EDIT / UPDATE (later on 2026-07-08): One of the stuck jobs finally completed after ~3h 23m. progress stayed at 0 the entire time, then jumped straight to 100. So this is a severe MULTI-HOUR render-queue backlog, not a permanent failure — jobs do eventually drain. (Normal render time earlier the same day was ~80-90s.) Question still stands: is anyone else seeing multi-hour Sora 2 render times today?
Evidence — the completed job (raw API response):
id: video_6a4e10e7e4e8819181f33bca64359fec00ab4484f41e50b0
model: sora-2 (4s, 720x1280)
created_at: 1783501031 → 2026-07-08 08:57:11 UTC
completed_at: 1783513216 → 2026-07-08 12:20:16 UTC (~3h 23m)
status: completed
progress: 100
Since ~07:00 UTC on July 8, 2026, all our Sora 2 API video jobs are severely backlogged.
- POST /v1/videos is accepted normally (returns a valid id, status “in_progress”)
- but progress stays at 0 for hours before it renders (one job took ~3h 23m; earlier the same day the same job took ~80-90s)
- while stuck, expires_at stays null and error stays null
Tested on TWO separate OpenAI accounts, and with a minimal request via direct curl:
{“model”:“sora-2”,“prompt”:“a red cube rotating”,“seconds”:“4”,“size”:“720x1280”}
→ same result on both: progress 0 for hours.
The status endpoint (GET /v1/videos/{id}) also intermittently returns HTTP 503
{“error”:{“message”:“Server error”,“type”:“server_error”}}.
Note: the stall started around 16:00 KST (07:00 UTC). status.openai.com shows nothing for Sora (Sora isn’t a tracked component there).
Is anyone else seeing multi-hour Sora 2 render times / progress stuck at 0 today? Is this a known capacity/queue issue as the API winds down toward the Sep 24 sunset?
Hey lzao, welcome to the forum!
That does sound frustrating.
Based on what you've shared, this looks more like a render queue backlog than a permanent failure or a request formatting issue.
That said, there may not be much you can change on the client side. A few things that are worth trying:
- Avoid aggressively resubmitting the same job, since queued jobs may still complete.
- Poll GET /v1/videos/{id} with exponential backoff.
- Treat intermittent 503 responses as retryable.
- Set an internal timeout or alert threshold based on your normal expected render time.
Based on the information available, I don't see enough evidence to conclude this is related to the September 24 Sora API sunset. While the sunset confirms the API is being phased out, this behavior is more consistent with a temporary service issue.
Avinash