Sora. OK, seen it. Give it a pass. (for now...)

Finally, Sora is available. OpenAI’s video generation model, announced last year, is now reaching the general public. After 10 months of waiting, users can test it. Expectations were high. The result is frankly underwhelming.

OpenAI’s biggest success is Sora’s website

The best part of Sora, for now, is its website. OpenAI has launched much more than a video generation portal. The company has built a community platform where users publish their creations and watch other people’s work. They can also create or edit videos with AI-assisted editing tools, prepare storyboards, or directly modify specific elements in a video.

This part works well. For a first public release, the integrated environment almost brings video generation into the realm of a more conventional editing tool.

The disappointment comes next. Once the novelty wears off, the technical results fall much further short.

The generated videos remain far below expectations

Let’s be direct: Sora’s output remains below the expected standard. The demo videos published on the site can be impressive, with an obviously very carefully curated selection. Some of the showcased results probably required dozens, or even hundreds, of generations.

The price makes the experience even more frustrating.

• ChatGPT Plus users, who already pay $20/month, get only 50 included video generations, with no option to buy additional credits or roll over unused credits.
• Pro users, who pay $200/month, get 10 000 credits, which amounts to roughly 1 minute 30 of video at 1080p.

$200 for 1 minute 30 of video. At that price, the tool becomes very difficult to justify for professional use.

The Pro plan quickly slows down creation

The announcement of unlimited use for Pro users is also misleading. Once the credits run out, generation remains possible, but with major restrictions.

• Generations run only during off-peak hours and are placed in a queue.
• Each generation can take between 1 and 2 hours, based on my tests.

When creating a video, this pace brings everything to a halt. Rapid iteration matters enormously, because a usable sequence on the first generation is still rare.

Sora still feels like a very early version