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Cloud API management - verified

Kong AI Gateway (Konnect)

Kong AI Gateway is listed under cloud api management. Its first listed fee, in its own words: From $25/month plus usage, AI Management (billed monthly). It states OpenAI-compatible requests. Routing stated: fallbacks and load balancing. Read from the vendor's own pages on October 18, 2026.

Read from developer.konghq.com, konghq.com. Docs - Pricing - Compare every gateway

Status

Status, as we read it

GA (self-serve trial and published pricing)inferred

Our reading: The page implies this status without labelling it.

“All licensing is handled automatically by Konnect.”
developer.konghq.com

How Kong AI Gateway charges

Every fee line Kong AI Gateway states, in its own words and units, with the quote. Nothing is converted.

How each of 1 LLM gateways charges: 6 fee lines in each vendor's own words, not converted or ranked
ProductFee, in the vendor's wordsApplies toQuote and source
Kong AI Gateway (Konnect)From $25/month plus usageAI Management (billed monthly)
“From $25/month”
konghq.com
$25/month per control planeserverless AI gateway control plane
“$25/month per control plane”
konghq.com
$200/month per control planehybrid AI gateway control plane
“$200/month per control plane”
konghq.com
1 million requestsAI gateway requests included per month
“1 million requests”
konghq.com
$200/month per additional 1 million requests/monthAI gateway transaction volume
“$200/month per additional 1 million requests/month”
konghq.com
$100/month per modelunique LLMs proxied by AI plugins
“$100/month per model”
konghq.com

Access and keys

Free tier

30-day free trial, no credit card

“30-Day Free Trial”
konghq.com
Bring your own key

yes (centralized LLM provider credentials)inferred

Our reading: Read as bring your own key from centralizing your LLM provider credentials at the gateway. The page does not use the term BYOK.

“Centralize LLM provider credentials in one place and rotate them”
developer.konghq.com
BYOK fee
Not stated

No BYOK-specific fee; pricing is per control plane, request volume and proxied model.

API formats

OpenAI-compatible

yes (AI Proxy accepts standardized OpenAI formats)

“AI Proxy plugin accepts requests in one of a few defined and standardized OpenAI formats, translates them to the configured target format, and then transforms the response back into a standard format.”
developer.konghq.com
Anthropic-compatible
Not stated

Not stated as an Anthropic-compatible endpoint on the checked pages (Claude Code proxying is documented).

OpenAI base URL
Not stated

Routes are user-defined on your gateway; no fixed base URL.

Anthropic base URL
Not stated

Not stated.

Routing

Fallbacks

yes

“Automatically fail over to a different provider or model when one is slow or unavailable”
developer.konghq.com
Load balancing

yes

“Routing and load balancing across AI providers”
developer.konghq.com
Automatic model routing
Not stated

Not stated in the checked pages.

Caching

Exact-match cache
Not stated

Not stated in the checked pages.

Semantic cache

AI Semantic Cache (paid plugin)

“Serve repeated or near-duplicate prompts from cache instead of calling the upstream LLM again”
developer.konghq.com

Controls and observability

Spend controls

token quotas and cost budgets per consumer group

“Create pricing tiers (like Free, Pro, and Enterprise) with different token quotas and cost budgets”
developer.konghq.com
Rate limits

AI Rate Limiting Advanced (paid plugin)

“AI Rate Limiting Advanced”
developer.konghq.com
Guardrails

prompt guard, semantic prompt/response guard, PII sanitizer, cloud guardrail integrations

“Redact PII before it reaches the upstream LLM provider”
developer.konghq.com
Observability

audit logs, metrics exporters, OpenTelemetry, Konnect dashboards

“Track token usage, latency, and costs through audit logs, metrics exporters, and OpenTelemetry, or use Konnect Observability for pre-built dashboards.”
developer.konghq.com
Telemetry and log export

metrics exporters and OpenTelemetry

“metrics exporters, and OpenTelemetry”
developer.konghq.com

Data, deployment and license

Data logging and retention
Not stated

Not stated in the checked pages.

Regions

dedicated cloud gateways limited to one region per control plane on the standard tier

“Limited to one region per control plane”
konghq.com
Self-hosting

Konnect control plane with local data plane; fully self-hosted via Gateway Enterprise

“The script creates an AI Gateway control plane in Konnect and deploys a local data plane using Docker.”
developer.konghq.com
License
Not stated

Commercial Konnect service; see Kong Gateway (OSS) entry for the open-source core.

Vendor-stated counts

Model and provider counts as Kong AI Gateway states them, dated. When two pages disagree, both are shown.

Provider list shown but no vendor-stated count on the checked pages.

Research notes

Several AI plugins (AI Proxy Advanced, AI Semantic Cache, AI Rate Limiting Advanced, AI Sanitizer, AI Semantic Prompt Guard and others) are listed as paid/enterprise plugins on the pricing page.

FAQ

How much does Kong AI Gateway cost?

In Kong AI Gateway's own terms: From $25/month plus usage (AI Management (billed monthly)); $25/month per control plane (serverless AI gateway control plane); $200/month per control plane (hybrid AI gateway control plane); 1 million requests (AI gateway requests included per month); $200/month per additional 1 million requests/month (AI gateway transaction volume); $100/month per model (unique LLMs proxied by AI plugins). As of October 18, 2026; fees are not converted.

Does Kong AI Gateway support bring your own key?

Yes (centralized LLM provider credentials) (our reading of the quote), per the vendor: "Centralize LLM provider credentials in one place and rotate them". BYOK fee: not stated. No BYOK-specific fee; pricing is per control plane, request volume and proxied model.

Is Kong AI Gateway OpenAI-compatible or Anthropic-compatible?

OpenAI: yes (AI Proxy accepts standardized OpenAI formats). Anthropic: not stated. Not stated as an Anthropic-compatible endpoint on the checked pages (Claude Code proxying is documented).

Sources

Last verified from each vendor's own docs, pricing pages, READMEs and license files; every quote was string-matched against the page that day. Fees are shown in the vendor's own words and change without notice, so check the linked source before you commit.

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