Updated April 20266 min read

HiWay2LLM vs Kong AI Gateway

Head-to-head comparison of HiWay2LLM and Kong AI Gateway. Kong's enterprise gateway layer vs a standalone AI-native router. Which fits your stack.

TL;DR

Kong AI Gateway makes sense if you already run Kong. HiWay is the cleaner choice if you don't — lighter, AI-native, cost-focused, no enterprise procurement. Kong wins on deep API-gateway features; HiWay wins on time-to-value and pricing clarity.

Kong AI Gateway and HiWay2LLM both sit between your app and LLM providers, but they come from very different worlds. Kong is an established enterprise API-gateway platform that layered AI-specific plugins on top of its existing gateway. HiWay is a standalone, AI-native router designed from scratch to optimize LLM traffic, with no broader gateway to configure.

If you already operate Kong for your REST APIs, extending it to LLMs is the path of least resistance. If you do not, adopting Kong just for LLM routing is a large surface area for a focused problem. Here is the honest comparison.

Quick decision

  • Already running Kong for your general API traffic? The AI Gateway extension fits your existing operational model.
  • Starting clean, no Kong in your stack? HiWay is lighter — a hosted SaaS you configure in minutes, not a gateway platform to deploy.
  • Enterprise procurement, SSO/SAML, detailed RBAC on gateway policies? Kong's gateway maturity is hard to beat.
  • Focused on LLM cost optimization without adopting an entire gateway platform? HiWay.

Pricing

Kong AI Gateway follows Kong's broader pricing model — self-hosted open-source tier plus commercial tiers (Kong Konnect SaaS or enterprise self-managed) with platform-level pricing, often negotiated as part of a larger Kong contract.

HiWay is a flat monthly SaaS fee with 0% markup on inference thanks to BYOK:

PlanPriceRouted requests / mo
Free$02,500
Build$15/mo100,000
Scale$39/mo500,000
Business$249/mo5,000,000
Enterpriseon requestcustom quotas, SSO, DPA

Two different purchasing motions: Kong is usually a procurement conversation; HiWay is a self-serve credit card. And HiWay's smart routing auto-downgrades simple requests to cheaper models — 40-85% savings on a typical mix — which overtakes the $15/mo Build subscription within hours of real use, at any scale.

Feature-by-feature

FeatureHiWay2LLMKong AI Gateway
Bring your own keys (BYOK)
Both let you use your own provider credentials
Zero-config smart routing
Kong routes based on gateway policies you define
OpenAI-compatible API out of the box
Kong exposes what you configure on its routes
Automatic fallback across providers
EU hosting as a hosted SaaS
Depends on whether you self-host or use Konnect region
Zero prompt logging by default
Kong's logging depends on your plugin config
Time to first call
~5 min
gateway deploy + config
Deep API-gateway features (rate limiting, transformations, auth)
Kong's core strength
Pricing model
flat €/mo SaaS
open-source + enterprise tiers
Purchasing motion
self-serve
often procurement

native · partial or plugin · not offered

When to pick which

Pick HiWay2LLM if

  • You do not already run Kong and do not want to adopt a full gateway platform just for LLM routing
  • You want a self-serve SaaS with a credit card, not a procurement process
  • Your priority is LLM cost optimization, not API-gateway features like rate limiting, transformations, or unified auth
  • You want EU-hosted SaaS with zero prompt logging by default and a signed DPA
  • You want smart routing out of the box with `model: "auto"`, not a policy to configure
  • You are a startup or team under 50 engineers where Kong's operational weight is overkill

Pick Kong AI Gateway if

  • You already run Kong for your REST APIs and want to extend it naturally
  • You need deep gateway features — rate limiting, request transformation, unified auth, mTLS — applied uniformly to AI and non-AI traffic
  • Your org has standardized on Kong for governance, SSO, and operational tooling
  • You have the ops team and budget for an enterprise gateway platform
  • Strict policy management and fine-grained RBAC on routes is a hard requirement

Migration

If you route LLM traffic through Kong AI Gateway today via a Kong route with an AI plugin, switching to HiWay means pointing your OpenAI SDK at HiWay's base URL instead of your Kong endpoint. The client code itself barely changes — it is OpenAI-compatible on both sides.

With Kong AI Gateway
# Before: Kong route with ai-proxy plugin in front of providers
# Kong config (simplified, per your gateway):
#   routes: /ai/chat -> service -> ai-proxy plugin (openai | anthropic | ...)

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
  base_url="https://your-kong-gateway.example.com/ai/chat",
  api_key="consumer-key",
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
  model="gpt-4o-mini",
  messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}],
)
With HiWay2LLM
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
  base_url="https://app.hiway2llm.com/v1",
  api_key="hw_live_...",
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
  model="auto",  # let the router pick
  messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}],
)

Add your provider keys in Settings → Providers. Keep model: "auto" to let HiWay pick, or pin specific models where you want determinism.

FAQ

FAQ

HiWay handles the basics that matter for LLM traffic — per-workspace quotas, burn-rate alerts, automatic fallback, and workspace-level rate limiting. We do not cover the full surface of an enterprise API gateway (request transformation pipelines, mTLS to internal services, complex RBAC on routes). If that is core to your platform, Kong wins on depth.

Bottom line

Kong AI Gateway makes sense if you already live in Kong — extending it to LLMs is the natural move. HiWay makes sense if you do not — it is a focused, AI-native router that saves cost without asking you to adopt an enterprise platform. Different tools for different org shapes.

Try HiWay free — 2,500 requests/mo

BYOK, EU-hosted, no credit card

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