Routeplane vs Kong AI Gateway
Kong extends a battle-tested API gateway with AI plugins. Routeplane is a purpose-built AI data plane with sovereignty and guardrails in the open core.
Kong AI Gateway is the most feature-complete AI gateway by breadth: AI proxying, semantic caching, prompt guards, PII sanitization, and an MCP proxy, all riding on the mature Nginx/OpenResty foundation that already fronts APIs at enormous scale. If you run Kong today, adding AI plugins is a natural extension, and Kong Inc. backs it with enterprise support and a self-reported ~28k RPS benchmark (July 2025).
The trade-off is the paywall and the platform. Most of the competitive AI features, semantic caching, the PII sanitizer, advanced load balancing, the MCP proxy, require a Kong Enterprise license; the OSS tier covers basic single-provider proxying. And Kong remains a general API gateway carrying an AI plugin chain, not a purpose-built AI data plane. Routeplane inverts both: core governance (PII redaction, routing, audit) ships in the Apache-2.0 Community Edition, and the engine is a single Rust binary designed for exactly one job, governed LLM and agent traffic, with per-request sovereign routing Kong doesn’t offer at any tier.
Feature-by-feature
| Capability | routeplane | Kong AI Gateway |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI-compatible API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Purpose-built AI data plane | ✓ | ◐ API gateway + AI plugins |
| Per-request regulated-data classification | ✓ | ✗ |
| Region-locked routing enforced per request | ✓ | ✗ |
| PII redaction without an enterprise license | ✓ | ✗ Enterprise plugin |
| MCP / agent tool-call governance | ✓ default-deny gateway | ◐ Enterprise plugin |
| Multi-currency FinOps & chargeback (USD + ₹) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Engine language / tail latency | ✓ Rust, no-GC | ◐ LuaJIT (incremental GC) |
| Footprint | ✓ single container, scale-to-zero | ◐ gateway + plugin chain |
| Proven raw throughput at scale | ◐ young product | ✓ ~28k RPS self-reported |
| General API-management ecosystem | ✗ AI traffic only | ✓ huge plugin hub |
Which should you choose?
Choose routeplane when
- A regulator cares where each individual request goes, Kong offers region deployment, not per-request residency.
- You want PII redaction, routing, and audit in the open core, not behind an enterprise paywall.
- A single small container that scales to zero fits your platform better than an API gateway plus plugin chain.
- Finance needs chargeback in the currency they report in, per team and project.
Choose Kong AI Gateway when
- You already run Kong for API management and want one vendor for APIs and AI traffic.
- You need a long enterprise track record, support contracts, and proven throughput at very large scale.
- Your requirements are met by an AI plugin chain and an Enterprise license is acceptable.
Migrating to routeplane
Routeplane and Kong can coexist: keep Kong in front of your APIs and point LLM traffic at Routeplane. Adoption is a base-URL change, aim your OpenAI-compatible clients at https://api.routeplane.ai/v1; residency, guardrail, and cost signals come back as x-routeplane-* response headers.
Frequently asked questions
Is Routeplane a replacement for Kong?
Not for API management, if you need a general API gateway, Kong is excellent at that. Routeplane replaces the AI-gateway slice: a purpose-built data plane for LLM and agent traffic with per-request sovereign routing and open-core guardrails. Many teams run both, Kong for APIs, Routeplane for AI.
Are Kong’s AI features free?
The OSS tier includes basic AI proxying. Semantic caching, the PII sanitizer, advanced load balancing, and the AI MCP Proxy are Kong Enterprise features (per Kong’s public plugin docs, mid-2026). Routeplane ships PII redaction and core governance in its Apache-2.0 Community Edition.
Can Kong enforce data residency per request?
Kong can be deployed per region, but it does not classify regulated data per request and hard-lock that request to an in-region provider. That per-request enforcement is the capability Routeplane is built around.
See the residency header come back true.
Point your existing OpenAI-compatible client at routeplane and route your first sovereign request this week.