OpenAI Sora To Start Charging Users? Here’s Why It’s Not Fully Free Anymore

If you’ve been using OpenAI’s Sora app to generate AI videos for free, there’s a small change you should know about. OpenAI has officially started charging users who cross their daily video generation limit on the Sora app. According to the AI giant, this is a crucial step to keep things sustainable as more people start using the tool. Also Read: Beyond OpenAI ChatGPT! Apple To Partner With More AI Giants To Release Siri In 2026, Tim Cook Confirms

That means, Sora is no longer free! So, What’s Changing? Also Read: Meet NEO: A $20,000 Humanoid Robot That Can Clean, Cook, And Chat With You

Sora To Charge Money For Video Generation

Sora users will now have a daily limit on how many AI videos they can create for free. Also Read: OpenAI Releases 100 Chats For Students In India: What Is It? How To Use?

• Free and ChatGPT Plus users: 30 videos per day
• Pro subscribers: up to 100 videos per day

Once you hit your limit, you can buy more video credits for $4 (around ₹350) – which gives you 10 extra video generations. There’s no upper limit, so if you’re a power user, you can keep purchasing as many bundles as you like. Bill Peebles, Head of Sora at OpenAI, announced the change on X, saying that the goal is to make sure “creators can keep using Sora as much as they want – as long as they pay for it.”

we are launching the ability to buy extra gens in sora today. we are doing this for two main reasons:

first, we have been quite amazed by how much our power users want to use sora, and the economics are currently completely unsustainable. we thought 30 free gens/day would be…

— Bill Peebles (@billpeeb) October 30, 2025

Why OpenAI Is Charging Now

According to Peebles, letting everyone create unlimited AI videos for free simply isn’t possible anymore. The company says the rising number of users and the cost of running powerful GPUs are making it harder to offer free access at scale.

In simple words, the more people generate videos, the higher the server costs go. So, this pay-per-use model helps OpenAI keep Sora running smoothly while also supporting professional creators who use it regularly.

Sora Update In The Future

It’s not only that but the company is reportedly working on a new “Sora economy,” where creators might be able to earn money through the app. For instance, the popular Cameo feature – which lets users create videos featuring real people or fictional characters – could soon include paid options. That means you might be able to charge others for using your likeness or characters in their videos. Currently, Sora is available only on iOS in limited regions, but OpenAI plans to expand access and eventually launch an Android version too.