⚠️ DISCONTINUED — OpenAI shut down Sora on March 24, 2026. The iOS app, sora.com, and developer API are all offline. Revenue was $2.1M total while compute costs ran $15M/day. Downloads peaked at 3.3M in November 2025 then fell 67% to 1.1M by February 2026. If you had Sora content in your library, download it immediately — no confirmed guarantee that assets remain accessible. The Sora research team continues for robotics only. Best alternatives: Kling AI 3.0 ($6.99/mo, generous free tier), Google Veo 3.2 (via Gemini Advanced, cinematic 4K 60fps), Runway Gen-4.5 ($15+/mo). The lesson: build multi-tool stacks — no single AI platform should be mission-critical.

Google's AI video platform — now free for every Google account holder. April 2, 2026: Google opened Veo 3.1 inside Google Vids to all standard Google accounts at no cost. 10 free clips/month, up to 8 seconds each, 720p, from text prompt or uploaded image. Ranked by Zapier as the best all-around AI video generator for overall quality. Paid tiers add AI avatars, Lyria 3 music, and volume. Previously required paid Workspace tiers. Also features native 9:16 vertical video, character consistency, and SynthID watermarking.

Professional AI video generation built on NVIDIA's Rubin platform. Gen 4.5 quality is described by industry observers as 'nearly indistinguishable from reality' — improved physics for water, gravity, and cloth; better temporal consistency with fewer frame glitches; and coherent faces, hands, and bodies across entire clips. Industry consensus: Sora #1 for photorealism, Runway #2 for professional control, Pika #3 for speed and cost. Most experienced creators now run 2-3 subscriptions — Sora for hero content, Runway for controlled production, Pika for volume. Integrated into Adobe Creative Cloud via partnership.