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How Kong AI Gateway’s scores are calculated

The full audit trail, recomputed from the verdict data at build time through the same code that produced the leaderboard: verdict × quality × story weight per cell, cells sum to dimension scores, dimensions blend into the PA Score. Every number on the product page is reproducible from this page alone; for why the formula looks like this, see the methodology.

verdict factors: full ×1.0 · partial ×0.6 · disputed ×0.3 · none ×0.0 · n/a excluded from both sides · cell points = weight × quality × factor · cell max = weight × 10

PA Score19/100

Agent-ready 46.7 × 0.30 = 14.01

API quality 0.0 × 0.20 = 0.00

Openness 15.0 × 0.20 = 3.00

Built-in AI 0.0 × 0.15 = 0.00

Automation 15.0 × 0.15 = 2.25

(14.01 + 0.00 + 3.00 + 0.00 + 2.25) ÷ (0.30 + 0.20 + 0.20 + 0.15 + 0.15) = 19.26 ÷ 1.00 = 19.3

Scores are stored to 1 decimal; the product page’s pills round to whole numbers for display. Each dimension below shows the stories, verdicts, and cited evidence behind its number.

Agent-ready46.7/100×0.30 of the PA blend

Outside-in: can YOUR agent reach and drive this product — API, MCP, CLI, headless runs, agent docs.

Point an agent at llms.txt or agent-oriented docsweight 2

2 (weight) × 8 (quality) × 1.0 (full) = 16.0 of 20 max

  • [probe] https://developer.konghq.com/llms.txt“PROBE llms.txt: HTTP 200 at https://developer.konghq.com/llms.txt # developer.konghq.com > Kong's developer documentation for Kong Gateway, Kong Konnect, Kong AI Gateway, Kong Mesh, and”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/ai-providers.md“The core of AI Gateway is the ability to serve AI Models from various AI Model Providers via a provider-agnostic API.”
  • [probe] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/.md“PROBE docs-md: HTTP 404 at https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/.md”

Run the product headlessly / in CI for automationweight 2

2 (weight) × 6 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 7.2 of 20 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/api/konnect/ai-gateway/v1.md“list-ai-gateways summary: List AI Gateways description: Returns a list of AI Gateways in the organization.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/ai-gateway-v2-concepts.md“walks you through migrating an existing configuration using the kongctl AI Gateway conversion extension”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway.md“You can use the quickstart script to get a demo instance of AI Gateway running almost instantly.”
  • [probe] https://developer.konghq.com/kongctl/“official CLI documented at https://developer.konghq.com/kongctl/”

Plug MCP servers into this product so it can use their toolsweight 3

3 (weight) × 6 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 10.8 of 30 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/ai-gateway-v2-concepts.md“AI MCP Proxy bridges Kong-managed Services to the Model Context Protocol, converting REST APIs into MCP tools or fronting upstream MCP servers.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/mcp.md“Turn any API into an MCP server using the AI MCP Server entity. This approach does not require an LLM and provides full control over production workloads.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://konghq.com/products/kong-ai-gateway“Govern LLM, MCP, and agent-to-agent (A2A) traffic with the same Kong AI Gateway.”

Connect an agent via an official MCP serverweight 3

3 (weight) × 8 (quality) × 1.0 (full) = 24.0 of 30 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/ai-gateway-v2-concepts.md“AI MCP Proxy bridges Kong-managed Services to the Model Context Protocol, converting REST APIs into MCP tools or fronting upstream MCP servers.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/mcp.md“Turn any API into an MCP server using the AI MCP Server entity. This approach does not require an LLM and provides full control over production workloads.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://konghq.com/products/kong-ai-gateway“Govern LLM, MCP, and agent-to-agent (A2A) traffic with the same Kong AI Gateway.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/ai-otel-metrics.md“AI Gateway can export OpenTelemetry (OTLP) metrics for generative AI, MCP, and A2A traffic through an OpenTelemetry AI Policy.”

Use an official CLIweight 2

2 (weight) × 7 (quality) × 1.0 (full) = 14.0 of 20 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/ai-gateway-v2-concepts.md“walks you through migrating an existing configuration using the kongctl AI Gateway conversion extension”
  • [probe] https://developer.konghq.com/kongctl/“official CLI documented at https://developer.konghq.com/kongctl/”

Drive the product through a documented public APIweight 3

3 (weight) × 6 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 10.8 of 30 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/api/konnect/ai-gateway/v1.md“list-ai-gateways summary: List AI Gateways description: Returns a list of AI Gateways in the organization.”
  • [probe] https://developer.konghq.com/kongctl/“official CLI documented at https://developer.konghq.com/kongctl/”
  • [probe] https://developer.konghq.com/openapi.json“PROBE openapi: all candidate paths 404 (https://developer.konghq.com/openapi.json, https://developer.konghq.com/swagger.json, https://developer.konghq.com/api/openapi.json, https://developer.konghq.com/.well-known/openapi.json)”

Issue scoped/least-privilege API credentials for an agentweight 2

2 (weight) × 5 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 6.0 of 20 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/entities/ai-vault.md“An AI Vault entity lets you register an external secret backend (AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault, environment variables, or others) so that AI Model Providers, AI Auth Strategies, AI Models, AI Agents, and AI MCP Servers can reference secrets instead of storing them as literal values.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/entities/ai-auth-strategy.md“Authenticate enterprise users through an existing identity provider (Okta, Azure AD, Google, or any OIDC-compliant IdP) without managing keys manually”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/ai-providers.md“Yes, if AI Gateway is running on Azure, you can configure an AI Model Provider to detect the designated Managed Identity or User-Assigned Identity of that Azure Compute resource and use it for authentication.”

Build against official SDKsweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

  • [probe] https://developer.konghq.com/openapi.json“PROBE openapi: all candidate paths 404 (https://developer.konghq.com/openapi.json, https://developer.konghq.com/swagger.json, https://developer.konghq.com/api/openapi.json, https://developer.konghq.com/.well-known/openapi.json)”
  • [probe] https://developer.konghq.com/kongctl/“official CLI documented at https://developer.konghq.com/kongctl/”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/api/konnect/ai-gateway/v1.md“list-ai-gateways summary: List AI Gateways description: Returns a list of AI Gateways in the organization.”

Subscribe to events via webhooksweight 2

n/a — not applicable to this product: excluded from numerator and denominator

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Agent-ready = 88.8 ÷ 190 × 100 = 46.7

API quality0.0/100×0.20 of the PA blend

The programmable surface once an agent is there — machine-readable spec, interactive docs, sandbox, versioning discipline.

Explore an interactive API reference with runnable examplesweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/api/konnect/ai-gateway/v1.md“list-ai-gateways summary: List AI Gateways description: Returns a list of AI Gateways in the organization.”
  • [probe] https://developer.konghq.com/openapi.json“PROBE openapi: all candidate paths 404 (https://developer.konghq.com/openapi.json, https://developer.konghq.com/swagger.json, https://developer.konghq.com/api/openapi.json, https://developer.konghq.com/.well-known/openapi.json)”

Download a machine-readable API spec (OpenAPI or equivalent)weight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

  • [probe] https://developer.konghq.com/openapi.json“PROBE openapi: all candidate paths 404 (https://developer.konghq.com/openapi.json, https://developer.konghq.com/swagger.json, https://developer.konghq.com/api/openapi.json, https://developer.konghq.com/.well-known/openapi.json)”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/api/konnect/ai-gateway/v1.md“list-ai-gateways summary: List AI Gateways description: Returns a list of AI Gateways in the organization.”

Test against a sandbox environment without touching production dataweight 1

1 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 10 max

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Rely on versioned APIs with a documented deprecation policyweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/api/konnect/ai-gateway/v1.md“list-ai-gateways summary: List AI Gateways description: Returns a list of AI Gateways in the organization.”
  • [probe] https://developer.konghq.com/openapi.json“PROBE openapi: all candidate paths 404 (https://developer.konghq.com/openapi.json, https://developer.konghq.com/swagger.json, https://developer.konghq.com/api/openapi.json, https://developer.konghq.com/.well-known/openapi.json)”

API quality = 0.0 ÷ 70 × 100 = 0.0

Openness15.0/100×0.20 of the PA blend

Can you leave, inspect, or self-host — data export, open source, portability.

Do everything through the API that I can do in the UIweight 2

2 (weight) × 5 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 6.0 of 20 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/api/konnect/ai-gateway/v1.md“list-ai-gateways summary: List AI Gateways description: Returns a list of AI Gateways in the organization.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/configure-on-prem.md“This page shows you how to configure the same capabilities with AI plugins on Services and Routes.”
  • [probe] https://developer.konghq.com/kongctl/“official CLI documented at https://developer.konghq.com/kongctl/”
  • [probe] https://developer.konghq.com/openapi.json“PROBE openapi: all candidate paths 404 (https://developer.konghq.com/openapi.json, https://developer.konghq.com/swagger.json, https://developer.konghq.com/api/openapi.json, https://developer.konghq.com/.well-known/openapi.json)”

Export all of my data in open formats and leaveweight 3

3 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 30 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/ai-gateway-v2-concepts.md“walks you through migrating an existing configuration using the kongctl AI Gateway conversion extension”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/ai-otel-metrics.md“You can use these metrics to: Track LLM request latency and upstream provider processing time * Monitor token consumption ... * Calculate AI request costs”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/ai-audit-log-reference.md“AI Gateway logs capture detailed information about the request and response payloads, token usage, model details, latency, and cost metrics.”

Read the product's source under an open licenseweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Self-host the core productweight 3

3 (weight) × 5 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 9.0 of 30 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/configure-on-prem.md“This page shows you how to configure the same capabilities with AI plugins on Services and Routes.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway.md“You can use the quickstart script to get a demo instance of AI Gateway running almost instantly.”

Openness = 15.0 ÷ 100 × 100 = 15.0

Built-in AI0.0/100×0.15 of the PA blend

Inside-out: how agentic the product itself is for its users — built-in assistants, autonomous features.

Get AI-generated insights and suggestions from my data inside the productweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway.md“See usage analytics for requests, tokens, errors, and latency”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/ai-otel-metrics.md“You can use these metrics to: Track LLM request latency and upstream provider processing time * Monitor token consumption ... * Calculate AI request costs”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/ai-audit-log-reference.md“AI Gateway logs capture detailed information about the request and response payloads, token usage, model details, latency, and cost metrics.”

Set up automations that run autonomously in the backgroundweight 2

n/a — not applicable to this product: excluded from numerator and denominator

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Delegate tasks to a built-in AI assistant inside the productweight 3

n/a — not applicable to this product: excluded from numerator and denominator

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Operate the product with natural-language commandsweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

  • [probe] https://developer.konghq.com/kongctl/“official CLI documented at https://developer.konghq.com/kongctl/”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/ai-gateway-v2-concepts.md“walks you through migrating an existing configuration using the kongctl AI Gateway conversion extension”

Built-in AI = 0.0 ÷ 40 × 100 = 0.0

Automation15.0/100×0.15 of the PA blend

Depth of automation primitives — rules, scheduling, bulk operations, webhooks.

Perform bulk operations across many items at onceweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/api/konnect/ai-gateway/v1.md“list-ai-gateways summary: List AI Gateways description: Returns a list of AI Gateways in the organization.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/ai-gateway-v2-concepts.md“walks you through migrating an existing configuration using the kongctl AI Gateway conversion extension”
  • [probe] https://developer.konghq.com/kongctl/“official CLI documented at https://developer.konghq.com/kongctl/”

Define rules that trigger actions automatically on eventsweight 3

3 (weight) × 5 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 9.0 of 30 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/ai-data-gov.md“AI Gateway supports content safety features across providers and also includes our Prompt Guards that act on any llm/v1/chat or llm/v1/completions requests.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/plugins/ai-rate-limiting-advanced/“AI Rate Limiting Advanced - Plugin | Kong Docs”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/ai-data-gov.md“Apply safety and DLP policies to prevent toxic content and remove personally identifiable information.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/semantic-similarity.md“AI Gateway can perform intelligent request routing, caching, and content filtering using semantic similarity queries.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/policies.md“Use AWS Guardrails to validate requests and/or responses before forwarding them between clients and upstream LLMs.”

Schedule recurring jobs or workflowsweight 2

n/a — not applicable to this product: excluded from numerator and denominator

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Version, review, and roll back my automationsweight 1

1 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 10 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/ai-gateway-v2-concepts.md“walks you through migrating an existing configuration using the kongctl AI Gateway conversion extension”

Automation = 9.0 ÷ 60 × 100 = 15.0