Kong AI Gateway

Best for: Prototypes and side projects - free to start, no sales call; Regulated or enterprise workloads - compliance attestations and an enterprise plan; AI agents and automation - an agent-ready surface (MCP / llms.txt)

Pricing model

Hybrid (base + usage) [2]konghq.com/pricing“Plus: Charged per Gateway per month (bill monthly). Enterprise: Custom pricing, billed annually.”konghq.com/pricing“AI Gateway: 5 unique LLM models; $100/month per additional model”

Published pricing

✓ Yes [3]konghq.com/pricing“Plus: Charged per Gateway per month. AI Gateway model proxy: $100/month per unique model. Additional 1M API requests: $200/month.”

Free tier

✓ Yes [4]konghq.com/pricing“Free Trial: $0 for 30 days (no credit card required) — Enterprise functionality — for free — for 30 days”konghq.com/blog/product-releases/announcing-kong-ai-gateway“Kong has released six new open source AI plugins in Kong Gateway 3.6 that turn every Kong Gateway deployment into an AI Gateway. These new plugins are available today and are entirely free and open source for everyone.”

Free tier details

Kong Gateway (the underlying engine) is available under Apache 2.0 license and can be self-hosted for free; the AI plugins were released as entirely free and open source. Kong Konnect offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required (enterprise functionality during trial).

Self-serve signup

✓ Yes [5]konghq.com/pricing“Self-serve signup available for Free and Plus tiers. Enterprise requires contacting sales.”

Requires sales call

✗ No

Enterprise plan

✓ Yes [6]konghq.com/pricing“Enterprise: Custom pricing, billed annually. Unlimited gateways and developer portals. Volume discounts available.”

• Semantic caching
• Fallback / routing
• Spend controls
• Observability
• Guardrails
• Self-hosted

Supported actions

unified_chat_completions, openai_compatible_api, model_routing, automatic_fallback, load_balancing, semantic_caching, prompt_caching, spend_limits, budgets, rate_limiting, observability_logging, tracing, guardrails, pii_redaction, virtual_keys, byo_provider_keys, prompt_management, semantic_routing, prompt_injection_detection, content_safety_integration, token_metering, chargeback_showback, mcp_proxy, a2a_traffic_governance, rag_injection, llm_as_judge, canary_releases, opentelemetry_support, streaming [7]developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/“Load Balancing: Distributes requests using consistent hashing, lowest-latency, usage-based, round-robin, and semantic matching algorithms; Semantic Caching: Semantically cache responses from LLMs”developer.konghq.com/plugins/ai-proxy/“The plugin supports 15+ AI providers: OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Amazon Bedrock, Anthropic, Gemini, Vertex AI, Cohere, Mistral, Hugging Face, Llama, xAI, Alibaba Cloud DashScope, Cerebras, DeepSeek, Ollama, Databricks, and vLLM.”

Regions

US, EU, Australia, India [8]developer.konghq.com/konnect-platform/konnect-mcp/“The server operates in four regional deployments: US: https://us.mcp.konghq.com/, EU: https://eu.mcp.konghq.com/, Australia: https://au.mcp.konghq.com/, India: https://in.mcp.konghq.com/”

Input types

chat completions, text completions, embeddings, image generation, audio transcription, text-to-speech, function calling, assistants, batches, video generation, reranking, MCP tool calls, A2A agent traffic

Output types

streaming (SSE), OpenAI-compatible response, JSON, native LLM provider format

Webhooks

✗ No

Sandbox / test mode

✗ No [9]konghq.com/pricing“Free Trial: $0 for 30 days (no credit card required) — no mention of a dedicated sandbox or test-mode key environment separate from the live platform.”

SDK languages

Go, TypeScript, Go (plugin PDK), JavaScript (plugin PDK), Python (plugin PDK) [10]developer.konghq.com/plugins/ai-proxy/“Developers can build plugins in Lua, Go or JavaScript.”

MCP server

✓ Yes [11]developer.konghq.com/konnect-platform/konnect-mcp/“The Kong Konnect MCP Server allows you to interact with Kong Konnect through AI assistants and IDE copilots using the Model Context Protocol (MCP)”

SOC 2

SOC 2 Type II [12]trust.konghq.com“Kong's SOC 2 Type II report confirms the design and effectiveness of non-financial controls related to security, availability, and confidentiality across Kong Konnect, Konnect Dedicated Cloud Gateways, Kong Insomnia, Kong Gateway Enterprise, Kong AI Gateway, and Kong Mesh.”

HIPAA

✗ No [13]konghq.com/solutions/healthcare“Comply with regulatory requirements that mandate secure and private data exchange such as HIPAA.”trust.konghq.com“Kong Inc. Trust Center — no HIPAA certification or BAA claim found on the trust page.”

GDPR

✓ Yes [14]trust.konghq.com“Compliance with GDPR is a top priority for Kong and its customers, and Kong can be a key enabler in customers' compliance efforts.”

ISO 27001

– Unknown [15]trust.konghq.com“Kong Trust Center lists SOC 2 Type II and PCI DSS 4.0 certifications; no ISO 27001 certification claim found in available content.”

PCI DSS

✓ Yes [16]trust.konghq.com“Kong's services comply with PCI DSS 4.0.1 (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)”konghq.com/blog/product-releases/kong-cloud-gateways-2025-news-recap“Kong Konnect and Kong Cloud Gateways have achieved PCI DSS 4.0 attestation.”

Published SLA

✓ Yes [17]konghq.com/legal/service-level-agreement“Kong Konnect Control Plane: 99.9% Monthly Uptime Percentage. Kong Konnect Dedicated Cloud Gateways Multi-Region: 99.95% Monthly Uptime Percentage.”

Known restrictions

Kong Gateway 3.10+ without a valid license behaves as an expired Enterprise license, not full OSS; last fully OSS builds are version 3.9.1 and earlier, Plus plan limits AI Gateway to up to 5 unique LLM models; additional models cost $100/month each, Policy-based rate limiting currently functions only with AI Proxy Advanced plugin, Token cost for AI Proxy/AI Proxy Advanced is only reflected during the next request (one-request lag), Health checks and circuit breakers require version 3.13+, Native LLM format proxying without conversion requires version 3.10+ [18]konghq.com/pricing“AI Gateway model proxy: $100/month per unique model (limited to 5 unique LLM models on Plus)”github.com/Kong/kong“Starting from version 3.10, if you run Kong Gateway 3.10+ without a valid license, it will behave as an expired Enterprise license, not as a full OSS version.”developer.konghq.com/plugins/ai-rate-limiting-advanced/“The cost for the AI Proxy or AI Proxy Advanced is only reflected during the next request.”

• Docs
• llms.txt
• Status page

Docs rendering: static · llms.txt present

API style

rest

Base URL

https://global.api.konghq.com

Version

v3

Versioning

url

Stability

ga

Auth methods

api_key, oauth2

Error format

vendor-specific

Webhook signing

hmac_sha256

SDKs

• Go github.com/Kong/sdk-konnect-go · repo
• TypeScript @volcano.dev/agent · repo
• Go (plugin PDK) github.com/Kong/go-pdk · repo
• JavaScript (plugin PDK) kong-pdk · repo
• Python (plugin PDK) kong-pdk · repo

• Auth docs
• Quickstart
• Webhook events
• Deprecation policy

Launched

2024-02-15

GA

2024-05-29

Notable customers

Rabobank, Richemont, Sky Italia, Verifone, Moderna, Yahoo Japan, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Security Bank, ANZ, Vestas

• Vercel AI Gateway

  "AI Gateway provides a unified API to access hundreds of AI models through a single endpoint, with built-in budgets, usage monitoring, and fallbacks."

  Usage · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• Portkey

  "Production Stack for Gen AI Builders"

  Hybrid · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• Bifrost (Maxim AI)

  "The fastest, most resilient, enterprise-grade LLM, MCP, and agent gateway."

  Sales-led · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• Cloudflare AI Gateway

  "Connect to any model, dynamically route requests, and manage usage, billing, and logs from one unified gateway."

  Hybrid · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• TrueFoundry AI Gateway

  "A unified AI gateway to securely manage and govern AI across 1600+ models with policy control, real-time monitoring, and up to 30% cost reduction."

  Hybrid · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• Helicone

  "Open-source LLM observability and monitoring platform for developers" - routes, debugs, and analyzes AI applications with access to 100+ models through one API with built-in observability, automatic fallbacks, and zero markup pricing.

  Hybrid · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

Kong AI Gateway alternatives · Kong AI Gateway vs Vercel AI Gateway · All AI Gateway & LLM Routing APIs APIs

Each field above carries a numbered source - hover for a preview, click to jump here.

1. ↑Description: konghq.com
2. ↑Pricing model: konghq.com · konghq.com
3. ↑Published pricing: konghq.com
4. ↑Free tier: konghq.com · konghq.com
5. ↑Self-serve signup: konghq.com
6. ↑Enterprise plan: konghq.com
7. ↑Supported actions: developer.konghq.com · developer.konghq.com
8. ↑Regions: developer.konghq.com
9. ↑Sandbox: konghq.com
10. ↑SDK languages: developer.konghq.com
11. ↑MCP server: developer.konghq.com
12. ↑SOC 2: trust.konghq.com
13. ↑HIPAA: konghq.com · trust.konghq.com
14. ↑GDPR: trust.konghq.com
15. ↑ISO 27001: trust.konghq.com
16. ↑PCI DSS: trust.konghq.com · konghq.com
17. ↑Published SLA: konghq.com
18. ↑Known restrictions: konghq.com · github.com · developer.konghq.com

Every field change, who made it, and when - from our audited data pipeline and editors.

1. 2026-06-21 Capabilities: {} → {"guardrails":true,"self_hosted":true,"observability":true,"spend_controls":tru…
2. 2026-06-21 Summary Md: (none) → Kong AI Gateway is a control plane for teams routing traffic across multiple LL…
3. 2026-06-21 Score Setup Speed: (none) → 85
4. 2026-06-21 Score Docs Quality: (none) → 25
5. 2026-06-21 Score Procurement Friction: (none) → 100
6. 2026-06-21 Score Trust Readiness: (none) → 70
7. 2026-06-21 Best For: (none) → Prototypes and side projects - free to start, no sales call, Regulated or enter…
8. 2026-06-21 Scoring Methodology: (none) → Scores are computed deterministically from this profile's published, sourced fi…
9. 2026-06-21 Score Agent Friendliness: (none) → 65
10. 2026-06-21 Score Pricing Transparency: (none) → 100
11. 2026-06-21 Llms Txt Present: (none) → Yes
12. 2026-06-21 Rendering: (none) → static
13. 2026-06-21 Has Structured Data: (none) → Yes
14. 2026-06-21 Robots Allows Agents: (none) → Yes
15. 2026-06-21 Status Page URL: (none) → https://status.konghq.com
16. 2026-06-21 Docs URL: (none) → https://developer.konghq.com/
17. 2026-06-21 Llms Txt URL: (none) → https://konghq.com/llms.txt
18. 2026-06-21 Has Published Pricing: set to Yes
19. 2026-06-21 Free Tier Available: set to Yes
20. 2026-06-21 Free Tier Details: set to Kong Gateway (the underlying engine) is available under Apache 2.0 license and …
21. 2026-06-21 Self Serve Signup: set to Yes
22. 2026-06-21 Requires Sales Call: set to No
23. 2026-06-21 Enterprise Plan Available: set to Yes
24. 2026-06-21 SOC 2: set to type_2
25. 2026-06-21 HIPAA: set to No
26. 2026-06-21 GDPR: set to Yes
27. 2026-06-21 PCI DSS: set to Yes
28. 2026-06-21 SLA Published: set to Yes
29. 2026-06-21 SLA URL: set to https://konghq.com/legal/service-level-agreement
30. 2026-06-21 Data Retention Policy URL: set to https://konghq.com/legal/data-protection-addendum
31. 2026-06-21 Known Restrictions: set to Kong Gateway 3.10+ without a valid license behaves as an expired Enterprise lic…
32. 2026-06-21 Auth Methods: set to api_key, oauth2
33. 2026-06-21 Auth Docs URL: set to https://developer.konghq.com/konnect-api/
34. 2026-06-21 API Style: set to rest
35. 2026-06-21 Base URL: set to https://global.api.konghq.com
36. 2026-06-21 API Version: set to v3
37. 2026-06-21 Versioning Scheme: set to url
38. 2026-06-21 Stability: set to ga
39. 2026-06-21 Deprecation Policy URL: set to https://developer.konghq.com/gateway/version-support-policy/
40. 2026-06-21 Quickstart URL: set to https://get.konghq.com/ai
41. 2026-06-21 Error Format: set to vendor-specific
42. 2026-06-21 Webhook Signing: set to hmac_sha256
43. 2026-06-21 Webhook Events URL: set to https://developer.konghq.com/how-to/create-a-webhook-with-kong-gateway/
44. 2026-06-21 Requires Verification: set to No
45. 2026-06-21 Starting Price Usd: set to 105
46. 2026-06-21 Slug: set to kong-ai-gateway
47. 2026-06-21 Free Tier Limit: set to open-source self-host (Kong Gateway OSS, unlimited API calls); Konnect 30-day t…
48. 2026-06-21 Launched At: set to 2024-02-15
49. 2026-06-21 GA Date: set to 2024-05-29
50. 2026-06-21 Notable Customers: set to Rabobank, Richemont, Sky Italia, Verifone, Moderna, Yahoo Japan, First Abu Dhab…

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