{"slug": "kong-named-a-leader-in-the-forrester-wave-for-api-management-q3-2026", "title": "Kong named a Leader in the Forrester Wave for API Management, Q3 2026", "summary": "Kong Inc. has been named a Leader in the Forrester Wave for API Management, Q3 2026, with Forrester noting that Kong's gateway offers more policies for LLM governance than any other vendor in the evaluation. The report also credits Kong's acquisition of OpenMeter for providing customizable analytics and monetization capabilities, including cost chargeback reports for LLM tokens, and highlights growing demand from global system integrators and strong customer feedback. This recognition follows IDC's earlier designation of Kong as a Leader in its 2026 API Management MarketScape, underscoring the company's focus on AI governance and cloud-native use cases.", "body_md": "APIs used to be about connecting systems to each other. Now they're also how AI agents connect to everything: tools, data, other agents. That shift changes what good API management looks like, and it's where we at Kong have shifted our focus.\n\nForrester's take on where we land: Kong \"well suits modern cloud-native use cases with an emphasis on AI governance.\"\n\nOn strategy, the report describes Kong's vision as one built \"to expand API management into an AI control plane while recognizing that this requires supporting broad protocols, event-driven architecture, gateway modernization, and alignment with executive business strategy.\"\n\nAnd on the thing we get asked about most — AI governance — the report is direct: Kong's gateway has \"more policies for LLM governance than any other vendor in this evaluation….\" This is Forrester's own assessment, based on its evaluation criteria across every vendor in the report.\n\nKong's gateway has \"more policies for LLM governance than any other vendor in this evaluation….\"\n\nForrester Wave for API Management, Q3 2026\n\n-\n\n## Where the investment is paying off\n\nKong’s vendor profile in the report states the following:\n\n- **OpenMeter.** The report credits the acquisition with giving Kong \"highly customizable analytics and monetization capabilities, including cost chargeback reports for LLM tokens\" — the foundation for tracking and billing AI token usage the same way you'd track any other metered resource.\n\n- **Partner momentum.** Forrester notes that \"GSI partners indicate growing demand for Kong implementations,\" a signal that the enterprise systems integrators steering large transformation deals are steering more of them toward Kong.\n\n- **Customer experience.** Per the report, \"Kong's customers say its customer support and gateway performance stand out.\"\n\nThis isn't a one-report story. Earlier this year, IDC named Kong a Leader in the *IDC MarketScape: Worldwide API Management 2026 Vendor Assessment*.\n\nIDC Group Vice President Shari Lava framed the shift this way: API management is becoming, in her words, \"the very foundation for AI enablement, software development, and connectivity.\" As enterprises move toward hybrid and multicloud architectures, the vendors that win will be the ones offering federated platforms that support both legacy modernization and fast AI innovation.\n\nTwo independent analyst firms, evaluating the market from different angles, landed on the same read: governance and AI-readiness are now the deciding factor in API management. This is the very problem we've been building Kong to solve.\n\n## The platform behind both reports\n\n[_Kong_](https://konghq.com/products/kong-konnect)_Kong_ gives organizations one place to build, run, discover, and govern APIs, AI, events, and microservices. There's no AI without APIs, and no safe AI without governing them well.\n\n*Forrester does not endorse any company, product, brand, or service included in its research publications and does not advise any person to select the products or services of any company or brand based on the ratings included in such publications. Information is based on the best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. This report is part of a broader collection of Forrester resources, including interactive models, frameworks, tools, data, and access to analyst guidance. For more information, read about Forrester’s objectivity *[_*here*_](https://www.forrester.com/about-us/objectivity/)_*here*_*.*\n\nYou wouldn't expose a REST API without a gateway. What about Kafka?\nBefore we talk about an event gateway, it's worth grounding ourselves on what an event is. An event is simply a record of something that happened. In modern integration, there are\n\nWarren Vella\n\n# Kong and ModelOp Partner to Deliver Zero-Trust Security for the Agentic Enterprise\n\nThe Problem: As organizations adopt agentic AI, a massive gap exists between compliance approvals and network reality. Often, AI governance is relegated to manual reviews and \"paper approvals,\" meaning network firewalls and gateways have no context\n\nAlex Rice\n\n# Announcing Solace as Kong’s Newest Premium Technology Partner\n\nKong is excited to announce Solace as the newest member of our Premium Technology Partner Program, a program designed to deliver high-quality, reliable integrations that provide real business value for customers. Together, Kong and Solace unify AP\n\nCindy Maurice\n\n# Kong Gateway Governance: Unifying APIs and AI Infrastructure\n\nYou can see this visualized in the diagram below. As you move to the right, you get smaller and smaller circles — more services, deployed faster, in a more distributed manner to add resiliency and features. As you move to the right, your control and\n\nKong\n\n# From Kafka Chaos to Control: A Practical Guide to Governing Real-Time Data\n\nOrganizations scaling their event streams usually run into the exact same pattern of chaos: Security policies become inconsistent across teams. Data contracts drift or break silently in production. Observability is totally fragmented. Governance bec\n\nHugo Guerrero\n\n# From APIs to Agentic Integration: Introducing Kong Context Mesh\n\nAgents are ultimately decision makers. They make those decisions by combining intelligence with context, ultimately meaning they are only ever as useful as the context they can access. An agent that can't check inventory levels, look up customer his\n\nAlex Drag\n\n# The Enterprise API Strategy Cookbook: 8 Ingredients for Legacy Modernization\n\nThis is the pitch to the board and the C-suite. It must be brutally concise, focused entirely on your business outcomes, not the technology. If the first page doesn't articulate value, the strategy dies. Why? It immediately frames the initiative in\n\nSteve Roberts\n\n# Why Your Kafka Event Streams Need an Event Gateway\n\nYou wouldn't expose a REST API without a gateway. What about Kafka?\nBefore we talk about an event gateway, it's worth grounding ourselves on what an event is. An event is simply a record of something that happened. In modern integration, there are\n\nWarren Vella\n\n# Kong and ModelOp Partner to Deliver Zero-Trust Security for the Agentic Enterprise\n\nThe Problem: As organizations adopt agentic AI, a massive gap exists between compliance approvals and network reality. Often, AI governance is relegated to manual reviews and \"paper approvals,\" meaning network firewalls and gateways have no context\n\nAlex Rice\n\n# Announcing Solace as Kong’s Newest Premium Technology Partner\n\nKong is excited to announce Solace as the newest member of our Premium Technology Partner Program, a program designed to deliver high-quality, reliable integrations that provide real business value for customers. Together, Kong and Solace unify AP\n\nCindy Maurice\n\n# Kong Gateway Governance: Unifying APIs and AI Infrastructure\n\nYou can see this visualized in the diagram below. As you move to the right, you get smaller and smaller circles — more services, deployed faster, in a more distributed manner to add resiliency and features. As you move to the right, your control and\n\nKong\n\n# From Kafka Chaos to Control: A Practical Guide to Governing Real-Time Data\n\nOrganizations scaling their event streams usually run into the exact same pattern of chaos: Security policies become inconsistent across teams. Data contracts drift or break silently in production. Observability is totally fragmented. Governance bec\n\nHugo Guerrero\n\n# From APIs to Agentic Integration: Introducing Kong Context Mesh\n\nAgents are ultimately decision makers. They make those decisions by combining intelligence with context, ultimately meaning they are only ever as useful as the context they can access. An agent that can't check inventory levels, look up customer his\n\nAlex Drag\n\n# The Enterprise API Strategy Cookbook: 8 Ingredients for Legacy Modernization\n\nThis is the pitch to the board and the C-suite. It must be brutally concise, focused entirely on your business outcomes, not the technology. If the first page doesn't articulate value, the strategy dies. Why? It immediately frames the initiative in\n\nSteve Roberts\n\n# Why Your Kafka Event Streams Need an Event Gateway\n\nYou wouldn't expose a REST API without a gateway. What about Kafka?\nBefore we talk about an event gateway, it's worth grounding ourselves on what an event is. An event is simply a record of something that happened. In modern integration, there are\n\nWarren Vella\n\n# Kong and ModelOp Partner to Deliver Zero-Trust Security for the Agentic Enterprise\n\nThe Problem: As organizations adopt agentic AI, a massive gap exists between compliance approvals and network reality. Often, AI governance is relegated to manual reviews and \"paper approvals,\" meaning network firewalls and gateways have no context\n\nAlex Rice\n\n# Announcing Solace as Kong’s Newest Premium Technology Partner\n\nKong is excited to announce Solace as the newest member of our Premium Technology Partner Program, a program designed to deliver high-quality, reliable integrations that provide real business value for customers. Together, Kong and Solace unify AP\n\nCindy Maurice\n\n# Kong Gateway Governance: Unifying APIs and AI Infrastructure\n\nYou can see this visualized in the diagram below. As you move to the right, you get smaller and smaller circles — more services, deployed faster, in a more distributed manner to add resiliency and features. As you move to the right, your control and\n\nKong\n\n# From Kafka Chaos to Control: A Practical Guide to Governing Real-Time Data\n\nOrganizations scaling their event streams usually run into the exact same pattern of chaos: Security policies become inconsistent across teams. Data contracts drift or break silently in production. Observability is totally fragmented. Governance bec\n\nHugo Guerrero\n\n# From APIs to Agentic Integration: Introducing Kong Context Mesh\n\nAgents are ultimately decision makers. They make those decisions by combining intelligence with context, ultimately meaning they are only ever as useful as the context they can access. An agent that can't check inventory levels, look up customer his\n\nAlex Drag\n\n# The Enterprise API Strategy Cookbook: 8 Ingredients for Legacy Modernization\n\nThis is the pitch to the board and the C-suite. It must be brutally concise, focused entirely on your business outcomes, not the technology. If the first page doesn't articulate value, the strategy dies. Why? It immediately frames the initiative in\n\nSteve Roberts\n\n## Ready to see Kong in action?\n\nGet a personalized walkthrough of Kong's platform tailored to your architecture, use cases, and scale requirements.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kong-named-a-leader-in-the-forrester-wave-for-api-management-q3-2026", "canonical_source": "https://konghq.com/blog/news/kong-leader-forrester-wave-for-api-management-q3-2026", "published_at": "2026-09-09 13:00:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-09 13:11:59.102111+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "ai-infrastructure", "ai-tools"], "entities": ["Kong Inc.", "Forrester", "IDC", "OpenMeter", "Shari Lava"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kong-named-a-leader-in-the-forrester-wave-for-api-management-q3-2026", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kong-named-a-leader-in-the-forrester-wave-for-api-management-q3-2026.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kong-named-a-leader-in-the-forrester-wave-for-api-management-q3-2026.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kong-named-a-leader-in-the-forrester-wave-for-api-management-q3-2026.jsonld"}}