# [Kong AI Gateway](https://konghq.com/products/kong-ai-gateway): LLM Gateways Founded 2024 | San Francisco, CA | 201-500 people | Enterprise ## What is Kong AI Gateway? Kong AI Gateway extends Kong API Gateway with AI-specific routing and observability. The platform provides comprehensive features for production AI applications with focus on reliability and developer experience. ## Key features Core capabilities this platform advertises. - AI traffic management - Multi-LLM load balancing - Request/response transformation - Authentication and authorization - Plugin ecosystem ## Strengths and tradeoffs What this tool does well, and the limitations to keep in mind. Pros - Developer-friendly platform - Production-ready - Good performance - Active development Cons - Enterprise pricing varies - Setup complexity - Learning curve ## Plans & pricing What's included in each plan, and how the tiers compare. ### Free $0 Per month - Core features - Community support - Basic limits ### Pro Custom Per month - Advanced features - Higher limits - Priority support ### Enterprise Custom Annual contract - Custom solutions - Dedicated support - SLA guarantees [View official pricing page](https://kong-ai-gateway.com/) ## Common use cases Enterprises using Kong who want to extend their API gateway with AI capabilities - Enterprise AI API management - Load balancing across LLM providers - AI traffic governance and security - Multi-tenant AI access control - API lifecycle management for AI ## Using Kong AI Gateway with Respan Integrate with Respan to enhance AI workflows and optimize multi-provider deployments. - Seamless Respan integration - Production infrastructure - Cost optimization - Enhanced capabilities ## Run Kong AI Gateway in production with Respan 10K Free traces/mo 500+ Models 5 min Setup Respans lets you trace LLM and agent calls across any model or framework, A/B test prompts on production traffic, and route requests across 500+ models through one gateway. [Try Respan free](https://platform.respan.ai/) ## Best Kong AI Gateway alternatives & competitors Top companies in LLM Gateways you can use instead of Kong AI Gateway. [#1 Respan](/content/market-map/respan/index.html): Unified LLM API with 200+ models [Compare with Kong AI Gateway](/content/market-map/compare/kong-ai-gateway-vs-respan/index.html) [#2 OpenRouter](/content/market-map/openrouter/index.html): 300+ models across 60+ providers via one OpenAI-compatible API [Compare with Kong AI Gateway](/content/market-map/compare/kong-ai-gateway-vs-openrouter/index.html) [#3 Cloudflare AI Gateway](/content/market-map/cloudflare-ai-gateway/index.html): Edge-deployed AI gateway [Compare with Kong AI Gateway](/content/market-map/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-kong-ai-gateway/index.html) [#4 Vercel AI Gateway](/content/market-map/vercel-ai-gateway/index.html) [Compare with Kong AI Gateway](/content/market-map/compare/kong-ai-gateway-vs-vercel-ai-gateway/index.html) [#5 LiteLLM](/content/market-map/litellm/index.html): Open-source LLM proxy [Compare with Kong AI Gateway](/content/market-map/compare/kong-ai-gateway-vs-litellm/index.html) [#6 Portkey](/content/market-map/portkey/index.html): AI gateway with 200+ models [Compare with Kong AI Gateway](/content/market-map/compare/kong-ai-gateway-vs-portkey/index.html) [#7 Bifrost](/content/market-map/bifrost/index.html): High throughput [Compare with Kong AI Gateway](/content/market-map/compare/bifrost-vs-kong-ai-gateway/index.html) [#8 Helicone](/content/market-map/helicone/index.html): LLM observability and monitoring [Compare with Kong AI Gateway](/content/market-map/compare/helicone-vs-kong-ai-gateway/index.html) [#9 Stainless](/content/market-map/stainless/index.html): SDK generation [Compare with Kong AI Gateway](/content/market-map/compare/kong-ai-gateway-vs-stainless/index.html) [#10 Unify](/content/market-map/unify-ai/index.html) [Compare with Kong AI Gateway](/content/market-map/compare/kong-ai-gateway-vs-unify-ai/index.html) [#11 Martian](/content/market-map/martian/index.html): Intelligent model routing based on prompt type [Compare with Kong AI Gateway](/content/market-map/compare/kong-ai-gateway-vs-martian/index.html) [#12 Requesty](/content/market-map/requesty/index.html): 400+ model access [Compare with Kong AI Gateway](/content/market-map/compare/kong-ai-gateway-vs-requesty/index.html) [#13 Apigee AI Gateway](/content/market-map/apigee-ai-gateway/index.html): Google Cloud AI traffic management [Compare with Kong AI Gateway](/content/market-map/compare/apigee-ai-gateway-vs-kong-ai-gateway/index.html) [#14 The Token Company](/content/market-map/the-token-company/index.html): Token compression [Compare with Kong AI Gateway](/content/market-map/compare/kong-ai-gateway-vs-the-token-company/index.html) [View all Kong AI Gateway alternatives](/content/market-map/kong-ai-gateway/alternatives/index.html) ## Compare Kong AI Gateway Side-by-side comparisons with other tools in this category. [Compare Kong AI Gateway vs Respan](/content/market-map/compare/kong-ai-gateway-vs-respan/index.html) ## Best integrations for Kong AI Gateway Companies from adjacent layers in the AI stack that work well with Kong AI Gateway. [Milvus](/content/market-map/milvus/index.html): Vector Databases [Pinecone](/content/market-map/pinecone/index.html): Vector Databases [Qdrant](/content/market-map/qdrant/index.html): Vector Databases [Chroma](/content/market-map/chroma/index.html): Vector Databases [RAGFlow](/content/market-map/ragflow/index.html): RAG Frameworks [Unstructured](/content/market-map/unstructured/index.html): RAG Frameworks [LlamaIndex](/content/market-map/llamaindex/index.html): RAG Frameworks [Supabase](/content/market-map/supabase/index.html): Vector Databases [Apify](/content/market-map/apify/index.html): Web Scraping [Weaviate](/content/market-map/weaviate/index.html): Vector Databases [Bright Data](/content/market-map/bright-data/index.html): Web Scraping [Mem0](/content/market-map/mem0/index.html): Memory Layer Last verified: March 10, 2026.