Kong Konnect vs Apigee
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Kong Konnect and Apigee built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
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
Choose Apigee if…
API programmes that need policy depth and are already on Google Cloud, with 60 days of sandbox evaluation before any commitment and volume rates that fall to $13 per million calls above 500 million.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- 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.
- Apigee: Cost at the bottom end decides it. The floor is $365 a month per region for a Base environment before a single call is served, against $25 at Kong and Zuplo and nothing at all at AWS — and an Extensible proxy, the one that unlocks the full policy set, is $100 per million against a Standard proxy at $20.
3 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Kong Konnect 0
Apigee 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Kong Konnect | Apigee |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Kind of free offer | Free trial | Free trial |
| Entry paid plan | $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. | $365 a month per region for a Base environment, plus $20 per million API calls on a Standard proxy. Pay-as-you-go means no contract, not no floor — calls are served by an environment and the cheapest environment carries that monthly charge whether traffic arrives or not. The most expensive entry in this category by an order of magnitude. |
| Pricing model | 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. | Per million API calls, at a rate set by which of two proxy types serves them. A Standard proxy is $20 per million up to 50 million, $16 to 500 million and $13 above that; an Extensible proxy, which unlocks the full policy set, is $100, $80 and $64 across the same bands — five times the price for the same call volume. Choosing the proxy type is therefore a pricing decision as much as a capability one. |
| Infrastructure | ||
| Uptime SLA | 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. | 99.99% for Pay-as-you-go, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus subscriptions; 99% for Apigee Standard. The pricing page states it differently again, capping a Base environment at "up to 99%" — so a pay-as-you-go customer holds a 99.99% commitment while deploying into environments the price table rates at 99%, and neither page reconciles the two. |
Where they differ.
Entry paid plan
- 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.
- Apigee
- $365 a month per region for a Base environment, plus $20 per million API calls on a Standard proxy. Pay-as-you-go means no contract, not no floor — calls are served by an environment and the cheapest environment carries that monthly charge whether traffic arrives or not. The most expensive entry in this category by an order of magnitude.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Kong Pricing and Plans ↗
“$25/month per control plane”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- Apigee pricing ↗
“$365 per month per region Up to 50 QPS”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
Pricing model
- 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.
- Apigee
- Per million API calls, at a rate set by which of two proxy types serves them. A Standard proxy is $20 per million up to 50 million, $16 to 500 million and $13 above that; an Extensible proxy, which unlocks the full policy set, is $100, $80 and $64 across the same bands — five times the price for the same call volume. Choosing the proxy type is therefore a pricing decision as much as a capability one.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Kong Pricing and Plans ↗
“$500/month per control plane Volume discounts available DCGW bandwidth cost”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- Apigee pricing ↗
“Costs provided are per 1M API calls.”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
Uptime SLA
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.
99.99% for Pay-as-you-go, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus subscriptions; 99% for Apigee Standard. The pricing page states it differently again, capping a Base environment at "up to 99%" — so a pay-as-you-go customer holds a 99.99% commitment while deploying into environments the price table rates at 99%, and neither page reconciles the two.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Kong Pricing and Plans ↗
“SLA 99.99% 99.99% 99.99%”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- Apigee Service Level Agreement ↗
“Apigee Enterprise, Apigee Enterprise Plus, or Apigee Pay-as-you-go”
Read 2026-09-15 · official docs
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
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.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: Kong Konnect or Apigee?
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.
Apigee: $365 a month per region for a Base environment, plus $20 per million API calls on a Standard proxy. Pay-as-you-go means no contract, not no floor — calls are served by an environment and the cheapest environment carries that monthly charge whether traffic arrives or not. The most expensive entry in this category by an order of magnitude.
Should I choose Kong Konnect or Apigee?
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.
Pick Apigee if API programmes that need policy depth and are already on Google Cloud, with 60 days of sandbox evaluation before any commitment and volume rates that fall to $13 per million calls above 500 million.