What Is Sora? How to Use ChatGPT Sora

Written by Coursera Staff • Updated on

Sora uses generative AI to quickly create clips based on user prompts. Learn more about Sora, what it can do, and how to use it.

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Much like ChatGPT, OpenAI’s Sora whips up content based on user-generated prompts. Yet, while ChatGPT responds with text, Sora produces video clips you can share online. At a glance, here’s what you need to know about Sora:

  • Sora uses generative AI to produce video clips that can be shared directly on the platform itself, via direct messages, or on other social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok.

  • Sora is created by OpenAI, the company that’s also responsible for ChatGPT and Dall-E.

  • The most recent version of Sora, Sora 2, was released in September 2025 and is capable of producing more realistic content compared to its original model.

In this article, you’ll learn more about Sora, including what it can do, the differences between its two models, and how to start using it. Afterward, if you’d like to refine your AI prompting abilities, you might consider enrolling in the Google Prompting Essentials Specialization. 

What is Sora? ChatGPT Sora explained

Sora is an AI video generation platform created by OpenAI, the company behind popular generative AI tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E. Sora is a text-to-video model that creates short-form video content based on user-written text prompts, which describe how the desired output video clip should appear so that the platform can know what to generate. Typically, user prompts describe qualities like the content of the video, specific information about the sequence of events, and tonal or stylistic features, such as the video being in black-and-white, animated, or resembling a daytime TV soap opera (among countless other possibilities).

Sora clips can be shared through the Sora app as well as on other social media and video platforms. While many content creators might use Sora-generated videos simply for fun, they can also be used for commercial purposes, like producing marketing clips and educational videos. That said, professionals who are interested in using Sora for commercial work should make sure to check that they are legally permitted to do so before publishing videos for such purposes.

Read more: How to Use AI to Create Videos 

Sora vs Sora 2

Sora 2 is the most recent version of Sora, available on the Sora website or the dedicated mobile app. In February 2024, OpenAI launched the first Sora model, allowing users to quickly generate video content with text-based prompts. More than a year later, in September 2025, the company launched the updated Sora 2 model, which replaced the previous model and offered improved performance. 

Some key upgrades offered by Sora 2, according to OpenAI, include [1]:

  • The ability to produce more realistic videos that better reflect the real-world properties and dynamics of physical objects interacting with one another, such as a person diving into water or a gymnast performing a routine on a bar.

  • Greater control over outputs with more detailed prompting instructions, offering users the ability to describe multiple shots and detail specific event sequences with greater accuracy.

  • Add real-world elements like actual people into Sora 2 and insert them into generated environments with a fair degree of realism and accuracy. This allows users to create deepfake videos of themselves and others in AI-generated video content.

Is Sora free? 

Yes, Sora 2 is free to use. That said, Sora's free tier offers a limited number of generated videos to users, which may be restricted based on demand. Users with paid plans, such as ChatGPT Plus, can generate more videos than free users and create clips with higher visual quality and longer lengths. OpenAI's paid enterprise solutions similarly offer a broader set of features to organizations.

How to use Sora: Step-by-step guide to using ChatGPT Sora

Sora is a relatively easy-to-use multimodal AI that can be accessed either online or via the dedicated Sora mobile app. Here's how to get started:

1. Create an account with OpenAI 

The first step to using Sora is to create an OpenAI account. The account you create will be linked to your email and will also allow you to access other OpenAI products, like ChatGPT. This means that you'll also be able to get upgraded performance from Sora if you decide to subscribe to ChatGPT Plus in the future, or, alternatively, allow you to already access Sora if you have an existing ChatGPT account.

2. Prompt Sora. 

Once you have created your OpenAI account, you'll be able to start generating videos with Sora via its web interface or mobile app. Feel free to have fun and play around with your prompts to see what they produce, but providing clear instructions that describe your desired content is likely to produce the best results. Some questions to consider when composing a strong prompt for Sora include:

  • What's happening in the video? Specifically, who is in it, where are they, and what are they doing?

  • What visual style or tone is the video in? Is it supposed to be realistic, in the style of an anime, or an old commercial? Is it supposed to be funny, dramatic, or maybe just cute?

  • What sounds or dialogue (if any) do you want in your video?

Composing a prompt that answers these questions (essentially the “who, what, where, and when” of your video) will help guide Sora toward generating a clip that more closely matches your expectations.   

Play with characters. 

In Sora, characters (formerly called “cameos”) are saved likenesses of people, animals, or objects that can be used in generated clips. Characters can be created by uploading personal videos of yourself (your “personal character”), generated from photos or videos of an object or animal, or taken from clips created by Sora itself. You can share your characters with others, control how they can be used, or keep them private in your privacy settings. 

3. Publish and share your video. 

After you’ve generated your clip, you can publish and share it with others. Your clip can be published directly to the Sora app’s feed, sent via direct message to other users, or downloaded and shared on popular social media sites like YouTube or TikTok. Alternatively, you can keep the video completely private or continue to iterate on it until it's just right. 

Learn more about GenAI on Coursera 

Whether you're using it for work or fun, generative AI is opening up new ways to get things done. Keep learning more about AI with one of these free resources from Coursera: 

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