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Amazon API Gateway vs Kong Konnect

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Amazon API Gateway and Kong Konnect built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Updated 6 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose 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.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose 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.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • 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.
  • 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.

4 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit Amazon API Gateway documentationVisit Kong Konnect documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionAmazon API GatewayKong Konnect
Pricing
Free tierYesYes
Kind of free offerFree creditFree trial
Entry paid planNone. 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 modelPer 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.
Infrastructure
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.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

Kind of free offer

Amazon API Gateway
Free credit
Kong Konnect
Free trial
Sources (2) →

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.
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.
Sources (2) →

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.
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.
Sources (2) →

Uptime SLA

Amazon API Gateway

99.95% Monthly Uptime Percentage per region, backed by service credits.

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.

Sources (2) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing.

What the free plan includesKong 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.
04.

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.

Provider pages

Amazon API GatewayAWS's managed API gateway, billed per request at two different rates depending on which API type you deploy.Kong KonnectKong's managed control plane for its API gateway, billed per gateway per month rather than per request.

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Every page here is sourced and dated.