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Kong

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Cloud-native API and AI gateway with the Kong Konnect management platform

API Management Software API Platforms SOA Governance Software
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  • Deployment Cloud Based, Hybrid, On Premises, Any
  • Starting price Free
  • Free trial Available
  • Best for Startups, SMEs, Agencies

What is Kong?

Kong is an API and AI gateway built for cloud-native, hybrid, and multi-cloud architectures. The open source Kong Gateway handles routing, load balancing, and health checking for RESTful APIs, and can be extended through plugins for authentication (JWT, OAuth, basic auth, ACLs), and now includes a universal LLM API for routing traffic to providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and AWS Bedrock.

Kong Konnect is the managed control plane that adds a service catalog, real-time analytics, developer portals, and role-based access control on top of the gateway. Konnect offers enterprise functionality free for 30 days, after which the Plus tier is billed per gateway on a consumption basis and Enterprise is custom-priced with SSO, audit logs, and dedicated support.

Key Features of Kong

Kong lists 9 documented features, including Advanced routing, load balancing, and health checking, Plugin-based authentication (JWT, OAuth, basic auth, ACLs) and Universal LLM API for routing to OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, and more. The list below covers what the product does rather than how it is marketed.

  • Advanced routing, load balancing, and health checking
  • Plugin-based authentication (JWT, OAuth, basic auth, ACLs)
  • Universal LLM API for routing to OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, and more
  • Support for REST, HTTP, gRPC, GraphQL, Kafka, and WebSockets
  • Kong Konnect control plane with service catalog
  • Real-time analytics and developer portals
  • Role-based access control (RBAC)
  • SSO and audit logs (Enterprise)
  • 99.99% uptime SLA on Konnect

Kong Pricing

Kong lists 4 plans. Two are free; the rest are quoted on request.

Open Source (Kong Gateway)

Free

Self-hosted

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Free to download and self-host; lacks Kong Manager UI, advanced analytics, OIDC, and enterprise plugins

Konnect Free Trial

Free

30 days

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Full enterprise functionality for free, no gateway limits, 30 days of retained analytics

Plus

Custom

Up to 5 serverless, 2 hybrid, 2 dedicated cloud gateways

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Consumption-based, billed per gateway per month; includes 1M API requests/month, up to 2 developer portals, RBAC, email support with 2-business-day SLA

Enterprise

Custom

Unlimited gateways and portals

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Billed annually; adds SSO, audit logs, unlimited hybrid/dedicated cloud gateways, dedicated success managers

Kong Specifications

Kong is available on web app. It offers an API, has a free trial and has a free plan.

Deployment
  • Cloud Based
  • Hybrid
  • On Premises
  • Any
Billing cycle
Monthly
Desktop
  • Web App
Languages
  • English
Built for
  • Startups
  • SMEs
  • Agencies
  • Enterprises
Support
  • Email
  • Live Support
  • Tickets
  • Training
Integrations
OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, Google Gemini, Azure AI, Kubernetes, Kafka, Prometheus, Datadog
Public API
Yes
Free trial
Yes
Free plan
Yes
Runs in browser
Yes
Customisable
Yes
Website
konghq.com

Kong Videos

Kong Screenshots

Kong screenshot 1

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Kong FAQs

Yes, Kong Gateway's open source edition is free to download and self-host, though it lacks the Kong Manager UI, advanced analytics, and some enterprise plugins found in Konnect.

Konnect is Kong's managed SaaS control plane that unifies API and AI connectivity, offering a service catalog, real-time analytics, developer portals, and governance features on top of the gateway.

Yes, Kong Konnect offers full enterprise functionality free for 30 days with no gateway limits.

The Plus tier uses consumption-based pricing billed per gateway per month, while Enterprise uses custom annual pricing based on scale and support needs.

Yes, Kong's AI Gateway provides a universal LLM API to route requests across providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, and AWS Bedrock, along with AI observability and semantic caching features.