Mintive vs Kong AI Gateway
Last updated: October 19, 2026.
Choose Mintive when the priority is governing what AI agents do with tools: each user's own credentials to downstream systems, curated tools per role, screening of tool calls and results, and an audit trail per user. Choose Kong AI Gateway when you already run Kong for API management and want MCP and LLM traffic as another policy layer on the same platform. Many teams run both, with Mintive in front of agents and Kong in front of services.
Mintive and Kong side by side
| Mintive | Kong AI Gateway | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Dedicated MCP gateway, plus LLM gateway and Agent Monitor | API gateway with LLM, MCP and A2A support |
| Deployment | Managed cloud service in the US or EU; Private Networks reach internal services through a Helm or Docker agent (Enterprise); on-premise or self-hosted by arrangement | Konnect-managed control plane with cloud, serverless or hybrid gateways; fully self-hosted via Enterprise |
| License | Paid plans (mintive.com/pricing) | Kong Gateway is Apache 2.0; MCP plugins are on the AI Gateway Enterprise tier |
| Client authentication | OAuth 2.0 with PKCE and dynamic client registration on every Virtual MCP; API keys, M2M tokens or workload identity federation (on request) for agents | OAuth 2.1 resource server for MCP; key auth or OpenID Connect |
| SSO and SCIM | SSO and SCIM with Okta, Google Workspace, Microsoft Entra ID, OneLogin, JumpCloud, Auth0, PingFederate and other SAML/OIDC providers | SSO via OIDC/SAML; SCIM listed on the pricing page |
| Per-user credentials to tools | Per-user OAuth with automatic refresh, shared service credentials, or cross app access; user identity forwarding to MCP servers | Token exchange before the upstream MCP server |
| Access is granted to | A Virtual MCP per role with curated tools, for users, directory groups and agent identities (RBAC); per-tool enable and disable and approval | Individual tools, by consumer or consumer group |
| Audit and export | Tool calls, prompts and access changes over OTLP, Splunk HEC or batched files to S3 (SIEM export); usage through the Admin API and Admin MCP | MCP logs and OpenTelemetry; Konnect audit webhook to a SIEM |
| Prompt injection and sensitive data | Mint Guard (enabled on request), Mintive's managed guardrail, screens tool arguments and results out of the box; plus rules and middleware that block or mask, with PII and DLP templates | Prompt guards and PII sanitizer on LLM traffic; MCP inspection through partner plugins |
| LLM routing and budgets | LLM gateway (early access): budgets per group and per user, allowed models per group | Multi-provider routing, token quotas, rate limiting |
| Connectors and registry | Pre-vetted catalog, hosted connectors from container images, the hosted CLI or private npm packages, remote MCPs, custom registry; tool change alerts | Generates MCP servers from REST APIs; proxies existing MCP servers; MCP Registry in tech preview |
| Compliance stated | SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA, with a BAA available (details) | Not documented on the pages checked |
| Pricing | Plans on mintive.com/pricing; Mint Guard and ZDR are on the Enterprise plan | Tiers from $25/month plus usage, per-gateway fees; Enterprise custom |
How each handles agent traffic
Per-user OAuth to downstream tools
An agent acting for a user needs that user's permissions on Salesforce, GitHub or Snowflake, not a shared service account. Mintive stores each user's OAuth tokens per connector and refreshes them, so tool calls run with the user's own access, and admins can switch a connector to shared credentials where one account is right. See authentication models. Kong documents token exchange, which swaps the client's token for a different token before the request reaches the upstream MCP server, and forwarding claims as headers.
Tool-level access by role
Mintive groups the connectors and tools a role needs into a Virtual MCP and grants it to directory groups, so a user only sees the tools for their role, and when groups come from your IdP via SCIM, access follows as people join and leave teams. Kong applies default and per-tool ACLs to an AI MCP Server entity by consumer and consumer group. See RBAC and tool customization.
Audit and SIEM
Mintive records each tool call with the IdP identity of the user behind it, plus Agent Monitor events from Claude Code, Cursor and other agents, and streams them to your SIEM over OTLP or Splunk HEC, or as batched files to S3. Kong records MCP sessions, JSON-RPC payloads, tool usage and ACL decisions, with OpenTelemetry metrics and a Konnect audit webhook. See audit and observability.
Prompt injection screening
Mint Guard (enabled on request) screens both sides of every MCP tool call, the arguments the agent sends and the result the connector returns, for prompt injection, credentials and secrets, PII and harmful content. Kong's prompt guards and PII sanitizer apply to LLM traffic, and its docs point to partner plugins for MCP payload inspection. See prompt security.
Running Mintive and Kong together
Mintive and Kong sit at different points in the request path, so they don't conflict:
- Put Mintive in front of AI clients and agents, so each MCP tool call carries the user's identity, role-based tool access and an audit record.
- Keep Kong in front of your services for API traffic and rate limits.
- If Kong exposes a REST API as an MCP server, add it to Mintive as a remote MCP and include it in the Virtual MCPs for the roles that need it.
FAQ
Is Kong an MCP gateway?
Kong AI Gateway adds MCP support to Kong's API gateway. Its AI MCP Proxy plugin proxies existing MCP servers or turns Kong-managed REST APIs into MCP tools, and its AI MCP OAuth2 plugin makes the gateway an OAuth 2.1 resource server for MCP clients. Both plugins are on the AI Gateway Enterprise tier.
Is our API gateway enough for MCP?
It can be, if it covers what agent traffic needs: per-user credentials to the tools behind it, access by role at the tool level, screening of tool arguments and results, and an audit trail that names the user behind each call. Compare those four against your API gateway's MCP documentation.
Can I run Mintive and Kong together?
Yes. A common split is Mintive for agent traffic and Kong for service-to-service API traffic. Mintive connects to remote MCP servers by URL, so an MCP endpoint that Kong exposes can sit behind a Mintive Virtual MCP.
Does Mintive also route LLM traffic like Kong AI Gateway?
Yes. The Mintive LLM gateway (early access) routes model traffic with budgets per group and per user, and allowed-model lists per group, using the same users and groups as the MCP gateway.
How is pricing different?
Mintive plans are listed on mintive.com/pricing, with Mint Guard and zero data retention on the Enterprise plan. Kong publishes tiers starting at $25 per month plus usage, with per-gateway fees, and offers Enterprise on a custom basis.
Related
- MCP gateway comparison: 13 gateways side by side
- Agent gateway vs API gateway on the blog
- Architecture: how a tool call flows through the Mintive MCP gateway
Sources
Kong facts on this page come from Kong's public documentation and pricing pages, checked on October 19, 2026.