# Amazon API Gateway vs Kong Konnect

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/aws-api-gateway-vs-kong-konnect/

Every value below is read from Amazon API Gateway's and Kong Konnect's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Amazon API Gateway | Kong Konnect |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Kind of free offer | Free credit | Free trial |
| Entry paid plan | None. There are no minimum fees and no upfront commitments — you pay per request from the first one, at $1.00 per million for HTTP APIs and $3.50 per million for REST APIs in us-east-1. | $25 a month per serverless control plane on the Plus tier, which allows up to five of them. Nothing is metered per request at that price — the charge is for running the gateway, not for the traffic through it. |
| Pricing model | Per request, and the rate depends on which of two API types you deploy: $1.00 per million HTTP API requests falling to $0.90 above 300 million, against $3.50 per million REST API requests falling to $1.51 above 20 billion. WebSocket APIs are billed separately at $1.00 per million messages plus $0.25 per million connection-minutes. Data transfer out is charged on top, except on Private APIs. | Per control plane per month, not per request. A serverless control plane is $25 a month and a dedicated cloud gateway is $500 a month plus $0.15 per GB of bandwidth, with volume discounts above that. The bill therefore tracks how many gateways you operate rather than how much traffic they carry — the opposite of every other member of this category. |
| Uptime SLA | 99.95% Monthly Uptime Percentage per region, backed by service credits. | 99.99% on dedicated cloud gateways. The serverless gateways that the $25 entry price buys carry NO SLA at all, which the plan table states in the same row — so the cheapest way into Kong is also the one with no availability commitment. |

## Where they differ

### Kind of free offer

- Amazon API Gateway: Free credit ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/api-gateway/pricing/))
- Kong Konnect: Free trial ([source](https://konghq.com/pricing))

### Entry paid plan

- Amazon API Gateway: None. There are no minimum fees and no upfront commitments — you pay per request from the first one, at $1.00 per million for HTTP APIs and $3.50 per million for REST APIs in us-east-1. ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/api-gateway/pricing/))
- Kong Konnect: $25 a month per serverless control plane on the Plus tier, which allows up to five of them. Nothing is metered per request at that price — the charge is for running the gateway, not for the traffic through it. ([source](https://konghq.com/pricing))

### Pricing model

- Amazon API Gateway: Per request, and the rate depends on which of two API types you deploy: $1.00 per million HTTP API requests falling to $0.90 above 300 million, against $3.50 per million REST API requests falling to $1.51 above 20 billion. WebSocket APIs are billed separately at $1.00 per million messages plus $0.25 per million connection-minutes. Data transfer out is charged on top, except on Private APIs. ([source](https://pricing.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/offers/v1.0/aws/AmazonApiGateway/current/us-east-1/index.json))
- Kong Konnect: Per control plane per month, not per request. A serverless control plane is $25 a month and a dedicated cloud gateway is $500 a month plus $0.15 per GB of bandwidth, with volume discounts above that. The bill therefore tracks how many gateways you operate rather than how much traffic they carry — the opposite of every other member of this category. ([source](https://konghq.com/pricing))

### Uptime SLA

- Amazon API Gateway: 99.95% Monthly Uptime Percentage per region, backed by service credits. ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/api-gateway/sla/))
- Kong Konnect: 99.99% on dedicated cloud gateways. The serverless gateways that the $25 entry price buys carry NO SLA at all, which the plan table states in the same row — so the cheapest way into Kong is also the one with no availability commitment. ([source](https://konghq.com/pricing))

## Which should you choose?

Pick Amazon API Gateway if APIs that already live in AWS, where the gateway can reach a Lambda or a private VPC service without leaving the account. Nothing is bought in advance: no minimum fee, no upfront commitment, and $1.00 per million HTTP API requests from the first one.

Pick Kong Konnect if Running several gateways whose traffic you cannot forecast. The bill is per control plane per month — $25 serverless, $500 dedicated — so a spike in requests costs nothing extra, which is the opposite of every per-call competitor here.

Consider something else: Amazon API Gateway — You would pick the wrong API type by accident. REST APIs cost $3.50 per million against HTTP APIs at $1.00 — the same traffic, three and a half times the bill — and the choice is made when you create the API, not when the invoice arrives.

Consider something else: Kong Konnect — Availability is the reason you are buying a gateway. The $25 serverless tier carries no SLA at all; 99.99% starts at the $500-a-month dedicated gateway, plus $0.15 per GB of bandwidth on top.

## Documented by only one

- What the free plan includes: Kong Konnect: Thirty days of the full enterprise feature set with no gateway limits and 30 days of analytics retention, then it stops. There is no standing free tier underneath it.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: Amazon API Gateway or Kong Konnect?**

Amazon API Gateway: None. There are no minimum fees and no upfront commitments — you pay per request from the first one, at $1.00 per million for HTTP APIs and $3.50 per million for REST APIs in us-east-1.
Kong Konnect: $25 a month per serverless control plane on the Plus tier, which allows up to five of them. Nothing is metered per request at that price — the charge is for running the gateway, not for the traffic through it.

**Should I choose Amazon API Gateway or Kong Konnect?**

Pick Amazon API Gateway if APIs that already live in AWS, where the gateway can reach a Lambda or a private VPC service without leaving the account. Nothing is bought in advance: no minimum fee, no upfront commitment, and $1.00 per million HTTP API requests from the first one.
Pick Kong Konnect if Running several gateways whose traffic you cannot forecast. The bill is per control plane per month — $25 serverless, $500 dedicated — so a spike in requests costs nothing extra, which is the opposite of every per-call competitor here.