Keywords AI

Kong AI Gateway vs OpenRouter

Compare Kong AI Gateway and OpenRouter side by side. Both are tools in the LLM Gateways category.

Quick Comparison

Kong AI Gateway
Kong AI Gateway
OpenRouter
OpenRouter
CategoryLLM GatewaysLLM Gateways
PricingEnterpriseUsage-based
Best ForEnterprises using Kong who want to extend their API gateway with AI capabilitiesDevelopers who want easy access to a wide variety of LLM models through a single API
Websitekonghq.comopenrouter.ai
Key Features
  • AI traffic management
  • Multi-LLM load balancing
  • Request/response transformation
  • Authentication and authorization
  • Plugin ecosystem
  • Access to 200+ models from 50+ providers
  • OpenAI-compatible API
  • Pay-per-use pricing with no commitments
  • Model comparison and benchmarking
  • Community-driven model rankings
Use Cases
  • Enterprise AI API management
  • Load balancing across LLM providers
  • AI traffic governance and security
  • Multi-tenant AI access control
  • API lifecycle management for AI
  • Accessing models not available through major providers
  • Quick model prototyping and comparison
  • Pay-per-use without provider commitments
  • Community and open-source model access
  • Building model-agnostic applications

When to Choose Kong AI Gateway vs OpenRouter

Kong AI Gateway
Choose Kong AI Gateway if you need
  • Enterprise AI API management
  • Load balancing across LLM providers
  • AI traffic governance and security
Pricing: Enterprise
OpenRouter
Choose OpenRouter if you need
  • Accessing models not available through major providers
  • Quick model prototyping and comparison
  • Pay-per-use without provider commitments
Pricing: Usage-based

About Kong AI Gateway

Kong AI Gateway extends the popular Kong API gateway with AI-specific capabilities including multi-LLM routing, prompt engineering, semantic caching, rate limiting, and cost management.

About OpenRouter

OpenRouter is an API aggregator that provides access to dozens of LLM providers through a unified OpenAI-compatible API. It offers model routing, price comparison, and rate limit management. OpenRouter is popular with developers who want to quickly switch between models or access models not available through major providers. The platform supports pay-per-use pricing and passes through provider-specific features.

What is LLM Gateways?

Unified API platforms and proxies that aggregate multiple LLM providers behind a single endpoint, providing model routing, fallback, caching, rate limiting, cost optimization, and access control.

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