OpenAI Opens Sora Video Generator to ChatGPT Plus and Pro

OpenAI opened Sora to the public this Monday, nearly ten months after first showing off its video-generation model. The company is launching Sora Turbo, a faster version of the system, for paying ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Pro users.

The move turns one of 2024’s most closely watched generative AI demonstrations into a commercial product. Sora can create clips from written descriptions, but it can also turn still images into video and modify scenes it has already generated. Until now, access had been limited to artists, filmmakers and experts working with OpenAI to test the system.

Videos from a sentence, an image or a previous scene

Sora lets users request a sequence in natural language: a shot, characters, the setting, camera movement or visual style. The promise is that the model will preserve elements of a scene over several seconds—a longstanding challenge for video generators, where objects and people can change shape from one frame to the next.

The public version includes editing tools that go beyond a simple text box. Storyboard lets users organize a video as a kind of visual script, specifying what should happen at different moments. Remix modifies an existing creation based on new instructions. There are also features for combining two clips, extending or trimming them, and creating loops.

OpenAI is positioning these options as tools for exploring audiovisual ideas, preparing previsualizations or producing short pieces for social media. They do not yet replace a conventional production workflow: generated videos can get the laws of physics wrong, confuse spatial relationships or render complex actions inconsistently. But they significantly reduce the cost of turning an idea into a first visual sequence.

What ChatGPT subscribers get

ChatGPT Plus customers, whose plan costs $20 a month, will get up to 50 priority generations per month at 480p resolution, or fewer credits if they choose 720p. ChatGPT Pro, the $200-a-month plan, offers ten times as much usage, videos of up to 1080p and a maximum length of 20 seconds, along with watermark-free downloads under certain conditions.

The limits show that generating video remains far more expensive than generating text or an image. Each clip requires computing many frames that have to remain consistent with one another; increasing the resolution or length quickly adds to that computing load. That is why the launch is arriving as a benefit of paid plans rather than as a general ChatGPT feature.

Sora will initially be available in the United States and most countries where ChatGPT operates, although OpenAI is excluding the European Union and the United Kingdom for now while it works on its rollout in those markets.

A rollout with barriers against fake videos

Sora’s arrival is broadening the debate over synthetic content. A convincing video is more persuasive than a still image and can be used for impersonation, disinformation campaigns or nonconsensual sexual material.

OpenAI has imposed restrictions to prevent the generation of explicit sexual content, extreme violence, harmful instructions and material that infringes third-party rights. The service also blocks the creation of videos from images of real people and applies additional controls to public figures. Videos will include C2PA metadata, a technical standard that indicates a file’s origin and modifications, as well as a visible watermark on downloads from the platform.

These measures do not solve the authenticity problem on their own: metadata can be lost when a file is exported again, and watermarks can be cropped out or degraded. Their value lies in providing verifiable signals to platforms and users who want to check where content came from.

Competition enters a commercial phase

OpenAI is not the only company pursuing this market. Google has introduced Veo, Runway sells its own models, and several Chinese companies have launched similar tools. Sora’s difference is that it arrives integrated into the ChatGPT ecosystem, which OpenAI says has hundreds of millions of weekly users.

The first test will be less spectacular than its demo videos: whether the tool works with everyday instructions, whether its safety controls hold up under mass use, and whether creators find a useful workflow between automated generation and human editing. Starting today, that test no longer depends on a small group of evaluators, but on ChatGPT subscribers.