# Magic Hour MCP vs OpenAI Sora API

> Magic Hour MCP scores 50.7 (D) to OpenAI Sora's 9.4 (F) for video generation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/magic-hour-mcp-vs-openai-sora
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/magic-hour-mcp-vs-openai-sora.md (~3,700 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

OpenAI Sora API shut down on 2026-09-24. Magic Hour MCP scores 50.7 (D) on agent readiness against OpenAI Sora API's 9.4 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. OpenAI Sora API leads on transparency & trust. Both do video generation.

- Magic Hour MCP: grade D, 50.7/100, rank #1053 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/magic-hour-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/magic-hour-mcp.json
- OpenAI Sora API: grade F, 9.4/100, rank retired, not ranked. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-sora.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-sora.json
- Best video generation for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/video-generation/index.md
- All 183 video comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/video-generation/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Magic Hour MCP (D)

Good for: Agents making short-form video and images, from talking photos and ads to lip-synced translations, on a credit plan.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 35 against 0
- Schema & documentation, 82 against 15
- Agent ergonomics, 55 against 0
- Security & auth, 45 against 0
- Payments & pricing, 15 against 0
- Maintenance & community, 75 against 15

Also in its favour:
- Still running. OpenAI Sora API has shut down

Watch for: About 160 KB of tool definitions

### OpenAI Sora API (F)

Good for: Nothing new. It shut down on 2026-09-24.

Ahead on:
- Transparency & trust, 65 against 58

Watch for: Shut down on 2026-09-24, so every call fails


## Why the edge

### Schema & documentation: Magic Hour MCP +67

- Magic Hour MCP (82): All 50 tools read from tools/list with JSON Schema inputs and 29 enums, built from Magic Hour's OpenAPI specification (25). llms.txt (10). Long descriptions with a get_workflow_guide tool for choosing between them (17 of 20). Typed inputs with enums and no free-form objects (15). Worked examples; error responses not documented (5 of 15). Dated changelog with entries on 3 to 5 November 2026 (10 of 15, product changelog rather than MCP versions). 25 + 10 + 17 + 15 + 5 + 10 = 82.
- OpenAI Sora API (15): What's left is the record. No live contract or reference for /v1/videos to grade (0 for the contract, llms.txt coverage, descriptions, typed inputs and examples). The video generation guide still loads, with a banner saying the API was shut down on 24 September 2026, that no one-to-one replacement exists and that the guide is kept for reference, but it describes an API that can't be called and names no migration path, so it earns nothing here. The deprecations page lists the API and all five model IDs and snapshots with the announcement and removal dates (15).

### Maintenance & community: Magic Hour MCP +60

- Magic Hour MCP (75): Changelog entries on 3, 4 and 5 November 2026 (30). More than three dated entries in 90 days (20). Changelog and support; issues on the public MCP repository not read (10 of 25). Registry entry io.github.magichourhq/magic-hour (0.1.1, 4 November) (15). No package health read (0). 30 + 20 + 10 + 15 + 0 = 75. Registry presence read from Anchor Terminal's own daily import of the official MCP registry (/api/v1/registry.json, 6 November 2026), not the registry's API.
- OpenAI Sora API (15): No release since the 2025-12-08 snapshot and none to come (0). Notice was six months, from 24 March to 24 September 2026, which meets OpenAI's published minimum for GA models, but no replacement was named (15). No public channel for Sora remains (0). The official SDKs live on, but they no longer reach a video model; the changelog through 16 October and the models page show none (0).

### Agent ergonomics: Magic Hour MCP +55

- Magic Hour MCP (55): 50 tools totalling about 160 KB of definitions (5). list_saved_items and project getters; limited size controls (10 of 20). Error handling not documented (5 of 20). Every tool annotated, 14 read-only and the three deletes marked destructive (20). Few required inputs and SDKs (Python, Node and others listed in the docs) (15). 5 + 10 + 5 + 20 + 15 = 55.
- OpenAI Sora API (0): Nothing callable remains, so context cost, errors and retries can't be assessed (0).

### Security & auth: Magic Hour MCP +45

- Magic Hour MCP (45): API keys as Bearer tokens or OAuth through the Claude and ChatGPT connectors (20 of 30). Destructive deletes are annotated; no read-only key (8 of 20). Tools return generated media, not third-party text (10). No audit log found (0). No security.txt or certifications found; face and voice tools come with policy limits in the terms (7 of 20). 20 + 8 + 10 + 0 + 7 = 45.
- OpenAI Sora API (0): No live surface to secure. The OpenAI key model and data terms belong to the openai-api listing (0).

### Reliability: Magic Hour MCP +35

- Magic Hour MCP (35): Status page at status.magichour.ai, all services online, with maintenance and previous incidents sections; no MCP component read (15). Incident history not read (5). No API rate limits found (0). No retry guidance found; wait_for_* tools poll long jobs (5 of 15). No SLA found (0). Not labelled beta (10). 15 + 5 + 0 + 5 + 0 + 10 = 35.
- OpenAI Sora API (0): Retired, so there's nothing left to measure. OpenAI removed the Videos API and every Sora 2 model and snapshot on 24 September 2026. On 17 October an unauthenticated request to /v1/videos returned 404, where /v1/models returned 401 (0).

### Payments & pricing: Magic Hour MCP +15

- Magic Hour MCP (15): No machine payment protocol (0). Plan and credit-pack prices public, per-tool credit costs not read (10). 400 sign-up credits with no card, but API access sits on paid plans (5 of 20). A person signs up for a key in a browser (0). Tool discovery is open, but calls need a key (0). 0 + 10 + 5 + 0 = 15.
- OpenAI Sora API (0): Nothing to buy. There was never a machine payment protocol (0), the pricing page listed no video model on 17 October (0), there was no free tier (0) and sign-up needed a person (0).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Magic Hour MCP | OpenAI Sora API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 35 | 0 | Magic Hour MCP +35 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 15 | Magic Hour MCP +67 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 55 | 0 | Magic Hour MCP +55 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 45 | 0 | Magic Hour MCP +45 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 15 | 0 | Magic Hour MCP +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 15 | Magic Hour MCP +60 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 58 | 65 | OpenAI Sora API +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **50.7 · D** | **9.4 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Magic Hour MCP | OpenAI Sora API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | Model API |
| Vendor | Magic Hour AI, Inc. | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.magichour.ai/` | `https://api.openai.com/v1` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) |
| Tools exposed | 50 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.magichourhq/magic-hour` | not listed |
| Terms last updated | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | none | 32k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 1/5 (2) |

## How the scores have moved

### Magic Hour MCP

No score change since it was listed.

### OpenAI Sora API

- -0.3 on 8 October 2026: checklist

## Verdicts

**Magic Hour MCP.** Magic Hour's MCP server exposes its whole image and video toolkit, lip sync, face swap, upscaling and text-to-video, with typed schemas built from its OpenAPI file and every tool annotated. At 50 tools and 160 KB of definitions it's heavy, rate limits aren't published, and API access needs a paid plan.

**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

### Magic Hour MCP

1. Call get_workflow_guide first to pick the right tool
2. Use the wait_for_* tools instead of polling project status yourself
3. Check credits with get_account_info before long video jobs
4. Only swap faces or voices of people who consented

### 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

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Magic Hour MCP or OpenAI Sora API?

Magic Hour MCP scores 50.7 (D) on agent readiness against OpenAI Sora API's 9.4 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. OpenAI Sora API leads on transparency & trust.

### Do Magic Hour MCP and OpenAI Sora API need an API key?

Magic Hour MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. OpenAI Sora API needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Magic Hour MCP and OpenAI Sora API without installing anything?

Yes. Magic Hour MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.magichour.ai/ and OpenAI Sora API at https://api.openai.com/v1.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/magic-hour-mcp-vs-openai-sora.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/magic-hour-mcp-vs-openai-sora.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "magic-hour-mcp", "b": "openai-sora"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare magic-hour-mcp openai-sora`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/magic-hour-mcp.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-sora.json

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp