# Kong Gateway vs Azure API Management: which do AI models recommend for API gateways, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, API gateways. Ten of fourteen models named Kong Gateway first on the direct prompt; zero named Azure API Management. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/developer/api-gateways/kong-gateway-vs-azure-api-management/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kong Gateway | 53% | #1 of 11 | 14% | 70 | 14 of 14 |
| Azure API Management | 2% | #6 of 11 | 3% | 36 | 12 of 14 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- Claude Haiku 4.5: kong gateway first (first choices: Amazon API Gateway, Kong Gateway)
- GPT-5.4 mini: kong gateway first (first choices: Kong Gateway) (alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Apigee, Azure API Management)
- Perplexity Sonar: kong gateway first (first choices: Kong Gateway) (alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Apigee, Cleo Integration Cloud)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: kong gateway first (first choices: Kong Gateway) (alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Azure API Management, Tyk, Zuplo)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: kong gateway first (first choices: Kong Gateway) (alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Tyk, Zuplo)
- Kimi K2: kong gateway first (first choices: Kong Gateway) (alternatives: Azure API Management)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: kong gateway first (first choices: Kong Gateway) (alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Tyk, Zuplo)
- MiniMax M2.5: kong gateway first (first choices: Kong Gateway) (alternatives: Azure API Management, NGINX, Red Hat 3scale)
- GPT-6 Luna: kong gateway first (first choices: Kong Gateway) (alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Apigee, Azure API Management)
- Muse Glimmer 30B: kong gateway first (first choices: Kong Gateway, Tyk) (alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Azure API Management)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: Tyk) (alternatives: Gravitee, Kong Gateway, Zuplo)
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: Amazon API Gateway, Apigee) (alternatives: Kong Gateway, Tyk)
- Mistral Small: neither named (first choices: Zuplo) (alternatives: Apigee, Axway API Gateway)
- Llama 4 Maverick: neither named

## What the models said about Kong Gateway

- "Don’t start a new deployment on this version. Kong says it entered end-of-life in July 2026" (GPT-6 Luna, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Its flexibility is useful, but self-managed deployments mean more operational responsibility; hybrid setups also require attention to plugin and version compatibility." (GPT-6 Luna, comparative prompt, soft negative)
- "Kong Gateway is usually the best default choice if you need a general-purpose API gateway with strong extensibility and flexibility." (Perplexity Sonar, direct prompt, first choice)
- "Shortlist: Kong (extensible, scalable), AWS API Gateway (if AWS-heavy), Zuplo (fast DX, edge-native), Tyk (open-source friendly)." (Grok 4.1 Fast, scale prompt, first choice)

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category. Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category. Published under CC BY 4.0; the output is the models' output, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.