“We’re saying goodbye to Sora,” the company posted on X.

The shutdown marks the end of one of the most high-profile consumer AI product launches of the past year.

OpenAI said it would later provide timelines for winding down the app, as well as details on how people can preserve their work.

The closing comes at a sensitive time for OpenAI, which faces increasing questions about the sustainability of its business model, with costs skyrocketing far faster than revenue despite having about one billion daily users worldwide.

According to The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman announced the changes to staff on Tuesday.

It also follows reports that OpenAI’s applications chief, Fidji Simo, told staff this month that they could not be distracted by “side quests”, outlining a push toward agentic AI capabilities.

These are AI systems that can work autonomously on computers to write software, analyze data and carry out other tasks.