code errors, and new Plus accounts having generation disabled for one to three days after upgrade all looked like outages.
How to fix Sora when it is not working
- Check the status at the top of this page first. If our check and user reports show a real incident, the problem is on OpenAI’s side and waiting is usually the fastest fix.
- Make sure you are not seeing the shutdown. Since April 26, 2026 the app and web experience are gone by design. Only the Sora API still operates.
- Retry after a short wait. Queue-full and heavy load rejections typically clear within minutes once traffic drops.
- Stop retrying if failures burn credits. When generations fail silently but still consume credits, pause rather than looping the same request.
- Verify your API access. Developers should confirm the key is valid, billing is in order, and the request matches what their plan allows.
- Rule out region limits. The API follows OpenAI’s standard country availability, so a block can be geographic rather than an outage.
- Plan your migration. With the API sunsetting on September 24, 2026, persistent trouble is a good prompt to move workflows to an alternative now.
For a fuller checklist that applies to any AI service, see our guide on what to do when an AI tool is down.
Is Sora down, or is it just you?
Compare your experience with what others are reporting. If the verdict and reports at the top of this page show a spike, the problem is shared and sits on OpenAI’s side. If reports are quiet but Sora fails for you, check the calendar first: since April 26, 2026 the consumer app is discontinued, so an app that will not load is expected behavior, not an outage. API users who hit errors while reports stay quiet should check their own keys, billing, and request volume, since a local misconfiguration is far more likely than a silent platform failure.
How we check Sora
We determine Sora’s status from two signals rather than one. OpenAI publishes an official, machine-readable status feed with a dedicated Sora component, which now effectively tracks the remaining Sora API, and we read that feed continuously. We also run our own independent reachability check against the service from the outside. Combining both means we catch problems even when one source is slow to update, and it keeps the verdict honest. You can read more about how this works on our methodology page.
Alternatives to Sora during an outage
With the consumer app gone and the API on a sunset timeline, a backup is less optional here than for most AI tools. Runway is a strong professional choice for text-to-video and editing workflows, Kling AI offers high-quality generation with a generous free tier, and Luma covers fast, accessible clip generation well. Check that your chosen backup is healthy on its own status page before switching, since video platforms often see load spikes when a major one has problems.
Down, discontinued, or sunsetting: reading Sora’s signals
Sora is in an unusual position for a status page. OpenAI retired the original model in the US in March 2026, then shut down the social app and sora.chatgpt.com entirely on April 26, 2026. Since then, most is Sora down searches are really about the shutdown rather than an outage. The one piece still alive is the Sora API, usable until it sunsets on September 24, 2026, and OpenAI’s status feed component for Sora now effectively reflects that API alone.
While the full product was live, its parts failed independently. Incidents in December 2025 degraded the Sora API specifically while the app kept working and ChatGPT stayed up. The social feed and drafts could fail to load, with iPhone app crashes, while generation itself still worked. After the opt-in copyright change, content policy false positives spiked, blocking previously allowed character prompts, which many users read as downtime.
- App or sora.chatgpt.com not loading since April 26, 2026, which is the shutdown
- Progress bar frozen at 99 percent with the clip never delivered
- Feed and drafts failing while generation still worked
- API-only incidents on OpenAI’s status feed while ChatGPT stayed up