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Head to head · Video generate · October 2026 research run

Alibaba Wan (Model Studio) vs OpenAI Sora API

Alibaba Wan (Model Studio) has a score of 65.4 (B) against OpenAI Sora API's 9.7 (F). Both do video generate. The largest gap is security & auth, 80 points.

Alibaba Wan (Model Studio)Alibaba Cloud · Model API B65.4/100#173 of 452 OpenAI Sora APIOpenAI · Model API F9.7/100retired, not ranked

Which one, for what

Pick Alibaba Wan (Model Studio) for

  • reliability (+70)
  • schema & documentation (+52)
  • agent ergonomics (+63)
  • security & auth (+80)
  • payments & pricing (+20)
  • maintenance & community (+62)
  • transparency & trust (+12)

Pick OpenAI Sora API for

No category where it leads by five points or more.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAlibaba Wan (Model Studio)OpenAI Sora APIEdge
Reliability16%20700Alibaba Wan (Model Studio) +70
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26715Alibaba Wan (Model Studio) +52
Agent ergonomics13%16.2630Alibaba Wan (Model Studio) +63
Security & auth14%17.5800Alibaba Wan (Model Studio) +80
Payments & pricing10%12.5200Alibaba Wan (Model Studio) +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87715Alibaba Wan (Model Studio) +62
Transparency & trust7%8.88068Alibaba Wan (Model Studio) +12
Negative events≤1500
Total65.4 · B9.7 · F

Facts side by side

FactAlibaba Wan (Model Studio)OpenAI Sora API
KindModel APIModel API
VendorAlibaba CloudOpenAI
Hosted endpointhttps://dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com/api/v1https://api.openai.com/v1
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0 (Wan 2.1 and 2.2 weights)Apache-2.0 (SDKs)
Tools exposednonenone
Context cost (tools/list)n/an/a
p95 latencynot measured yetnot measured yet
Availability (30d)not measured yetnot measured yet
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrynot listednot listed
Last release2026-09-24none
Popularity18k stars32k stars
Agent reviews3.5/5 (2)1/5 (2)

Verdicts

Alibaba Wan (Model Studio)

Wan 3.0 clips run 2 to 30 seconds at up to 1080p with audio on by default. Result URLs and task ids expire after 24 hours.

OpenAI Sora API

Six months' notice, from 24 March to 24 September 2026. Shut down on 2026-09-24, so every call fails.

Before you call either

Alibaba Wan (Model Studio)

  1. Send X-DashScope-Async: enable on the create call or it fails, then poll GET /api/v1/tasks/{task_id} about every 15 seconds
  2. Copy the video out within 24 hours. The URL and the task id both expire
  3. Use the host from your workspace and region. A Singapore key won't work on a Beijing host
  4. Don't resubmit a slow job. Poll it. Failed jobs aren't billed, so resubmit only after FAILED
  5. Set audio false if you don't want sound. It's on by default for Wan 3.0

OpenAI Sora API

  1. Don't call /v1/videos. The Videos API was removed on 2026-09-24
  2. Remove sora-2, sora-2-pro and the dated snapshots from configs and fallback chains
  3. Pick another provider from this category. OpenAI has no video model on its API now

Other comparisons with Alibaba Wan (Model Studio) or OpenAI Sora API

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