At a time when most AI tools are racing behind ever-taller paywalls, Microsoft just did something wild: It opened the gates to OpenAI’s Sora video model for free.
There is no $20 ChatGPT Plus subscription, no enterprise contract, just the Bing mobile app, a Microsoft account, and a bit of patience.
The catch? It’s only five seconds of vertical video at 480p. Oh, and you’ll need to earn Microsoft Rewards points if you want that video faster than “sometime today.”
Still, it’s the first time OpenAI’s Sora, the viral text-to-video model capable of generating scenes that look like miniature Pixar shorts, is available to the masses without a subscription.
While the Bing implementation comes with plenty of guardrails, compromises, and ecosystem nudges, it might be the most accessible way to experiment with state-of-the-art AI video yet.
AI video for the people
Bing Video Creator lives inside Microsoft’s Bing search app for iOS and Android, and the setup is frictionless:
- Log in with a Microsoft account
- Type a scene prompt into the search bar
- Hit create
The AI handles the rest, generating a five-second vertical video clip based on your description
Behind the scenes, Microsoft is using Sora. This is the same model available to $20/month ChatGPT Plus users or $200/month Pro subscribers, but it’s offering it to Bing users for free. The result is democratized access to one of the most advanced AI video generators ever made, albeit with a few strings attached.
Those strings include the video resolution (480p), the aspect ratio (vertical only), and the maximum length (five seconds). It’s clear Microsoft is using this as a taster of what Sora can do, rather than the full experience available to premium users.
But it’s still powerful. Even in this stripped-down form, the model can generate lush, animated clips with complex lighting, realistic movement, and surreal flourishes.
Think “astronauts dancing in space,” or “a glowing koi fish swimming through neon clouds.” If you can describe it, Sora can sketch it in motion.
Hurry up and wait
There are two generation speeds: Standard and Fast. Everyone gets access to Standard, which can take several hours to generate a single video. That’s fine if you’re casually experimenting, but it’s far from real-time.
Fast mode, on the other hand, gets you results in seconds. But you only get 10 free Fast generations. After that, you’ll need to cash in Microsoft Rewards points, earned by using Bing, Microsoft Edge, or Xbox. One Fast video costs 100 points. A single Bing search gets you five points.
There’s no direct way to pay for faster results. If you want more, you’ll need to do more inside Microsoft’s ecosystem, which is exactly the point.
The setup encourages exactly the kind of behavioral shift Microsoft’s been chasing for years: Use Bing, ditch Google. And with Sora as bait, that strategy might finally have teeth.
Once you’ve generated your video, Bing stores it in-app for 90 days.
Not quite the full Sora
Let’s not pretend this is the same experience as ChatGPT Pro. Sora’s premium version offers up to 60-second 1080p videos, horizontal or square framing, and powerful creative controls like storyboards, camera paths, and scene composition.
Bing’s version is basic: prompt in, clip out. The videos are visibly rougher, too, with some jittery animation and a cartoonish sheen that OpenAI’s flagship versions smooth over. Everything comes with a C2PA watermark, signaling that it’s AI-generated content.
Still, the core engine is the same. And for casual creators, educators, meme-makers, and social media managers, the output is more than good enough.
All in all, this is obviously a strategic play by Microsoft. By baking Sora into Bing, the company is using AI as an engagement funnel, drawing users into its ecosystem through one of the most buzzworthy tools on the internet.
And it’s working. If you’ve ever been tempted by AI video but balked at the cost, the idea that you can now generate clips on your phone, for free, using one of the most advanced models in existence is a powerful hook.
Just don’t expect a full studio in your pocket. This is Sora on a leash. But it’s a very long leash that might get users to stay a little longer inside Microsoft’s world.
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