Sora

Two forces shape Sora's limits: where regulators let it run, and what its compute costs. At the December 2024 launch OpenAI shipped it to ChatGPT Plus and Pro globally but explicitly carved out the EU and UK, where paying subscribers had zero access for roughly 81 days until the block lifted in late February 2025 — the delay pinned to EU AI Act compliance. Sora 2 (October 2025) tightened content: real-person likeness now needs opt-in 'Cameo,' and third-party likeness prompts return a guardrail error, after unauthorized celebrity videos surfaced. The sharpest turns are economic. In late October 2025 OpenAI added paid credit packs ($4 for 10 extra generations) and warned free allowances would shrink, the Sora lead calling the economics 'completely unsustainable'; days later, on 1 November, the free daily limit dropped from roughly 30 generations to about 6 — an ~80% cut — with the aside that 'our GPUs are melting.' Geography eventually loosened; usage caps have moved hard and repeatedly toward paid metering. The free tier is not a stable base to build on — daily allowances have already been cut by design and heavy use is being nudged toward per-generation charges. Plan for the paid credit path if iteration volume matters, and don't bank on today's free quota surviving the next compute crunch.