Everstack vs Kong AI Gateway

The facts, side by side

Licence, deployment model and list price, taken from each vendor's own documentation. Every source is linked at the bottom of this page.

Plugin tiering was read from each plugin's own page on developer.konghq.com, licence from the raw LICENSE file in Kong/kong, and pricing from konghq.com/pricing, all on 30 August 2026. Kong's pricing page currently banners an upcoming increase, so verify before you buy.

Feature comparison

Direct capability comparison across key dimensions

The same job, in both products

Working code rather than adjectives. Each snippet follows the quickstart published by the product it belongs to.

from openai import OpenAIimport os# Point the stock OpenAI SDK at your Everstack gateway. Routing, fallback,# caching, limits and traces apply server side with no plugin to configure.client = OpenAI(    base_url="https://{instance}.{region}.everstack.ai/openai/v1",    api_key=os.environ["EVERSTACK_API_KEY"],)response = client.chat.completions.create(    model="gpt-4o-mini",    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Summarise this incident report"}],)

# From Kong's own ai-proxy example, requires Kong Gateway 3.6+.# ai-proxy is one of the six free AI plugins.curl -i -X POST http://localhost:8001/plugins/ \  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \  --data '{    "name": "ai-proxy",    "config": {      "route_type": "llm/v1/chat",      "auth": {        "header_name": "Authorization",        "header_value": "Bearer '"$OPENAI_API_KEY"'"      },      "model": {        "provider": "openai",        "name": "gpt-4",        "options": { "max_tokens": 512, "temperature": 1.0 }      }    }  }'

import Everstack from "@everstack/node";const client = new Everstack({ apiKey: process.env.EVERSTACK_API_KEY });// Semantic cache is part of the Apache-2.0 build. No licence key.await client.gateway.updateRouting({  cache: { mode: "semantic", similarityThreshold: 0.95, ttlSeconds: 3600 },});

# ai-semantic-cache is AI Gateway Enterprise only. Kong's plugin page# states: "This plugin is only available as part of our AI Gateway# Enterprise offering." Without a licence the request below is rejected.curl -i -X POST http://localhost:8001/plugins/ \  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \  --data '{ "name": "ai-semantic-cache", "config": { } }'

Key evaluation questions

What to ask when comparing Kong AI Gateway to Everstack

Feature-by-feature analysis

Where each product is genuinely stronger, row by row

Moving from Kong AI Gateway to Everstack

Kong and Everstack both terminate an OpenAI-compatible request, so applications usually move with a base URL change. The work is in re-expressing plugin configuration as Everstack routing policy, and in deciding what to do with the non-AI API traffic Kong is also carrying.

1. 1

   Inventory which AI plugins you actually run

   Separate the six free plugins from the seventeen enterprise ones. The enterprise list is usually the reason a migration is being considered at all, because those are the capabilities Everstack includes.

2. 2

   Move the model routes first, leave the API routes alone

   Point application traffic at the Everstack gateway for LLM calls only. Kong keeps serving your regular APIs. There is no reason to migrate both at once, and plenty of reason not to.

3. 3

   Re-express plugin config as routing policy

   ai-proxy model and provider settings map to Everstack provider routes. ai-rate-limiting-advanced maps to per-tenant limits. ai-semantic-cache maps to cache mode and similarity threshold. Guardrail plugins map to Everstack guardrails.

4. 4

   Run both in parallel and compare

   Mirror a percentage of traffic and compare latency, cache hit rate and cost before shifting the rest. Keep Kong's AI routes configured until you are confident.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about choosing between Everstack and Kong AI Gateway