Sora is OpenAI's text-to-video model, and when it was first demonstrated in early 2024 it looked like something from the future. Describe a scene in words and Sora generates a video clip. Not a rough animation. Not a slideshow. A smooth, photorealistic video of scenes that do not exist.

The quality of early demonstrations was striking: a camera tracking through a Tokyo street at night, a dog frolicking through snow, a view from inside a glass submarine. The promise was significant.

What Sora does

You describe what you want to see. Sora generates a video clip of up to a minute in length. You can control the style (cinematic, animated, documentary), the camera movement (tracking, static, sweeping), the mood, and the content.

It handles scenes with multiple subjects, realistic lighting, and complex movement far better than earlier text-to-video tools. The results are not perfect, but they are further along than most people expect.

Practical uses

For most businesses, Sora is currently most useful for concept work and creative projects rather than finished production. Strong use cases include generating concept video for marketing pitches, creating atmospheric background footage for presentations, visualising ideas before commissioning proper production, and producing social media content where stylised AI aesthetics are appropriate.

Storyboarding is a particularly good fit. Rather than hand-drawing storyboards for a video shoot, you can generate rough video concepts that communicate the visual idea clearly.

Where it falls short

AI video generation still struggles with consistency across a long clip. Characters can shift slightly between frames. Text in video rarely renders correctly. Hands remain a weak point across all AI image and video tools.

Sora produces short clips rather than long-form content, which limits its use for anything beyond 60-second pieces without stitching multiple generations together.

How to access it

Sora is included in ChatGPT Plus at £20/month and ChatGPT Pro at £200/month, with higher usage limits on the Pro plan. It is available at sora.com for subscribers.

Pricing

ChatGPT Plus: £20/month. Includes Sora access with standard usage limits. ChatGPT Pro: £200/month. Includes expanded Sora usage and higher video quality settings.

How to get set up

You need a ChatGPT Plus account to access Sora. Go to chatgpt.com and sign up or log in.
Upgrade to Plus (£20/month) by clicking your account icon and selecting Upgrade to Plus
Once on Plus, click Sora in the left sidebar of ChatGPT
Type a description of the video scene you want, for example: "A timelapse of a market town high street from morning to evening, warm British summer light"
Click Generate and wait a minute or two for your video to appear

Time to get started: Under 5 minutes (once you have ChatGPT Plus) Do you need a credit card? Yes — requires ChatGPT Plus at £20/month

Sora