TL;DR
Google opened free 1080p AI video generation to every Google account holder on September 23, 2026, the same day OpenAI's Sora API shut down permanently, marking a decisive shift in who controls the consumer AI video market.
What happened
- Google Vids now generates and upscales AI video to 1080p at no cost for any Google or Workspace account, accessible at vids.new.
- The tool runs on Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash, accepting text prompts, photos, audio, or existing clips as input, with generation times under 30 seconds in testing.
- New editing controls include scene extension (consistent lighting and characters), exact clip duration setting, and upscaling of older lower-resolution clips without regenerating from scratch.
- Every output carries an invisible SynthID watermark from Google DeepMind, verifiable via the separate SynthID Detector tool.
- The launch coincides exactly with OpenAI shutting down the Sora API, the last surviving piece of that product after the consumer app closed in April 2026.
Why it matters
- Free 1080p video removes the last major cost barrier for content creation: no software license, no editor, no stock footage subscription, just a browser tab.
- Google is compressing the market from both ends: free consumer access above and a Veo 3.1 Lite API price cut to $0.05 per second for developers below.
- The Sora timing is not coincidental. With OpenAI fully out of the video generation market, Google faces only Chinese rivals like Kling and Hunyuan Video on price.
- Gemini Omni launched in May 2026 as a paid feature; folding it into a free Vids tier is the broadest public release of that model yet, seeding adoption at scale.
- Generation quotas differ by account tier: personal accounts get a standard allowance, paid AI plans unlock more, and Workspace Business and Enterprise subscribers get larger pools plus admin controls.
What to watch next
- Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite text-to-speech is the next announced feature, bringing 100-plus language voiceover narration directly into the same workflow.
- Watch whether Chinese competitors Kling and Hunyuan Video respond with further price cuts or free tiers to match Google's consumer push.
- Monitor whether OpenAI re-enters video generation with a successor product, or cedes the space entirely to Google and Chinese rivals.
Originally published on Present of AI, a daily source-linked AI news timeline. Read the full timeline or browse the open dataset.