Kong Gateway is actually open source at its core — it's a widely used API gateway built on Nginx/OpenResty, free to self-host. What's proprietary is Kong Konnect, the managed cloud control plane, and Kong Enterprise, which add the management UI, analytics, and premium plugins on top of the free gateway; Konnect Plus pricing runs per gateway per month plus per-request overage. Teams that want Konnect-style API/AI traffic management without Kong's commercial layer look at fully open alternatives.
FAQ
Is there a free, open-source alternative to Kong?
Kong Gateway's core is already open source. If you're specifically looking for AI API management rather than general API gateway features, Proxed AI is AGPL-3.0 licensed and free to self-host.
What's the best open-source alternative to Kong for managing AI API traffic?
Proxed AI is narrower than Kong — it focuses specifically on securing AI API access for iOS apps rather than general-purpose API gateway functionality.
What are the top open-source alternatives to Kong?
Browse all open-source alternatives to Portkey for more AI gateway and API management tools, or explore the full Developer Tools category.