# Magic Hour MCP vs OpenAI Sora API (slim)

> 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.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/magic-hour-mcp-vs-openai-sora.md (~3,700 tokens) · this version ~1,830 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/magic-hour-mcp-vs-openai-sora.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/magic-hour-mcp-vs-openai-sora
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

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: D 50.7, rank #1053 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/magic-hour-mcp.min.md
- OpenAI Sora API: F 9.4, rank retired, not ranked · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-sora.min.md
- Magic Hour MCP, 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 Still running. OpenAI Sora API has shut down.
- OpenAI Sora API, good for Nothing new. It shut down on 2026-09-24. Ahead on Transparency & trust, 65 against 58.

| Category | Magic Hour MCP | OpenAI Sora API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 35 | 0 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 82 | 15 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 55 | 0 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 45 | 0 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 15 | 0 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 75 | 15 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 58 | 65 |

| Fact (where they differ) | 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 |
| Licence | none | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) |
| Tools exposed | 50 | none |
| 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) |

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).)