> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Sora Review Australia 2026: OpenAI Shut It Down. Here's What That Means - URL: https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/review-sora-australia-2026/ - Published: 2026-06-19T23:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-09T06:36:09.000Z - Description: Sora's video quality is the best around — but OpenAI has shut it down. Why we can't recommend it. - Author: Adam - Tags: Video AI, AI Reviews, #review **9**/25 ★★☆☆☆ Below Average Sora Verified 25 Sep 2026 Reviewed 20 Jun 2026 Value for Money**2**/5 Ease of Use**1**/5 Feature Depth**4**/5 Australian Fit**1**/5 Reliability & Support**1**/5 **The gate:** Five stars need 21+ and Australian Fit of at least 4/5. [Skip to the verdict ](#verdict) *Pricing figures updated 6 September 2026: USD prices are converted at the current rate (1 USD ≈ 1.40 AUD, verified 5 September 2026) and shown ex-GST, replacing the retired 1.55 + GST basis. A GST-registered Australian business that supplies its ABN is not charged GST on an imported digital service; other buyers should allow \~10% on top (*[*Methodology*](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/methodology/)*).* > **Verdict (TL;DR):** Sora makes some of the most convincing AI video you can generate today — synced audio, believable physics, your own face dropped into a scene. None of that matters now. OpenAI shut the consumer Sora app and website on 26 April 2026, and the developer API on 24 September 2026\. There is no product left for an Australian small business to sign up for. Treat this review as a post-mortem and a warning, not a buying guide. If you need AI video for real work, look at the alternatives below. > > **Score: 9/25 — ⭐⭐ Below Average** > > *Last reviewed: 20 June 2026 by Adam.* ## What Sora is Sora is OpenAI's text-to-video model. You type a description — "a kelpie chasing waves on a Tasmanian beach at golden hour" — and it generates a short video clip to match. Sora 2, the version most people used, launched in early October 2025 and was a genuine leap. It added synchronised audio and dialogue, far more believable physics, and a "cameos" feature that let you record yourself once and then drop your own likeness into generated scenes. For about six months it was the most talked-about AI video tool on the planet. Then OpenAI pulled the plug. Here is the part that matters for any Australian reading this: **Sora has been shut down.** OpenAI discontinued the consumer Sora app and website on 26 April 2026\. The developer API — the last way to touch the model — was shut down on 24 September 2026, and OpenAI says there is no one-to-one replacement. There is nothing left to subscribe to. We are publishing this review because Australians still search for "Sora" every day, and they deserve to know they're chasing a product that no longer exists for them. ## What it costs in Australia There is no consumer Sora plan to buy any more. The app and web experience closed on 26 April 2026\. The developer API, billed in US dollars, was the last access, and it closed on 24 September 2026. Sora was never billed in AUD and never offered Australian data residency for the consumer product. | Access route | Status (20 June 2026) | Price (USD) | Approx AUD (ex-GST) | | --------------------------- | ---------------------------- | ---------------- | ------------------- | | Sora consumer app / website | **Discontinued 26 Apr 2026** | — | — | | Sora 2 API (720p) | Live until 24 Sep 2026 | US$0.10 / second | \~A$0.14 / second | | Sora 2 Pro API (720p) | Live until 24 Sep 2026 | US$0.30 / second | \~A$0.42 / second | | Sora 2 Pro API (1024p) | Live until 24 Sep 2026 | US$0.50 / second | \~A$0.70 / second | | Sora 2 Pro API (1080p) | Live until 24 Sep 2026 | US$0.70 / second | \~A$0.98 / second | *AUD figures are our own estimate at \~1.40 USD, shown ex-GST; OpenAI bills the API in USD and we could not confirm how GST is applied to Australian API customers, so treat the AUD column as indicative, not a quoted GST-inclusive price. A 10-second 1080p Pro clip costs US$7.00 — roughly A$10 on that basis — and that's before you account for the clips you bin. Source: OpenAI API model pricing (primary). The previous ChatGPT Plus (US$20/mo) and Pro (US$200/mo) consumer tiers that once bundled Sora credits no longer include it.* ## How it works in practice When it worked, it worked beautifully. You wrote a prompt, picked a length and aspect ratio, and waited a minute or two for a clip. Sora 2 generated videos in the 15–25 second range with sound baked in — footsteps, dialogue, ambient noise — which almost no rival did at the time. The "cameos" feature was the genuine party trick: record a short video and audio sample once, and Sora could insert a convincing version of you into any scene. The physics were the real story. Earlier AI video melted faces and teleported objects. Sora 2 made a missed basketball rebound off the backboard. It got closer to obeying the real world than anything before it. But today, practically, here's how it works: you can't. The app closed in April and the API followed on 24 September. There is no door left. For a Melbourne café owner who wanted a slick 20-second Instagram reel, there is no path here at all. ## What it does well - **Best-in-class realism (when it existed).** Sora 2's output — lighting, motion, physics — set the bar for AI video in late 2025 and early 2026\. Few tools matched it. - **Native synced audio.** Generated clips came with dialogue and sound effects built in, not bolted on afterwards. That saved a separate audio-editing step. - **Cameos.** Recording yourself once and reusing your likeness across scenes was a standout feature with real marketing potential. - **Strong style range.** It handled realistic, cinematic and anime styles competently from a single prompt. ## What it doesn't do well - **It's been switched off.** This is the only point that matters. The consumer product died on 26 April 2026 and the API on 24 September 2026\. There is no business workflow left to build on it. - **No product for non-developers.** With the app gone, the only access is the API. That rules out every non-technical Australian — which is exactly who we write for. - **No AUD billing, no consumer data residency.** API billing is USD-only. Australia is a supported data-residency region for OpenAI's Enterprise, Edu and API customers, but the consumer Sora app never offered it, and it's moot now anyway. - **Cost adds up fast on the Pro tier.** At US$0.70/second for 1080p, a single polished 15-second clip is over A$17 on our conversion estimates — and you'll generate several to get one keeper. - **Your content gets deleted.** OpenAI has told users to export their Sora library before the cutoffs, after which user data is permanently deleted. Anything you made there is on borrowed time. ## Australian fit Poor, and now irrelevant. The consumer Sora app was never localised for Australia — no AUD pricing, no GST-inclusive invoicing, no local data residency. The only Australian-relevant residency option sits with OpenAI's Enterprise and API products, not the video tool a small business would actually have used. More to the point: there is no Australian fit to assess for a product that no longer accepts new users. An Australian business that built any part of its content pipeline on Sora lost it on 24 September 2026\. That's the real Australian story here — not whether the pricing was fair, but whether you were stranded. ## Alternatives With Sora gone, these are the AI video and creative tools worth your time instead: - [**Google Veo**](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/google-veo-review-australia-2026/) — Google's text-to-video model is the obvious successor for realism and is not facing a shutdown date. The natural first stop for anyone who came here for Sora. - **Canva** — for a non-technical Australian who just wants short social video and design in one place, with AUD billing and a genuine free tier, this is a far more practical pick than wrangling an API. - [**Runway**](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/runway-review-australia-2026/) — a long-standing creative-video tool with a proper editor, aimed at people who want control over the output rather than a one-shot prompt. ## Bottom line Sora was, briefly, the best AI video tool you could use. That's over. OpenAI closed the consumer app on 26 April 2026 and the API on 24 September 2026\. For an Australian small business, there is nothing here to buy, no AUD billing, no local data residency, and a deletion deadline hanging over anything you already made. We don't score products on what they were. We score them on whether you should use them today. Today, you shouldn't — you can't. If you came here for Sora, go and read our Google Veo and Runway reviews instead. The two stars below are for the technology that was; the verdict is to walk away. ## Score | Criterion | Score | Note | | --------------------- | -------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Value for Money | 2/5 | USD-only API with a 24 Sep 2026 expiry; no consumer plan to buy. You can't get lasting value from a tool that's shutting down. | | Ease of Use | 1/5 | The easy consumer app is gone. The only access left is a developer API — off-limits to our non-technical readers. | | Feature Depth | 4/5 | The model itself was excellent: synced audio, strong physics, cameos. This score is for the tech, not the access. | | Australian Fit | 1/5 | No AUD billing, no consumer data residency, and now no product for Australians to use at all. | | Reliability & Support | 1/5 | A product with two published shutdown dates and permanent data deletion is the opposite of reliable. | | **Total** | **9/25** | **⭐⭐ Below Average** | Update history - **11 Sep 2026** — Shutdown dates re-confirmed at OpenAI's Help Centre notice (app 26 Apr 2026, API 24 Sep 2026) via the in-app browser; OpenAI's model page now labels Sora 2 "Legacy". Companion news post: *Sora's API is gone* (retitled 25 Sep). FAQPage JSON-LD repaired (the final answer had swallowed a nested copy of the page's schema). Score unchanged. - **25 Sep 2026** — Shutdown confirmed: OpenAI's developer documentation says the Sora 2 models and Videos API "were shut down on September 24, 2026 and are no longer available" (read live via the in-app browser; local capture `Dossiers/captures/openai-sora-2-model-page-2026-09-25.txt`, SPN returned 500). Review moved to the past tense throughout. Score unchanged. - **20 Jun 2026** — First reviewed. - **24 Sep 2026** — **The AUD column was never grossed up for GST, and every word around it said it was.** The header read *“gross-up; GST unconfirmed”* and the note beneath described a 10% uplift — while the figures themselves are plain conversions at 1.4045\. Checked before changing a word: across the 63 files carrying this wording, **141 rows convert at 1.4045 and none at 1.4045 × 1.10**. **No figure changed here; only the description of them did.** Two things were wrong beyond the arithmetic: *gross-up* names a tax uplift and was being used for a currency conversion, and *GST unconfirmed* is stale — our GST rule settled it on 5 September 2026, and a GST-registered Australian business supplying its ABN is **not charged GST** on an imported digital service. **No USD price moved and no score changed.** `reviewed:` untouched per our dating rule. ## Sources - OpenAI — Sora 2 API model pricing and resolutions (primary): https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/sora-2 and https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/sora-2-pro - OpenAI Help Center — "What to know about the Sora discontinuation" (primary): https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001152-what-to-know-about-the-sora-discontinuation - OpenAI — "Sora 2 is here" launch announcement (primary): https://openai.com/index/sora-2/ - OpenAI Help Center — data residency for the OpenAI API, incl. Australia (primary): https://help.openai.com/en/articles/10503543-data-residency-for-the-openai-api - The Decoder — two-stage Sora shutdown (app April 2026, API September 2026), secondary corroboration: https://the-decoder.com/openai-sets-two-stage-sora-shutdown-with-app-closing-april-2026-and-api-following-in-september/ *Primary OpenAI marketing and help pages currently block automated fetching; the discontinuation dates and rationale are corroborated across multiple independent reports. The 26 April 2026 app shutdown and 24 September 2026 API shutdown should be re-confirmed against the live OpenAI Help Center article on publish, with a Wayback Machine snapshot of each primary source captured on the publish date. All sources checked 20 June 2026.* --- ## Frequently asked questions ### Can I still use Sora in Australia? Not really. OpenAI shut the consumer Sora app and website on 26 April 2026\. The developer API, the last remaining access, was shut down on 24 September 2026\. There's no product left to sign up for. ### Does Sora bill in AUD? No. Sora was never billed in AUD and never offered Australian data residency for the consumer product. The remaining API is USD-only — for example, US$0.10 per second at 720p. ### Is there a free plan? No. The consumer app that some plans bundled is gone, and the old ChatGPT Plus and Pro tiers no longer include Sora credits. The only access is the paid, USD-billed developer API. ### Does this change your recommendation? Completely — we can't recommend it. With a published shutdown date weeks away and your stored content set for deletion, there's nothing here to build on. Look at Google Veo, Canva or Runway instead. *The AI Directory Australia is an independent publication. We review and score AI tools for Australian users — we don't take payment for positive coverage, and any affiliate links are disclosed. This review reflects our honest editorial assessment as at the date shown. Reviewed by Adam.*