Kong Inc. Celebrated as Leader in API Management Software for Q3 2026

Kong Inc. Recognized as a Leader in API Management Software

Kong Inc., the innovative company focusing on AI connectivity, proudly announces its recent recognition as a Leader in Forrester's exclusive report, The Forrester Wave™: API Management Software, for the third quarter of 2026. This esteemed report evaluates various providers in the API management sector based on their offerings, strategic goals, and customer satisfaction.

In today's technology landscape, APIs serve as the backbone for communication between applications, services, and data. As AI agents become increasingly prevalent, the need for effective management and governance of connectivity has surged. The Forrester report emphasizes Kong's forward-thinking vision, aiming to broaden API management into what it describes as an "AI control plane." This ambition necessitates support for a diverse range of protocols, advanced event-driven architecture, modernization of gateways, and alignment with overarching business strategies.

Augusto Marietti, the Co-Founder and CEO of Kong Inc., expressed their pride in receiving this prestigious recognition from Forrester. He noted that the role of connectivity is evolving rapidly, transitioning beyond traditional APIs and events to encompass large language models (LLMs) and various AI-driven interactions. He affirmed that enterprises require infrastructure that ensures the same level of security, governance, and cost management they expect from APIs, now extended to multiple models and tools. Kong aims to help clients navigate this significant shift in technological demands.

The report situates Kong at the forefront of AI governance, highlighting that the company is ideally suited for modern cloud-native applications, particularly due to its focus on AI governance. The Kong AI Gateway stands out for offering more policies related to LLM governance than any of its competitors assessed in this evaluation.

The Forrester evaluation referenced several recent advancements made by Kong, including its deepened focus on AI usage and monetization following the acquisition of OpenMeter. This strategic move has enabled Kong to provide highly customizable analytics and monetization features, such as detailed cost chargeback reports for LLM tokens. Such tools are essential for organizations aiming to effectively monitor utilization and economics as their AI workloads expand.

Moreover, Forrester has noted an uptick in market demand for Kong's solutions amongst enterprise clients, as indicated by the feedback from their Global System Integrator (GSI) partners. These remarks suggest an increasing adoption of Kong's unified API and AI platform within corporate environments aiming to modernize their API infrastructure and overall AI capabilities.

Customer experiences with Kong have also been favorable, with many reporting superior customer support and outstanding gateway performance, further solidifying Kong's reputation within the industry.

This recognition follows Kong's recent launch of the Kong AI Gateway 2.0, which introduces a production-ready runtime, enhanced control plane features, and an improved Kong Konnect experience. New functionalities now include unified multi-cloud provider (MCP) tool governance, cost management centered on various modalities, and identity-aware policies for AI implementations, ensuring a more comprehensive support for diverse user requirements.

Forrester's research retains an objective stance, and acknowledges that it neither endorses any specific company nor suggests that clients should select products based solely on these evaluations. Their insights are based on the most reliable resources available, with opinions reflective of current judgments that are subject to change.

Kong Inc. is not just seen as a key player among Fortune 500 companies but also a trusted partner for AI-native startups. The company’s unified platform allows organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI traffic—regardless of the model or cloud. To learn more about Kong and its offerings, visit Kong's official website.