Kong licensing is the set of terms under which Kong Inc. supplies its API gateway, AI gateway, event gateway, service mesh, developer portal, metering and API client software. The commercial products are Kong Gateway Enterprise (self-managed), Kong Konnect (a hosted control plane with several gateway deployment types), Kong Mesh and Insomnia. Several of them sit on top of open-source cores: the Kong Gateway repository on GitHub carries an Apache License 2.0 notice,[6] and the Insomnia desktop application is also open source under Apache 2.0.[14]
Kong publishes its contract set on a single legal page. It lists the Kong Customer Agreement, the Product-Specific Terms, the Support and Maintenance Policy, the Service Level Agreement, a data processing addendum and professional services terms.[4] The Customer Agreement is “the master agreement for customer subscriptions to Kong products and services”. It grants a non-exclusive, non-transferable, worldwide, limited-term licence for the Subscription Term, either to use the purchased Cloud Services, to install and use the Software in the Customer Network Environment, or both.[1] Catalog proof: Licence grant is non-exclusive, non-transferable and limited-term.
Kong sells in two broad ways. Konnect Plus is a self-service plan priced “From $25/month plus usage, billed monthly”, while Konnect Enterprise is custom-priced and billed annually.[3] Self-managed Gateway Enterprise, Kong Mesh and Insomnia Enterprise are licensed by licence file or by user seat. This article maps them. The deeper pages are Kong Gateway open-source and Enterprise licensing, Kong Konnect plans and usage pricing, Kong Mesh licensing, Kong Insomnia licensing and Kong Customer Agreement and Product-Specific Terms.
Editions
Kong’s pricing page groups the platform into AI Management, API Management and Event Management, each with a Plus and an Enterprise column. The Event Management column shows Plus as not available.[3] The same page says each solution “is available on its own”, and that they all run on Konnect.[3]
| Product line | How Kong licenses it | Deeper article |
|---|---|---|
| Kong Gateway OSS | Apache License 2.0 open-source repository; supports only traditional and DB-less deployments[6][7] | Kong Gateway open-source and Enterprise licensing |
| Kong Gateway Enterprise | Licence file issued with a subscription; checked when each node starts[5] | same |
| Kong Konnect | Plus (monthly, usage-based) and Enterprise (custom, annual) on a published rate card[3] | Kong Konnect plans and usage pricing |
| Dedicated Cloud Gateways | Kong-hosted gateways priced per control plane and per GB of bandwidth[3] | same |
| Kong Metering and Billing | Priced per ingested event and per billing volume; Kong states OpenMeter Cloud is now Konnect Metering and Billing[3][12] | same |
| Kong Mesh | Licence file counting connected data plane proxies and an expiry date[8] | Kong Mesh licensing |
| Insomnia | Essentials, Pro and Enterprise plans per user per month[9] | Kong Insomnia licensing |
Metrics
Kong does not use one universal metric. The rate card uses resource and volume units, the Mesh licence uses a proxy count, and Insomnia uses seats.
| Unit | Catalog row | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Control plane (per month, metered hourly) | Control plane | Konnect hybrid, serverless and Dedicated Cloud Gateway control planes |
| Million API requests per month | API request, AI Gateway request | Konnect gateway transaction volume |
| Unique LLM proxied | AI Gateway model | AI plugins, measured hourly and enforced monthly |
| Published API, Developer Portal | Published API, Developer Portal | Konnect developer portal |
| Ingested event, access token | Ingested event, Access token (Kong Identity) | Metering and Billing, Kong Identity |
| Data plane proxy | Data plane proxy (DPP) | Kong Mesh |
| User per month | Insomnia seat (user per month) | Insomnia paid plans |
The Customer Agreement also defines who may use the products. An Authorized User is a person designated and granted access by or for the customer, including its and its Affiliates’ Contractors, but “Authorized Users do not include External Users”, meaning third parties whose programmatic applications consume the customer’s APIs through Kong.[1] Catalog proof: External Users are not Authorized Users.
Counting / floors
Order Form limits. Subscriptions “are subject to usage limits set out in the Order Form or on or through a registration or administrative web page or otherwise in the signup process”. The customer must comply or buy excess usage, and Kong “may invoice Customer for any excess or additional use exceeding the usage limits”.[1] Fixed-term subscriptions are invoiced in full on signing, and fees are “based on Products and Support Services purchased and not actual usage” unless the Order Form says otherwise.[1] Catalog proof: Usage limits come from the Order Form or sign-up page; Kong may invoice excess usage; increased limits are prorated.
Konnect Plus floors and caps. The Plus plan starts at $25 per month plus usage. API Management Plus includes 1 million API requests per month and allows up to 10 million; AI Management Plus includes 1 million requests and allows 10 million as well.[3] Exceeding Plus limits produces email and in-app notifications “prompting you to reduce usage or upgrade”.[3]
Mesh floor. With no licence file Kong Mesh uses a pre-bundled licence with a data plane proxy limit of 10 and a 30-day expiry.[8] Catalog proof: Kong Mesh without a licence uses a pre-bundled licence of 10 DPPs for 30 days.
Verification. For Kong API Gateway Enterprise, Kong AI Gateway (on-prem) and Kong Mesh, Kong may ask the customer to provide a Software-generated report “to verify that Customer is using the Software in accordance with this Agreement and any purchased usage limits”.[2] Catalog proof: Customer must provide a Software-generated report on request.
Virtualization & partitioning
Kong’s documents count deployed objects, not hosts, processors or cores. A Mesh data plane proxy is counted per sidecar container or virtual machine, using “Number of DPPs = Number of Pods + Number of VMs”, while gateway data plane proxies, zone ingresses and zone egresses are not counted.[8] The Gateway licence documentation describes a licence report with the number of cores of the node that generated it, alongside counts of Services, Routes, Consumers and Workspaces.[5] The retrieved documents contain no hard-partitioning, sub-capacity or core-factor rule of the kind described in virtualization and partitioning.
Cloud / BYOL
Konnect is the cloud control plane. Kong’s Service Level Agreement describes it as a hosted SaaS API management platform that customers may use as a control plane for Kong software they self-manage, called Konnect Hybrid, or as a control plane for single-tenant Kong Gateway Enterprise instances that Kong manages under Dedicated Cloud Gateways.[11] Where a customer buys through a marketplace, the Customer Agreement treats the marketplace as an Authorized Reseller, and the terms between customer and reseller replace sections 8, 9 and 12 of the Customer Agreement.[1] Catalog proof: Reseller terms supersede KCA sections 8, 9 and 12.
Kong’s documents do not publish a general bring-your-own-licence rule for third-party clouds. The Customer Agreement allows installation of the Software only within the Customer Network Environment, defined to include the customer’s own servers and servers of third-party cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud.[1] Catalog proof: Software may not be installed outside the Customer Network Environment or used as a service bureau.
Programs
- Konnect 30-day free trial. The pricing page offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required.[3] Under the Customer Agreement a trial is free and for evaluation only, ending at the earliest of the communicated trial end, the start of a purchased subscription or termination by Kong.[1]
- Konnect Enterprise support tiers. Diamond is 24x7 with a 30-minute SLA, Platinum is 24x7 with a 1-hour SLA and Business is regional business hours with a 2-hour SLA.[3]
- Kong Gateway LTS releases. Kong supports an LTS version for 3 years or for the lifecycle of the underlying operating system distribution, whichever is shorter, and minor versions for 1 year.[10]
- Konnect legacy rate cards. Organizations that signed up between 2023-09-26 and 2025-03-01 have a separate rate card, linked from the pricing page.[3]
- Konnect and Dedicated Cloud Gateways Service Credits. The Service Level Agreement gives Service Credits as the sole remedy for availability failures.[11]
Changes that affect licensing
Kong Gateway 3.10.0.0, released 2025-03-27, removed free mode: starting Enterprise without a licence now behaves like an expired licence.[13] Release 3.15.0.0, dated 2026-07-02, made the Admin API read-only without a configured licence while proxy traffic continues.[13] Catalog proof: Free mode was removed in Kong Gateway 3.10; Without a licence the Admin API is read-only from Kong Gateway 3.15. The pricing page also says organizations that signed up for Konnect Free or Konnect Plus before 2025-03-01 can use the same sign-in page as before.[3]
Out of scope
This article does not cover Kong’s partner programs, professional services terms, the data processing addendum, or Kong Ingress Controller and Kong Operator beyond how they apply a Gateway licence. It also does not cover negotiated discounts, private offers or tax treatment. The retrieved documents do not describe a licence audit procedure beyond the verification clause and the licence report, and no Kong-specific audit rights beyond those were found in the documents cited here.[1][2]