Sold by: Kong
Deployed on AWS
AWS Free Tier
Self-hosted API and AI gateway for platform engineers managing microservices, LLM traffic, and multi-cloud architectures on AWS EC2.
4.4
Overview
Overview
Kong Gateway Enterprise is a self-hosted API and AI gateway deployed as an AMI on AWS EC2, giving platform engineering teams full control over data residency, network topology, and infrastructure. Trusted by enterprises like United Airlines, HSBC, BMW, and SeatGeek, Kong processes over 1 trillion API and AI requests per day with a 99.99% availability SLA.
With Kong Gateway Enterprise on EC2, you manage your own infrastructure without hosted control plane dependencies - ideal for organizations with strict compliance, data sovereignty, or network isolation requirements.
Key Capabilities
- API Gateway and Lifecycle Management: Route, load balance, authenticate, authorize, rate limit, and transform REST, GraphQL, gRPC, and event-based APIs from a single gateway
- AI Gateway: Manage traffic to LLM providers with prompt and response management, semantic caching, and token-based rate limiting
- Plugin Ecosystem: Extend functionality with 100+ pre-built plugins covering logging, authentication, observability, and AI providers
- Service Mesh: East-west traffic management with mutual TLS (mTLS), traffic policies, and service-level observability
- Developer Portal: Publish API products, manage access, and enable self-service API discovery for internal and external developers
- Metering and Billing: Usage-based monetization of APIs and AI services with runtime entitlement enforcement
Security and Compliance
Kong Gateway Enterprise is built for regulated enterprise environments:
- SOC 2 Type II audited and certified
- PCI DSS 4.0.1 compliant
- GDPR and CCPA compliant
- NIST 800-218 (Secure Software Development Framework) self-attested
- CSA STAR Level 1 self-assessment published
- FIPS 140-2 support available for Ubuntu and Red Hat builds
- Mutual TLS (mTLS) for service-to-service encryption
- Role-based access control (RBAC), SSO, and audit logging
- Annual third-party penetration testing by independent security firms
- Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) published for supply chain transparency
Integrations
Kong integrates natively with AWS services including ALB, CloudWatch, and EKS. Additional integrations include Prometheus, Datadog, HashiCorp Vault, and OpenID Connect providers. Native Kubernetes support via Kong Ingress Controller enables consistent API governance across containerized and VM-based workloads.
Deployment Prerequisites
Supported operating systems:
- Amazon Linux 2
- Ubuntu (Jammy, Noble)
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux
- Debian
Supported architectures: AMD64 and ARM64
Minimum requirements: Ensure your EC2 instance has sufficient CPU and RAM for your expected traffic volume. Kong recommends starting with instances such as m5.large or larger for production workloads.
Networking: Configure your VPC with appropriate security group rules. Kong Gateway requires inbound access on ports 8000 (proxy), 8443 (proxy SSL), 8001 (Admin API), and 8444 (Admin API SSL).
Datastore: PostgreSQL database required for traditional mode. DB-less mode available with declarative configuration.
Use Case: AI Gateway for LLM Traffic
Route and govern traffic to multiple LLM providers with prompt management, semantic caching, and token-based rate limiting. SeatGeek uses Kong to handle 2.4 billion requests per month, demonstrating how the platform scales for AI-era workloads while maintaining security and cost controls.
Customer Results
- HSBC: 50% faster time-to-market
- DELTA Fiber: 60% reduction in development costs
- Enterprises report up to 57% reduction in operational costs
- 35,000+ GitHub stars and 182,000+ community users worldwide
Licensing Model
This listing uses a Bring Your Own License (BYOL) model. The AMI software itself does not incur metered AWS Marketplace charges, but a valid Kong Enterprise license is required. Contact Kong sales to discuss licensing options for your organization.
Use Case: Financial Services API Security at Scale
Financial institutions use Kong Gateway Enterprise to route millions of API calls across hybrid cloud environments while enforcing strict compliance policies on payment and transaction APIs. With mTLS, rate limiting, and centralized observability, teams maintain PCI DSS compliance while scaling API traffic across AWS regions and on-premises data centers.
Get Started
To obtain a Kong Enterprise license, book a guided demo, or discuss deployment requirements, contact the Kong team at sales@konghq.com or visit https://konghq.com/contact-sales .
Pricing
This listing uses a Bring Your Own License (BYOL) model. The AMI software itself does not incur metered AWS Marketplace charges. A valid Kong Enterprise license is required, contact Kong sales at sales@konghq.com to discuss licensing options for your organization.
Highlights
- Kong Gateway Enterprise processes over 1 trillion API and AI requests per day with a 99.99% availability SLA. The self-hosted AMI gives you full control over data residency and network topology on AWS EC2. Customers report up to 57% reduction in operational costs and 50% faster time-to-market. Supports REST, GraphQL, gRPC, and event-based APIs through a single gateway with 100+ pre-built plugins.
- AI Gateway for LLM Traffic Management - Route and govern traffic to multiple LLM providers with prompt management, semantic caching, and token-based rate limiting. Enforce token budgets and cost controls at runtime. Built for platform engineers managing AI workloads alongside traditional API traffic. SeatGeek handles 2.4 billion requests per month through Kong, demonstrating enterprise-scale AI and API connectivity.
- Enterprise-Grade Security and Extensibility - Zero-trust networking with mutual TLS (mTLS) between services, OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect authentication, role-based access control (RBAC), rate limiting, and audit logging. Extend functionality with 100+ plugins for logging, observability (Prometheus, Datadog), secrets management (HashiCorp Vault), and more. Native Kubernetes support via Kong Ingress Controller for consistent governance across hybrid environments.
Details
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Delivery method
Supported services
Delivery option
Kong Gateway Enteprise
Latest version
Operating system
Linux
Deployed on AWS
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Pricing
This product is available free of charge. Free subscriptions have no end date and may be canceled any time.
Additional AWS infrastructure costs may apply. Use the AWS Pricing Calculator to estimate your infrastructure costs.
Dimensions summary
You deploy this self-hosted API and AI gateway on your own AWS infrastructure, and the software itself is free. Pricing here reflects the underlying EC2 compute you run it on, billed per hour. You choose between two instance types: t4g.small and c6g.large. The t4g.small fits lighter or test workloads, while the c6g.large gives more compute for heavier traffic. Both bill by the hour based on how long the instance runs. Your cost scales with which instance you pick and how many hours you keep it running.
Top-of-mind questions for buyers
The t4g.small is a small ARM-based instance suited to lighter or test workloads. The c6g.large is a compute-focused ARM instance with more processing power for heavier API and AI traffic. You pick one based on your throughput needs, and billing follows the hours that instance runs.
The hourly software rate meters running time only. A fully stopped instance does not accrue the per-hour software charge. Stopped instances may still incur underlying AWS storage fees for attached volumes, but those are separate from the gateway software billing shown here.
The gateway software carries no licence charge. You pay for the AWS EC2 compute the software runs on, billed per hour for either the t4g.small or c6g.large instance. Your cost depends on which instance type you choose and how many hours it runs.
developer.konghq.com
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no refunds
Custom pricing options
Request a private offer to receive a custom quote.
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Vendors are responsible for their product descriptions and other product content. AWS does not warrant that vendors' product descriptions or other product content are accurate, complete, reliable, current, or error-free.
Delivery details
Kong Gateway Enteprise
Supported services:
- Amazon EC2 Image Builder
EC2 Image Builder Component
EC2 Image Builder is a fully managed AWS service. It automates creation, management, and deployment of custom, secure, and up-to-date server images. After procurement, use the EC2 Image Builder console/API to include this third-party component in golden images for future EC2 instances.
Version release notes
Initial release - 3.8.1
Additional details
Usage instructions
Support
Vendor support
Kong Support Center
Kong provides technical support for Kong Gateway Enterprise customers through the Kong Support Center.
Support Portal: https://support.konghq.com/s/
From the support portal you can:
- Create and track support cases
- Access the knowledge base and troubleshooting guides
- View documentation and community resources
- Check Konnect Cloud service status
Getting Started with Support:
- Log in to the Kong Support Center
- Follow best practices for filing a support case to ensure fast resolution
- Track your case status directly in the portal
Enterprise Support Tiers:
- Diamond: 24x7 coverage with 30-minute response SLA
- Platinum: 24x7 coverage with 1-hour response SLA
- Business: Regional business hours with 2-hour response SLA
Plus Plan Support:
- Email support with a 2-business-day SLA
Enterprise customers also receive access to dedicated Customer Success Managers, Technical Account Managers, and professional services for migration and onboarding assistance.
Licensing: This is a BYOL (Bring Your Own License) product. To obtain a Kong Enterprise license or discuss licensing options, contact Kong sales at https://konghq.com/contact-sales
Free Trial: Try Kong Konnect free for 30 days with no credit card required at https://konghq.com/products/kong-konnect/register
For refund inquiries or billing questions related to your AWS Marketplace subscription, please contact Kong support through the portal above.
AWS infrastructure support
AWS Support is a one-on-one, fast-response support channel that is staffed 24x7x365 with experienced and technical support engineers. The service helps customers of all sizes and technical abilities to successfully utilize the products and features provided by Amazon Web Services.
Similar products
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Customer reviews
Computer & Network Security
One dashboard for every gateway
Reviewed on Oct 09, 2026
Review provided by G2
What do you like best about the product?
What I like most is the federated model: it gives each team its own gateway while still keeping central governance intact. I manage a few microservices across two environments, and before Konnect I was SSHing into different boxes just to push config changes. Now the SaaS control plane lets me handle everything from a single dashboard. I can spin up a runtime, attach my services, and configure rate limiting and JWT auth through the UI, and it’s live within minutes.
The developer portal is also a quiet win. I publish my APIs as products with OpenAPI specs, and external teams can self-serve onboarding instead of emailing me for credentials. The plugin system is genuinely modular, too—I’ve stacked key-auth, rate-limiting, and response-transforming plugins on the same route without writing a line of custom code.
The developer portal is also a quiet win. I publish my APIs as products with OpenAPI specs, and external teams can self-serve onboarding instead of emailing me for credentials. The plugin system is genuinely modular, too—I’ve stacked key-auth, rate-limiting, and response-transforming plugins on the same route without writing a line of custom code.
What do you dislike about the product?
What I dislike is that the SaaS dependency is a hard requirement, not an option. The control plane lives in Kong’s cloud, which means that if their service has an outage, you can’t push config changes. For some enterprises, sending API metadata to a third-party cloud is a dealbreaker on its own.
The learning curve is also steeper than it needs to be. The difference between a “runtime group,” a “service,” a “route,” and a “target” takes a few sessions to click, and the docs often read like you already know the Kong Gateway CLI.
The learning curve is also steeper than it needs to be. The difference between a “runtime group,” a “service,” a “route,” and a “target” takes a few sessions to click, and the docs often read like you already know the Kong Gateway CLI.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Kong Konnect solves the problem of managing API gateways across multiple environments without manual config pushes. Before it, every time I needed to update a rate limit or add an auth plugin, I was SSHing into individual gateway nodes and applying changes one by one—slow, error-prone, and hard to audit. Now the SaaS control plane syncs configuration to all runtimes in seconds from a single dashboard, and I can see exactly what changed and when.
The developer portal also cuts down the whole “email me your API keys” cycle. External teams can self-serve onboarding, which saves me a lot of back-and-forth.
The developer portal also cuts down the whole “email me your API keys” cycle. External teams can self-serve onboarding, which saves me a lot of back-and-forth.
Computer Software
Centralized API & AI Gateway Management That Fits Our Workflow
Reviewed on Oct 08, 2026
Review provided by G2
What do you like best about the product?
Kong Connect gives us a central layer for managing APIs while still fitting into our workflow. We mainly use it with our MCP server, and having the APIs set up so we can manage policies via Kong makes it easier for us to keep the integration controlled, instead of handling everything separately. The AI gateway part is also useful because it can manage authentication and our token usage across all services, rather than adding the same logic to each individual service. Overall, it helps us make better sense of the traffic.
What do you dislike about the product?
It took me a long time to understand the nuances of the product and get used to it. A few concepts, such as routes, services, and plugins, also take time to piece together.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Our multiple backend AI integrations can be managed securely through the AI Gateway concept by Kong. We also have a couple of services that can be isolated, rather than running in the same gateway, so if one fails we still have another. In addition, the MCP and Claude workflows are managed smoothly, and we can monitor traffic, which gives us better visibility from the API layer.
JAY PRAKASH S.
Centralized API Gateway for Microservice Development
Reviewed on Oct 07, 2026
Review provided by G2
What do you like best about the product?
I evaluated Kong Konnect as an API management and gateway solution for our Fulfillment Innovation Technology (FIT) project, which follows a microservice-based architecture. With multiple backend services, managing API routing, authentication, traffic control, and access policies individually in each service can become difficult to maintain. Kong Konnect provides a centralized layer in front of the backend services. It can handle requests coming from clients and route them to the appropriate service based on the configured routes and services. This is useful because the backend Spring Boot services can focus more on business logic instead of implementing the same API management functionality repeatedly. I also found features such as authentication, rate limiting, logging, and plugins useful for a microservice environment. These capabilities can be managed at the gateway level and applied consistently across different APIs. As the number of services increases, having a centralized API management layer makes the overall architecture easier to manage.
What do you dislike about the product?
The main area I think could be improved is the initial learning curve. There are several concepts to understand, including services, routes, plugins, authentication, policies, and configuration. For someone who is new to API gateways, it can take some time to understand how these different components work together. For a project with only a few APIs, Kong Konnect can also feel like more infrastructure than what is necessary. However, for a larger microservice architecture such as FIT, the additional setup can provide more value because there are more APIs and common requirements to manage. I think the onboarding experience could be improved with more beginner-friendly, end-to-end examples. A sample Spring Boot microservice application showing routing, authentication, rate limiting, and plugins together would make it much easier for new users to understand the product.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
One of the main problems Kong Konnect can solve is the complexity of managing APIs across multiple microservices. In a project like FIT, different services may expose different APIs, and managing authentication, routing, traffic limits, and access policies separately can lead to duplicated configuration and logic. Kong provides a centralized place to manage these concerns. For example, routing rules can determine which backend service should receive a request, while authentication can provide a common security layer for APIs. Rate limiting can also help control excessive traffic and protect backend services from unnecessary load. Another benefit is consistency. Instead of implementing similar API-related functionality in every Spring Boot service, common requirements can be handled at the gateway level. This makes the services more focused on their actual business responsibilities and can make the overall system easier to maintain as the number of microservices grows.
Computer Software
Centralized API Gateway with Strong Auth, Rate Limiting, and Traffic Visibility
Reviewed on Oct 05, 2026
Review provided by G2
What do you like best about the product?
The centralized layer for managing APIs—and handling auth and rate-limiting policies across different services—can be managed at the gateway level. Especially with the AI gateway for MCP servers, it’s good for consistent authentication, traffic control, and isolation across all my apps. The visibility into API traffic is also a great feature; when I’m working with different integrations, troubleshooting becomes much easier.
What do you dislike about the product?
There was a gap in the learning curve when I was getting started. There are a lot of concepts around services, routes, plugins, and consumers, and understanding how all of this fits together takes time. The UI is good overall, but it can feel a tad dense.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It compares fairly well with integrations managed across different services. For MCP based integrations, having them as part of the same application stack with a common gateway layer makes it easier to apply auth, rate limiting, and monitoring especially for AI usage by individuals. Having a gateway in front of services also provides a common layer that others can reuse, with most of the setup already in place.
kathy b.
Kong Gateway Delivers Scalable API Performance with Insightful Analytics
Reviewed on Oct 01, 2026
Review provided by G2
What do you like best about the product?
Definitely Kong Gateway, since it’s delivered solid API performance for us at scale. Another standout is the analytics feature, which gives me genuinely useful numbers to bring into client conversations. The integrations also fit smoothly with our existing ecosystem, so it’s been easy to align with what we already use. Support is especially valuable when an account has a more complex setup and needs extra attention. Overall, ROI is much easier to explain and discuss when API usage is clearly visible.
What do you dislike about the product?
It’s a great platform to start with, but over time the UI can feel a bit dense, especially when you’re managing multiple services. Pricing can also be disruptive, since it often requires detailed, account-level discussions to sort out.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
API traffic was starting to raise performance concerns for us, especially during peak usage. Kong Gateway helped by giving us stronger traffic control and clearer visibility, which made it easier to manage those workloads. At the same time, our growing AI services were increasing the number of APIs we needed to monitor. Kong’s AI Gateway gave the team a more structured way to handle those AI integrations, and in the end everything worked out perfectly.