API Management · pricing
Kong Gateway pricing
Kong Gateway publishes 3 tiers. Below is each one, what it adds over the tier beneath it, and where the ladder stops being worth climbing for most people.
- Entry price
- Free
- Model
- Freemium
- Tiers
- 3
- Free tier
- Yes
Kong Gateway plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | Free | 3 | Entry tier |
| Plus | On request | 4 | Priced on request |
| Enterprise | On request | 4 | Priced on request |
What each tier adds
The set difference between each tier's feature list and the one beneath it. Where a tier lists nothing new, the vendor has either stopped repeating the inherited list or the tier raises limits rather than adding capability, the record does not distinguish the two, so this page does not either.
Free Trial
FreeThe entry tier. It covers 30-day enterprise functionality trial, unlimited gateways, 30-day analytics retention.
Plus
On requestOver Free Trial, this tier adds:
- Up to 5 serverless, 2 hybrid, 2 dedicated cloud gateways
- 1M API requests/month included
- Up to 2 developer portals
- Email support with 2-business-day SLA
Enterprise
On requestOver Plus, this tier adds:
- Unlimited hybrid and dedicated cloud gateways
- Unlimited developer portals
- SSO and audit logs
- Dedicated success managers
Where Kong Gateway stops being free
Free Trial, Free
- 30-day enterprise functionality trial
- Unlimited gateways
- 30-day analytics retention
No paid tier on record
Kong Gateway lists a free tier and no priced tier above it in the record we hold.
What the product covers
The full Kong Gateway feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
core
- API request routing
- Plugin ecosystem
- Developer portals
- AI Gateway
analytics
- Analytics and observability
security
- SSO and audit logs
People bring Kong Gateway in for routing and securing traffic across microservices, publishing internal or external developer portals, managing rate limits and authentication at the api edge, gateway-level routing to multiple llm providers. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to Kong Gateway are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in API Management
Too few api management tools in this directory publish a starting price to quote a meaningful median, so the table below is a like-for-like list rather than a ranking.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kong Gateway (this page) | Free | freemium | - | |
| Treblle | $233/month | subscription | - | vs Kong Gateway |
| Stainless | Free | freemium | - | vs Kong Gateway |
| Pusher | Free, then $49/month | freemium | - | vs Kong Gateway |
| PubNub | Free, then $98/month | freemium | - | vs Kong Gateway |
| Moesif | Free | usage-based | - | vs Kong Gateway |
| Liveblocks | Free, then $30/month | freemium | - | vs Kong Gateway |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the Kong Gateway badges page.
Before you pay for Kong Gateway
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: 3 tiers between Free and On request, with the jump itemised above. Because there is a free tier, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to use it before paying anything.
Kong Gateway runs on web, linux, api, and is published by Kong Inc. of San Francisco, California. The full record is on the Kong Gateway review, and the rest of the category is under best api management tools.
Kong Gateway pricing questions
- How much does Kong Gateway cost?
- Kong Gateway publishes 3 tiers, from Free for Free Trial up to On request for Enterprise. The entry tier costs nothing.
- Does Kong Gateway have a free plan?
- Yes. The Free Trial tier costs nothing and covers 30-day enterprise functionality trial, unlimited gateways, 30-day analytics retention.
- What is the difference between Free Trial and Plus on Kong Gateway?
- Plus costs On request against Free, and adds up to 5 serverless, 2 hybrid, 2 dedicated cloud gateways, 1m api requests/month included, up to 2 developer portals, email support with 2-business-day sla.
- Which api management tools can I use without paying?
- 6 of the 7 api management tools listed alongside Kong Gateway have a free tier: Stainless, Pusher, PubNub, Moesif, Liveblocks.
- What am I actually paying for with Kong Gateway?
- The record lists 6 features across 3 areas: core, analytics, security. In practice it is brought in for routing and securing traffic across microservices, publishing internal or external developer portals, managing rate limits and authentication at the api edge.
- Does Kong Gateway charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 3 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these Kong Gateway prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare Kong Gateway against before paying?
- The closest api management tools in this directory are Treblle, Stainless, Pusher, PubNub. Each has a side-by-side comparison with Kong Gateway covering price, platforms and features.