Kong vs AWS API Gateway: API Gateways Comparison (2026)

An independent side-by-side comparison of Kong and AWS API Gateway for api gateways buyers — pricing, features, integrations, and how often each is cited by major AI engines.

AI Citation Scorecard

How often each is cited by major AI engines when buyers ask api gateways questions. Last 90 days across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Copilot.

Kong leads overall — 100% cited vs AWS API Gateway 0% across 10 probes.
ChatGPT
KongLeads
1 / 1 probes
100%
Excellent
AWS API Gateway
0 / 1 probes
0%
Invisible
Perplexity
KongLeads
1 / 1 probes
100%
Excellent
AWS API Gateway
0 / 1 probes
0%
Invisible
Gemini
KongLeads
1 / 1 probes
100%
Excellent
AWS API Gateway
0 / 1 probes
0%
Invisible
Claude
KongLeads
1 / 1 probes
100%
Excellent
AWS API Gateway
0 / 1 probes
0%
Invisible
Copilot
KongLeads
1 / 1 probes
100%
Excellent
AWS API Gateway
0 / 1 probes
0%
Invisible
Scale:NoneLowFairStrongExcellent

Probes run hourly; each (engine × query) combo retests every ~3 days.

Pricing

Kong
Starting price
$12/user/month
Free tier
Yes
konghq.com ↗
AWS API Gateway
Starting price
$1.00/million
Free tier
Yes
aws.amazon.com/api-gateway ↗

Key Features

Kong
  • ✓API, protocol, and service support
  • ✓Unlimited agents for agent-to-agent traffic
  • ✓AI Observability with token-level tracking
  • ✓Advanced analytics for up to 1M API requests
  • ✓Developer portal support for 2 portals
  • ✓Enterprise-grade security controls
  • ✓Email support during trial
  • ✓Unlimited access to plugins
AWS API Gateway
  • ✓Pay-as-you-go pricing
  • ✓One million free API calls
  • ✓No minimum fees
  • ✓No upfront commitments

When to choose Kong

Choose Kong if your team prioritizes its strengths over AWS API Gateway's. Full guidance populates as Kong's feature data is indexed.

When to choose AWS API Gateway

Choose AWS API Gateway if your team prioritizes its strengths over Kong's. Full guidance populates as AWS API Gateway's feature data is indexed.

AI visibility profiles

Is one of these your brand?

Get the full report by email: every api gateways buyer question we ask, which engines name you, and who gets named instead.

Kong

konghq.com

AWS API Gateway

aws.amazon.com/api-gateway

Free check

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We ask the buyer questions in this market across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot, and show you who gets named.

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