Sora 2's API shuts down 24 September 2026. Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash, Veo 3.1, Wan 3.0, Seedance 2.5, Kling 3.0 and MiniMax H3 compared on price per second, clip length and audio.
OpenAI's Sora 2 API shuts down today, September 24, 2026. OpenAI's deprecations page lists the Videos API, sora-2, sora-2-pro and the three dated snapshots (sora-2-2025-10-06, sora-2-2025-12-08, sora-2-pro-2025-10-06) for removal on that date. The "recommended replacement" column holds a dash. If your pipeline still calls Sora, it breaks today, and OpenAI names nothing to move to.
It is not the only deadline this month. Google's Gemini API deprecations page, last updated September 23, 2026, gives gemini-omni-flash-preview a shutdown date of September 30, 2026, with gemini-omni-1.1-flash as the replacement. Kling's API retired a batch of older models on September 15, 2026. A log posted to GitHub on September 18 shows requests to kling-v1-6 now return "The model 'kling-v1-6' has been discontinued and is no longer available."
This guide covers the models worth moving to. Prices come from vendor pricing pages where I could read them, and from named resellers where I could not. Arena scores come from Artificial Analysis (read September 24, 2026) and Arena, formerly LMArena (board dated September 21, 2026). Both move every week.
Use Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash as your default: it leads both blind arenas, costs $0.1014 per second at 720p with audio (5,792 tokens at $17.50 per million, which Google's pricing page rounds to "approximately $0.10 per second," per eesel), and extends to 40 seconds. If you need one uninterrupted take longer than 10 seconds, use Wan 3.0, which renders up to 30 seconds in a single pass at $0.10 per second at 720p. If the clip depends on many reference assets at once, such as a product, a face and a voice, use Seedance 2.5, which accepts up to 50 references. If you must run on your own hardware, use LTX-2.3, because the stronger open-weight model, MiniMax H3, is licensed away from the US, EU, UK and South Korea.
Everything below is the detail behind those sentences.
| Model | Best for | Main weakness | Price (720p, per second) | Native audio | |---|---|---|---|---| | Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash | Default text-to-video, conversational edits | False-positive refusals; uploaded-video editing blocked in EEA, Switzerland, UK | ~$0.10, audio included | Yes, synced dialogue | | Veo 3.1 / Fast / Lite | Long extended scenes, native 4K | 8-second base clip; extensions are 720p only | $0.40 / $0.10 / $0.05 | Yes | | Wan 3.0 | 30-second single takes, document-to-video | Closed weights; application-only access at launch | $0.10 | Yes, multilingual voice | | MiniMax H3 | Image-to-video; open weights outside restricted regions | License excludes US, EU, UK, South Korea | ~$0.08 at 768p (resellers) | Yes, stereo dialogue | | Seedance 2.5 | Multi-reference ads up to 30 seconds | Native output stops at 720p | $0.2312 | Yes | | Seedance 2.0 | Cheaper Seedance for clips up to 15 seconds | Real-face references need verification | ~$0.15 | Yes | | Kling 3.0 | Multi-shot storyboards, 4K | Iteration cost adds up | $0.126 with audio | Yes, five languages | | Kling 3.0 Omni | Element-based character consistency | No native audio with video input | $0.112 with audio | Yes | | HappyHorse 1.1 | Dialogue with lip-sync in seven languages | Specs mostly vendor-reported; 1080p cap | $0.0988 (OpenRouter) | Yes, lip-synced | | Grok Imagine Video 1.5 | Cheap drafts at 480p | Reference-to-video capped at 720p | $0.14 | Yes | | PixVerse V6 | Social clips up to 15 seconds | Multi-character audio sync inconsistent | $0.12 at pack rate | Yes, optional | | LTX-2.3 | Self-hosting, 4K at 50fps | Ranks far below the leaders | $0.04 (Pro) | Yes | | Sora 2 | Nothing new | API shuts down September 24, 2026 | $0.10 | Yes |
Prices are normalized to one second of 720p output with audio on, except MiniMax H3 (768p). Real bills differ, because failed renders, re-rolls, reference-video input and 1080p or 4K finishing all change the total.
Google opened Omni Flash to developers in public preview on June 30, 2026, and released gemini-omni-1.1-flash on August 27, 2026, per Google's deprecations table. It generates video with synchronized audio from text, images and video, and you refine the result in plain language across turns. Version 1.1 added start and end frames, extension in 10-second steps up to 40 seconds, and 360p drafts that upscale to 4K. Native output is 720p. Higher resolutions are upscales.
Google bills 5,792 output tokens per second of 720p video at $17.50 per million tokens, which is about $0.10 per second, per the Gemini API pricing page as reproduced by Apidog and eesel. A 10-second clip costs about $1. Artificial Analysis ranks it first in text-to-video with audio at 1233, listed as "Gemini Omni Flash" with no version number. Arena ranks 1.1 first at 1516 ±15 on only 1,784 votes, with the preview model second at 1513 (September 21, 2026).
The week-one flaw is refusals. The most-upvoted complaint thread on r/singularity is titled "Gemini Omni Flash is the most censored video model," per Agentpedia's summary, where user manubfr wrote: "All of my innocent clips were rejected by Omni. The only vids it will edit are the ones it created itself… EDIT: I am in the UK and this explains it." Google's docs, as quoted by Agentpedia, state: "Editing uploaded videos is not currently available for users in the European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland, and the United Kingdom (editing videos generated by the model is supported)." It will not turn a still photo plus audio into a talking person. You cannot upload an audio reference; you describe the sound in text.
Google released the Veo 3.1 preview on October 15, 2025, and Veo 3.1 Lite on March 31, 2026, per Google's deprecations table. Google's Veo docs give 4, 6 or 8-second clips at 720p, 1080p or 4K with native audio, up to three reference images, and extension in 7-second steps up to 148 seconds. Extended output is 720p only.
Standard Veo 3.1 costs $0.40 per second at 720p and 1080p and $0.60 at 4K. Fast costs $0.10, $0.12 and $0.30. Lite costs $0.05 and $0.08, with no 4K. Those are Google's rates as reproduced by VentureBeat. On Artificial Analysis, Veo 3.1 scores 1088, Fast 1085 and Lite 1083. On Arena, the best Veo 3.1 entry scores 1364, about 150 points behind Omni.
The flaw is value. Standard Veo 3.1 costs four times Omni at 720p and ranks lower on both boards. The 8-second base clip forces extension for anything longer. On Google's developer forum, a user reported that the docs list reference images for veo-3.1-generate-preview while the API returned "not supported." Veo has one advantage: in Leaxor's September 13 check, Google's content labels were the only ones that validated against the official C2PA trust list.
Alibaba opened Wan 3.0 as an application-only beta on August 6, 2026, and made it generally available on August 24. It renders 2 to 30 seconds in one pass from text, images, audio, video, and documents such as PDF, PPT and XLS files. Alibaba Cloud's pricing is $0.05 per second at 480p, $0.10 at 720p and $0.20 at 1080p, so a 30-second 1080p clip costs $6.
It ranks second on Artificial Analysis with audio at 1229 and first without audio at 1335. On Arena it sits sixth at 1476 ±13. The boards disagree, and that disagreement is information.
The flaw is access. Atlas Cloud checked 33 repositories and found "No Wan 3.0 weights exist anywhere," yet wan27.org claims "Wan 3.0 is open-weight under the Apache 2.0 license." It is not. WinBuzzer found no model files in Alibaba's Wan repositories on August 25, and access runs through Alibaba's hosted Model Studio. A 30-second render also means a failed take costs three times a failed 10-second one. The older Wan 2.7 caps at 15 seconds and scores 1149 on Artificial Analysis, which lists it at $9.00 per minute of 1080p.
MiniMax released H3 through its API on July 31, 2026, and published the weights on August 3 under the MiniMax H3 Community License. It is a 33B-parameter transformer. It makes 4 to 15-second clips at 24fps with native stereo audio, including dialogue. The hosted API outputs 2K. The open checkpoint outputs 768p; the 2K stage and the Context-IR preprocessing stay API-only.
Artificial Analysis lists H3 at $7.80 per minute of 1080p and ranks it fourth at 1220, the top open-weight model. fal's post-trained H3 Max ranks third at 1227. Leaxor sells H3 at $0.08 per second at 768p. On Arena's image-to-video board, H3 was first at 1494 on August 28.
The flaw is the license. Runpod reads it as appearing "to not authorize use in the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, or South Korea," including use of outputs in those territories. Artificial Analysis reported the planned terms allow commercial use for organizations under $20M revenue. In those four markets, the hosted API is your only route.
ByteDance launched Seedance 2.5 in Jimeng and Dreamina on July 31, 2026, with the developer API following on August 7. It makes 4 to 30-second clips at 24fps with audio included, and takes up to 50 references: 30 images, 10 videos and 10 audio clips, per Ofox's model page. Native output is 480p or 720p. Cellcog reports that the 1080p and 4K tiers on resellers are provider-side upscales.
Replicate charges $0.1028 per second at 480p and $0.2312 at 720p, matching BytePlus's launch rate, per Cellcog on August 22. A 30-second 720p clip costs about $6.94. On Arena, it ranks seventh at 1474 ±9. JoJo Ventures tested it against Omni 1.1 and still preferred Seedance 2.5 "for peak creative polish."
The flaw is price and resolution. Cellcog found "the same generation costs anywhere from ten cents to over a dollar per second" depending on the platform. At 720p, it costs more than twice Omni.
Seedance 2.0 dates from February 2026. It ranks fifth on both boards: 1210 on Artificial Analysis and 1479 on Arena, where its 56,318 votes make it the most-tested model near the top. On BytePlus, a 5-second 720p clip costs $0.76, about $0.15 per second with audio, per useapi.net's July 2026 breakdown. Seedance 2.0 Fast and Mini are cheaper and cap at 720p.
The flaw is faces. The official API restricts real-face references to verified assets or an enterprise contract starting at $14,000 a year, per useapi.net. BytePlus also requires a non-refundable prepaid pack of at least $30.10 that expires after 90 days.
Kuaishou released Kling 3.0 in February 2026. It makes 3 to 15-second clips, with a multi-shot mode that holds up to six shots in one prompt, and native audio. Kling's official API pricing is $0.084 per second at 720p without audio, $0.126 with audio, $0.168 at 1080p with audio, and $0.42 at 4K. On Artificial Analysis the 1080p Pro tier scores 1095 and the 720p Standard tier 1089. Kling 3.0 does not appear on Arena's text-to-video board.
The flaw is iteration cost. A Reddit user quoted by Soravideo put it plainly: "Kling's pricing is brutal for iterations. $4.20 per 15 second test kills the experimentation flow." Dialogue covers five languages, and The Rundown reports that unsupported dialogue may be translated to English.
Kling 3.0 Omni replaced Kling O1 in February 2026 and extends clips to 15 seconds. Kling's element library guide allows up to 7 images or elements without a video input, and 4 with one. The official API charges $0.112 per second at 720p with audio and $0.14 at 1080p. On Artificial Analysis it scores 1082 at 720p and 1075 at 1080p, below plain Kling 3.0.
The flaw is the audio gap. Native audio is not available when you supply a video input. Video input also lifts the 1080p rate to $0.168 per second.
Alibaba's ATH unit released HappyHorse 1.1 in late June 2026. It makes 3 to 15-second clips at 720p or 1080p and 24fps, generates audio jointly with video, and lip-syncs in seven languages. It accepts up to nine reference images. Weights are closed. OpenRouter charges $0.0988 per second at 720p and $0.1278 at 1080p. On Artificial Analysis it ranks eighth at 1147. HappyHorse 1.0 scores 1119.
The flaw is verification. Its parameter count, generation speed and 14.60% lip-sync word error rate are vendor-reported and unconfirmed by third parties. Output stops at 1080p. InVideo warns that reseller prices vary widely and advises pricing against Alibaba's Bailian rate.
SpaceXAI's Grok Imagine Video 1.5 went live on OpenRouter on July 20, 2026, after a June API preview. It makes 1 to 15-second clips at up to 1080p with native audio. The xAI API charges $0.08 per second at 480p, $0.14 at 720p and $0.25 at 1080p, plus $0.01 per input image, per The Rundown. Arena ranks its agent variant fourth at 1492 ±18, marked preliminary on 1,218 votes. Artificial Analysis lists only the older Grok Imagine Video, at 1065.
The flaw is the ceilings. Reference-to-video caps at 720p. Editing caps at 8.7 seconds and 720p. The API accepts three image references against five in the consumer launch. Only the older model accepts video input.
PixVerse announced V6 on March 30, 2026. It makes 1 to 15-second clips at up to 1080p, with optional audio in the same pass, multi-shot cuts and up to seven references, per EmpirioLabs' docs. PixVerse's own table charges 12 credits per second at 720p with audio and 23 at 1080p. At $10 per 1,000 credits, that is $0.12 and $0.23. fal charges $0.060 and $0.115, per Novoads. Artificial Analysis ranks it at 1076.
The flaw is voices. Atlas Cloud's review reports that multi-character audio sync is inconsistent, based on user reports. PixVerse's API plans start at $100 a month.
Lightricks released LTX-2.3 on March 5, 2026. It is a 22B-parameter open-weight model that generates synchronized audio and video at up to native 4K and 50fps. Lightricks' own ltx-2.3-fast page on Replicate lists durations up to 20 seconds, and notes that "Durations longer than 10 seconds are only available at 1080p with 24 or 25 FPS." The license is free for commercial use under $10 million in annual revenue and paid above it. Digital Applied and fal describe it as Apache 2.0; Arena lists it under the LTX-2 community license.
Lightricks' API charges $0.03 per second at 720p for LTX-2.3 Fast and $0.04 for Pro, rising to $0.24 and $0.32 at 4K. The flaw is quality. Artificial Analysis scores Fast at 975 and Pro at 958, about 260 points below the leader. Its successor, LTX-2.5, scores 1055.
OpenAI released Sora 2 on September 30, 2025. Until today it cost $0.10 per second for sora-2 at 720p and $0.30 to $0.70 for sora-2-pro, per OpenAI's pricing as reproduced by Leaxor. Arena scores Sora 2 Pro at 1368 and Sora 2 at 1343. The consumer app closed on April 26, 2026. The API closes today. Do not build on it.
Social ads. Use Omni 1.1 Flash for 10-second spots. For a 15 to 30-second spot that must hold a product, a model and a voice, use Seedance 2.5 and accept 720p.
Talking-head and dialogue. Use HappyHorse 1.1 for multilingual lip-sync, or MiniMax H3 through the hosted API. Omni will not animate a still photo of a real person into speech.
Product shots in motion. Use Seedance 2.5 for reference fidelity, or Kling 3.0 Omni with elements. Use Veo 3.1 if the deliverable must be native 4K.
Lip-sync and dubbing. None of the generators above is a dubbing tool. For existing footage, use a dedicated lip-sync model such as Lipsync-2 or Kling Lipsync. I did not verify their pricing for this piece.
Long-form or multi-scene. Wan 3.0 gives 30 seconds with no seams. Veo 3.1 extends to 148 seconds, but at 720p. Omni extends to 40 seconds. Beyond that, every model means stitching.
Animating a still image. Test MiniMax H3 and Omni 1.1 first. They held first and second place on Arena's image-to-video board at 1494 and 1488 on August 28.
Running it on your own hardware. In the US, EU, UK or South Korea, use LTX-2.3, or Wan 2.2, which Arena lists under Apache 2.0. Elsewhere, MiniMax H3 is stronger if your revenue fits its license.
- September 24, 2026: OpenAI Videos API, sora-2, sora-2-pro, sora-2-2025-10-06, sora-2-2025-12-08, sora-2-pro-2025-10-06. No replacement named. - September 30, 2026: Google gemini-omni-flash-preview. Replacement: gemini-omni-1.1-flash. - September 15, 2026 (passed): Kling API early models, the Kolors virtual try-on API and 122 effect templates. ComfyUI's docs list V1.5, V1.6, V2.1 and V2.1 Master; kling-v2-master also fails. Kling 2.6 still works, and so does the Kling 2.6 model on Opaxes. - June 30, 2026 (passed): Google veo-2.0-generate-001, veo-3.0-generate-001, veo-3.0-fast-generate-001 on the Gemini API. - November 12, 2025 (passed): Google veo-3.0-generate-preview and veo-3.0-fast-generate-preview. - April 26, 2026 (passed): Sora web and app. - No date announced: Veo 3.1, Veo 3.1 Fast and Veo 3.1 Lite preview IDs, and gemini-omni-1.1-flash. Google says its listed dates are the "earliest possible dates" and that it gives advance notice. - Removed, date not confirmed: the original LTX-2 API models, per The Rundown.
Arena scores do not decide your case. On Artificial Analysis, Omni's 1233 and Wan 3.0's 1229 sit inside each other's confidence intervals of ±7 and ±9. That is a tie. The boards also disagree: Wan 3.0 is second on Artificial Analysis and sixth on Arena. Voters judge single short clips from the site's prompts. They do not see your product, your refusals, or your tenth revision.
Run one real brief through two models side by side. Score three things: did it follow the instruction, how many rounds did it take to reach an approved clip, and what did those rounds cost. The cheapest per-second price often loses on the third number.
Opaxes is built for that comparison: run the same brief through several models on one credit balance and compare the results.