> ## 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 vs Veo for Australians 2026: One You Can Buy, One You Can't - URL: https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/sora-vs-veo-australia-2026/ - Published: 2026-06-24T23:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-09T06:43:16.000Z - Description: The two most-hyped AI video generators, head to head. Sora made stunning clips but OpenAI has switched it off; Veo bills in AUD with GST sorted and isn't going anywhere. Sora scores 9/25, Veo 18/25 — and for Australians it isn't close. - Author: Adam - Tags: Video AI, Sora, Google Veo, #comparison Head-to-head verdict [**9**/25Sora](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/review-sora-australia-2026/)[**18**/25Google Veo 3.1Winner](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/google-veo-review-australia-2026/) **Our pick: Google Veo 3.1.** The verdict below says who should buy the other. *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/)*).* > **Winner: Google Veo 3.1, decisively — and not because it's the better model.** Sora 2 was, for about six months, the most convincing AI video you could generate. None of that matters now: OpenAI shut the consumer Sora app on 26 April 2026 and the developer API on 24 September 2026, so there is nothing left for an Australian business to sign up for. Veo 3.1, by contrast, bills in AUD, includes GST, issues a claimable ABN tax invoice, and isn't facing a shutdown clock. Sora scores 9/25; Veo scores 18/25 and clears our Australian Fit gate. For an Australian buyer, this is the rare comparison with a one-line answer: pick Veo. > > *Last reviewed: 25 June 2026 by Adam.* If you've been comparing the two biggest names in AI video, the comparison is already settled for an Australian buyer — just not on the grounds you'd expect. This was meant to be a fight about realism, audio and physics. Instead it's a fight about whether the product exists. Sora's quality was genuinely class-leading. But OpenAI has switched it off, and it never officially worked in Australia anyway. Veo 3.1 is the text-to-video tool you can actually buy here today, in your own currency, with the tax sorted. One of these is a buying guide; the other is a post-mortem. ## At a glance | | OpenAI Sora | Google Veo 3.1 | | ----------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------- | | **Our score** | 9/25 ⭐⭐ (AU Fit 1/5) | 18/25 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (AU Fit 4/5) | | **Status** | Consumer app shut 26 Apr 2026; API closes 24 Sep 2026 | Live, no shutdown date | | **Entry price (AUD)** | No consumer plan; API only | $32.99/mo (Google AI Pro) | | **Top creator tier** | API US$0.70/sec (1080p Pro) | From $149.99/mo (Google AI Ultra) | | **Billing** | USD-only API | AUD, GST-inclusive | | **Tax invoice** | None for AU consumers | GST-compliant, ABN issued | | **Clip length** | 15–25 sec (when it existed) | 8 sec (Flow) / 10 sec (Gemini app) | | **Native synced audio** | Yes | Yes | | **Resolution** | Up to 1080p (API) | 1080p | | **For non-developers** | No — API only now | Yes — via the Gemini app | | **Data residency (AU)** | None for consumer product | None for consumer use | | **Top Pick eligible?** | No (AU Fit 1/5 — Australian Fit gate) | No (AU Fit 4/5, but see verdict) | ## What both tools actually do Both are text-to-video models: you type a description — "a kelpie chasing waves on a Tasmanian beach at golden hour" — and the model generates a short clip to match. Both reached the point, in late 2025, of producing synchronised native audio in the same pass as the picture, so a clip arrives with dialogue, sound effects and ambient noise baked in rather than dubbed on afterwards. That single trick is what separated this generation of tools from the silent, face-melting clips of 2024. **Sora** is OpenAI's model. Sora 2 launched in early October 2025 and was a genuine leap — believable physics, synced audio, and a "cameos" feature that let you record yourself once and drop your own likeness into generated scenes. For half a year it was the most talked-about AI video tool on the planet. Then OpenAI pulled the plug: the consumer app and website closed on 26 April 2026, and the developer API — the last remaining access — was shut down on 24 September 2026, with no one-to-one replacement. There is nothing left to subscribe to. **Veo 3.1** is Google DeepMind's text-to-video and image-to-video model, released 14 October 2025\. You reach it through the Gemini app (the simplest path), Google Flow (Google's dedicated AI filmmaking editor, with scene extension and an "ingredients" system that carries a character or product across shots), or the API. It generates 1080p clips with native synced audio, runs 8 seconds in Flow and 10 in the Gemini app, and — crucially — is sold through Google's Australian entity at an AUD, GST-inclusive price. In short: both did the same impressive job. Only one of them is still standing, and only one of them was ever properly set up for Australians. ## Pricing in Australia This is where the comparison stops being close. **Sora** has no consumer plan to buy any more. The app closed on 26 April 2026, and the old ChatGPT Plus and Pro tiers that once bundled Sora credits no longer include it. The developer API, the last access before it closed, was billed in US dollars: US$0.10/sec (\~A$0.14 ex-GST) at 720p on the standard model, rising to US$0.70/sec (\~A$0.98 ex-GST) for 1080p on Sora 2 Pro. A single polished 10-second 1080p clip runs about US$7.00 — roughly A$10 converted — before you count the clips you bin. And it all closed on 24 September 2026\. For a non-developer, the price is moot: there's no door to walk through. **Veo** is bundled into Google's AI plans rather than sold standalone. Google AI Pro is $32.99/month (GST-inclusive) and buys real Veo 3.1 video with a limited quota, Flow credits and 2 TB of storage. Google AI Ultra starts at $149.99/month for the serious creator tier — full Veo access, far higher quotas and 20 TB+ of storage. Both prices are shown natively in AUD, include GST, and come with a GST-compliant ABN tax invoice you can claim if you're registered. There's no surprise +10% at checkout the way there is with most US-only SaaS. The honest read: you can't meaningfully compare the prices, because only one tool has a price an Australian small business can actually pay. Sora bills offshore, in USD, per second, against a shutdown deadline. Veo bills here, in dollars, with the tax handled. That's not a close call. ## Where Sora wins - **Raw model quality, when it existed.** Sora 2's output — lighting, motion, physics — set the bar for AI video in late 2025\. Few rivals matched its realism, and its handling of real-world physics (a missed basketball rebounding off the backboard) was a step beyond. - **Cameos.** Recording yourself once and reusing a convincing likeness across scenes was a standout feature with real marketing potential — nothing in Veo does exactly this. - **Longer single clips.** Sora 2 generated in the 15–25 second range per shot, against Veo's 8–10 seconds, so you stitched less to get a usable sequence. - **Style range.** It handled realistic, cinematic and anime looks competently from a single prompt. Every one of those wins is past tense. They're reasons Sora was admired, not reasons to choose it today — because today you can't. ## Where Veo wins - **It actually exists, and isn't going anywhere.** No shutdown date, no migration deadline, no stored content marked for deletion. You can build a content workflow on it without racing a clock. - **It's reachable and billable in Australia — properly.** AUD pricing, GST included, a claimable ABN tax invoice. For a tool of this calibre, that combination is genuinely uncommon, and it's the single biggest reason it wins here. - **A real product for non-developers.** The Gemini app gets a small-business owner from prompt to clip in under 15 minutes, no code required. Sora's only remaining access is an API — off-limits to the people we write for. - **Native synced audio at 1080p.** Veo matches Sora's headline trick — dialogue with lip-sync, sound effects and ambient sound in one pass — at a resolution clean enough to drop straight into social or a client deck. - **Directorial control in Flow.** Camera-movement presets, scene extension and the "ingredients" system (locking a product or character across shots) push it past one-shot novelty toward an editing suite. ## Which to pick — decision framework - **You're an Australian small business that wants AI video you can actually use** → **Veo**. It's the only one of the two you can sign up for, and it bills in AUD with GST sorted. - **You're not a developer** → **Veo**. Sora's app is gone; its API is not an option for non-technical users. - **You want a claimable tax invoice** → **Veo**. Google issues a GST-compliant ABN invoice; Sora's USD API does not. - **You built part of your pipeline on Sora** → it stopped working on 24 September 2026\. Migrate to **Veo**, and try OpenAI's export at sora.chatgpt.com/sunset before your library is deleted. - **You only care about the very best raw model, regardless of access** → Sora *was* that, narrowly — but it has been switched off, so this is a historical preference, not a buying decision. - **You want longer single clips or the cameos trick specifically** → there's no live answer in this pair; Veo is the practical pick and you stitch in Flow. ## The verdict **Winner: Google Veo 3.1, and it isn't close — for Australians.** We don't score products on what they were; we score them on whether you should use them today. By that test Sora scores 9/25 and Veo 18/25, and the gap is about access, not artistry. Sora 2 was a brilliant model that OpenAI has switched off: the consumer app died on 26 April 2026, the API on 24 September 2026, it never billed in AUD, never offered consumer data residency here, and anything you made on it is set for deletion. There is simply no product left for an Australian business to buy. Veo 3.1 is the tool that answers the question people actually came here to ask — "what's the best text-to-video tool I can use in Australia?" It generates 1080p clips with synced native audio, you buy it in AUD, the GST is included, and you get a claimable tax invoice. Start on Google AI Pro at $32.99/month and only step up to Ultra at $149.99/month if you're generating video daily and hitting the quota wall. Go in clear-eyed about its limits — short clips, opaque quotas, an unavoidable SynthID watermark, the odd warped frame, and no Australian data residency — but understand that it's a live tool with a future, not a farewell. A note on the gate: Veo clears our **Australian Fit gate** at 4/5, which keeps it eligible for a five-star rating and a category Top Pick. Sora, at 1/5, cannot be a Top Pick under any reading — and having been shut down settles the matter regardless. For the full picture of where Veo sits against the rest of the field, see our [Best AI Video Tools in Australia 2026](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/best-ai-video-tools-australia-2026/) guide. *This comparison is general information, not professional advice. If you're producing video that makes regulated, financial or health claims, confirm your disclosure and compliance obligations before publishing.* Update history - **21 Sep 2026** — **The stated conversion basis was the retired rule.** It described our AUD figures as converted at \~1.40 **plus a 10% GST gross-up**, which our GST rule withdrew on 5 September: a GST-registered Australian business that supplies its ABN is not charged GST on an imported digital service, so adding 10% asserts a cost most of our readers do not carry. **The figures themselves were already ex-GST and none moved** — the 6 September re-basing corrected the numbers in this file and left the sentence describing them behind, which is the gap sentry 18 exists to close. The basis now reads USD→AUD 1.4045 (ECB reference rate, 18 September 2026), ex-GST, with the GST position stated in words once. No vendor price moved and no score changed. `reviewed:` untouched per our dating rule. - **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. - **25 Sep 2026** — **Sora's API shut down on 24 September, and this file is now in the past tense throughout.** OpenAI's developer documentation says the Sora 2 models and Videos API "were shut down on September 24, 2026 and are no longer available", with no one-to-one replacement (read live via the in-app browser; local capture `Dossiers/captures/openai-sora-2-model-page-2026-09-25.txt`). The pipeline advice now points to OpenAI's export page rather than a deadline. **No price and no score changed.** `reviewed:` untouched per our dating rule. ## Frequently asked questions ### Can I still use Sora in Australia? Not really. OpenAI shut the consumer Sora app and website on 26 April 2026, and the developer API — the last remaining access — was shut down on 24 September 2026\. The consumer product was never officially available in Australia anyway. For practical purposes there's nothing here to sign up for. ### Which is cheaper, Sora or Veo? You can't compare them on price, because only Veo has a price an Australian can actually pay. Veo bundles into Google AI Pro at $32.99/month (AUD, GST-inclusive) or Ultra from $149.99/month. Sora has no consumer plan — only a USD-billed developer API at US$0.10 to US$0.70 per second, and that closed on 24 September 2026. ### Does either bill in AUD with GST? Veo does — Google bills through an Australian entity, shows AUD prices that include GST, and issues a GST-compliant ABN tax invoice you can claim. Sora's remaining API is USD-only, and there was never AUD billing or GST-inclusive invoicing for the consumer product. ### Is Sora's video quality better than Veo's? At its peak, Sora 2 was the more impressive raw model — slightly more believable physics, longer single clips and the cameos feature. But that's a comparison of a discontinued product. Veo 3.1 matches Sora's headline trick — native synced audio at 1080p — and, unlike Sora, you can actually use it. Quality is moot when the better model has been switched off. ### What should I use now that Sora is going? Veo 3.1 is the natural successor — it's the closest live equivalent on realism and audio, and it's properly set up for Australia. If you want a simpler all-in-one for short social video, Canva is a practical alternative; Runway suits those who want a full editor and fine control over the output. ## Read next - Full reviews: [Sora](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/review-sora-australia-2026/) (9/25) and [Google Veo 3.1](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/google-veo-review-australia-2026/) (18/25) - Category guide: [Best AI Video Tools in Australia 2026](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/best-ai-video-tools-australia-2026/) - How we score: [Methodology](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/methodology/) ## Sources This comparison draws on The AI Directory Australia's underlying reviews of [Sora](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/review-sora-australia-2026/) (9/25, AU Fit 1/5, reviewed 20 June 2026) and [Google Veo 3.1](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/google-veo-review-australia-2026/) (18/25, AU Fit 4/5, reviewed 3 June 2026), each scored against our five-criteria framework. Sora's shutdown dates (consumer app 26 April 2026; API 24 September 2026) and USD API pricing are carried from the Sora review, sourced to OpenAI's Help Center and API model pricing. Veo's AUD pricing ($32.99 Pro; from $149.99 Ultra), GST-inclusive billing and ABN tax invoice are carried from the Veo review, sourced to Google's Australian subscriptions page. Star ratings and Top Pick eligibility follow our [Australian Fit gate](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/methodology/). USD-to-AUD estimates use USD→AUD 1.4045 (ECB reference rate, 18 September 2026) and are shown ex-GST: a GST-registered Australian business that supplies its ABN is not charged GST on an imported digital service, and an unregistered buyer should allow \~10% on top; Veo's AUD figures are billed natively and GST-inclusive. Wayback Machine snapshots queued. --- *The AI Directory Australia is an independent editorial publication. Read our* [*Methodology*](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/methodology/) *and* [*Affiliate Disclosure*](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/affiliate-disclosure/)*.* *Synthesised from The AI Directory's verified Sora and Google Veo 3.1 reviews. Sora's shutdown dates should be re-confirmed against the live OpenAI Help Center on publish; Veo's AUD pricing changes often — verify on Google's AU subscriptions page before relying on it.*