Sora Videos API Sunset — Export & Cutover Checklist

Official links (checked 21 Sep 2026)

Verify these yourself. Dates and export windows are OpenAI’s, not ours.

• OpenAI Help — What to know about the Sora discontinuation — app 26 Apr 2026; API 24 Sep 2026; export path; data deletion after any final export window.
• OpenAI API — Deprecations — notice dated 24 Mar 2026; Videos API + all listed sora-2* aliases shut down 24 Sep 2026; replacement column is ---.
• OpenAI API — Video generation with Sora — deprecation banner on the Videos guide (same date and model list).
• sora.chatgpt.com/sunset — Help Center still names this as the export UI (click Export; wait for the email).

Five-step sunset checklist

Do these in order. Prompt remaps live on the remap page; this list is what still breaks if you only rewrite copy.

1. Step 1 · library

   Export the leftover Sora library

   App/web already went dark. If you still have created videos, stills, or cameo assets, use the official path OpenAI published:

   1. Open sora.chatgpt.com/sunset.
   2. Click Export. Help Center says you get an email when the archive is ready.
   3. Download the archive to storage you control. Do not leave “I’ll grab it later” as the plan — after discontinuation and any final export window, OpenAI says it permanently deletes Sora-associated account data.

   API-created jobs are a separate pile. Before 24 Sep, list remaining jobs and pull bytes:

   • GET /videos (or GET /v1/videos) — inventory job ids
   • GET /videos/{video_id} — status / metadata
   • GET /videos/{video_id}/content — finished MP4 (and thumbnail / spritesheet variants if you rely on them)

   The sunset URL is the consumer export. The GET /videos…/content path is how you keep renders that never lived in the Sora app.

2. Step 2 · callers

   Inventory every Videos API caller

   Search application code, notebooks, CI, Batch JSONL, and no-code automations for POST/GET /videos… — not only the model name. One leftover cron is an outage on the 24th.

   Strings worth grepping (repo-wide, case-insensitive):

   • HTTP: POST /videos, POST /v1/videos, GET /videos, GET /v1/videos, /videos/, /videos/{
   • Job helpers: /content on a video id, remix routes, edits routes, Batch lines whose url is /v1/videos
   • SDK: videos.create, client.videos, openai.videos
   • Models: sora-2, sora-2-pro, sora-2-2025-10-06, sora-2-2025-12-08, sora-2-pro-2025-10-06

   Write down owner, environment (prod / staging / a forgotten laptop), and whether the job creates, polls, downloads, or remixes. Creating is the loud failure; silent pollers and downloaders die too.

3. Step 3 · transport

   Stop assuming a snapshot pin buys time

   On chat completions, pinning a dated snapshot is a common way to ride out an alias retirement. That habit does not apply here. OpenAI scheduled the Videos API itself and every listed snapshot for the same hard stop:

   • Videos API — 24 Sep 2026 — replacement ---
   • sora-2, sora-2-pro — 24 Sep 2026 — replacement ---
   • sora-2-2025-10-06, sora-2-2025-12-08, sora-2-pro-2025-10-06 — 24 Sep 2026 — replacement ---

   The transport dies. A pin cannot outlive POST/GET /videos. Dedicated-capacity language on the general deprecations page is about other model families; do not treat it as a Sora extension unless OpenAI publishes one for the Videos API (they have not).

4. Step 4 · language

   Remap prompts → Seedance / Kling / Veo

   Pasting a Sora paragraph into another vendor usually fails as grammar, not as “which model is best.” Split the story, name one camera move and its trigger, lock identity with stills, and declare audio. Copy-paste remaps (dolly, handheld, orbit, whip, cameo → refs, rain physics) live here:

   Sora → Seedance / Kling / Veo prompt remap

   This checklist does not reprint those blocks. Use the remap page, then come back and cut the caller over.

5. Step 5 · proof

   Test one pipeline before cutover

   Pick the highest-volume or highest-risk job from step 2. Remap one real brief. Run it on the vendor you already pay (Seedance-class, Kling, Veo, or a cheap H3 Max / Hailuo / fal framing test). Compare:

   • Auth and project/key actually work in that environment
   • Duration / aspect caps match what the old Sora job assumed
   • Reference slots (stills, identity) are attached the way the host expects
   • Audio is diegetic FX, dialogue, or silence — not an implied Sora soundtrack

   Only then cut that job over. A stack of remapped prompts you have never run is not a migration. Draft framing on the H3 Max text to video generator if you need a cheap stills-free pass first.

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