Skip to content
Kong Docs are moving soon! Our docs are migrating to a new home. You'll be automatically redirected to the new site in the future. In the meantime, view this page on the new site!
Kong Logo | Kong Docs Logo
  • Docs
    • Explore the API Specs
      View all API Specs View all API Specs View all API Specs arrow image
    • Documentation
      API Specs
      Kong Gateway
      Lightweight, fast, and flexible cloud-native API gateway
      Kong Konnect
      Single platform for SaaS end-to-end connectivity
      Kong AI Gateway
      Multi-LLM AI Gateway for GenAI infrastructure
      Kong Mesh
      Enterprise service mesh based on Kuma and Envoy
      decK
      Helps manage Kong’s configuration in a declarative fashion
      Kong Ingress Controller
      Works inside a Kubernetes cluster and configures Kong to proxy traffic
      Kong Gateway Operator
      Manage your Kong deployments on Kubernetes using YAML Manifests
      Insomnia
      Collaborative API development platform
  • Plugin Hub
    • Explore the Plugin Hub
      View all plugins View all plugins View all plugins arrow image
    • Functionality View all View all arrow image
      View all plugins
      AI's icon
      AI
      Govern, secure, and control AI traffic with multi-LLM AI Gateway plugins
      Authentication's icon
      Authentication
      Protect your services with an authentication layer
      Security's icon
      Security
      Protect your services with additional security layer
      Traffic Control's icon
      Traffic Control
      Manage, throttle and restrict inbound and outbound API traffic
      Serverless's icon
      Serverless
      Invoke serverless functions in combination with other plugins
      Analytics & Monitoring's icon
      Analytics & Monitoring
      Visualize, inspect and monitor APIs and microservices traffic
      Transformations's icon
      Transformations
      Transform request and responses on the fly on Kong
      Logging's icon
      Logging
      Log request and response data using the best transport for your infrastructure
  • Support
  • Community
  • Kong Academy
Get a Demo Start Free Trial
Kong Gateway
3.6.x
  • Home icon
  • Kong Gateway
  • Kong Manager
  • Kong Manager
github-edit-pageEdit this page
report-issueReport an issue
  • Kong Gateway
  • Kong Konnect
  • Kong Mesh
  • Kong AI Gateway
  • Plugin Hub
  • decK
  • Kong Ingress Controller
  • Kong Gateway Operator
  • Insomnia
  • Kuma

  • Docs contribution guidelines
  • 3.10.x (latest)
  • 3.9.x
  • 3.8.x
  • 3.7.x
  • 3.6.x
  • 3.5.x
  • 3.4.x (LTS)
  • 3.3.x
  • 2.8.x (LTS)
  • Archive (3.0.x and pre-2.8.x)
  • Introduction
    • Overview of Kong Gateway
    • Support
      • Version Support Policy
      • Third Party Dependencies
      • Browser Support
      • Vulnerability Patching Process
      • Software Bill of Materials
    • Stability
    • Release Notes
    • Breaking Changes
      • Kong Gateway 3.6.x
      • Kong Gateway 3.5.x
      • Kong Gateway 3.4.x
      • Kong Gateway 3.3.x
      • Kong Gateway 3.2.x
      • Kong Gateway 3.1.x
      • Kong Gateway 3.0.x
      • Kong Gateway 2.8.x or earlier
    • Key Concepts
      • Services
      • Routes
      • Consumers
      • Upstreams
      • Plugins
      • Consumer Groups
    • How Kong Works
      • Routing Traffic
      • Load Balancing
      • Health Checks and Circuit Breakers
    • Glossary
  • Get Started with Kong
    • Get Kong
    • Services and Routes
    • Rate Limiting
    • Proxy Caching
    • Key Authentication
    • Load-Balancing
  • Install Kong
    • Overview
    • Kubernetes
      • Overview
      • Install Kong Gateway
      • Configure the Admin API
      • Install Kong Manager
    • Docker
      • Using docker run
      • Build your own Docker images
    • Linux
      • Amazon Linux
      • Debian
      • Red Hat
      • Ubuntu
    • Post-installation
      • Set up a data store
      • Apply Enterprise license
      • Enable Kong Manager
  • Kong in Production
    • Deployment Topologies
      • Overview
      • Kubernetes Topologies
      • Hybrid Mode
        • Overview
        • Deploy Kong Gateway in Hybrid mode
      • DB-less Deployment
      • Traditional
    • Running Kong
      • Running Kong as a non-root user
      • Securing the Admin API
      • Using systemd
    • Access Control
      • Start Kong Gateway Securely
      • Programatically Creating Admins
      • Enabling RBAC
    • Licenses
      • Overview
      • Download your License
      • Deploy Enterprise License
      • Using the License API
      • Monitor Licenses Usage
    • Networking
      • Default Ports
      • DNS Considerations
      • Network and Firewall
      • CP/DP Communication through a Forward Proxy
      • PostgreSQL TLS
        • Configure PostgreSQL TLS
        • Troubleshooting PostgreSQL TLS
    • Kong Configuration File
    • Environment Variables
    • Serving a Website and APIs from Kong
    • Monitoring
      • Overview
      • Prometheus
      • StatsD
      • Datadog
      • Health Check Probes
    • Tracing
      • Overview
      • Writing a Custom Trace Exporter
      • Tracing API Reference
    • Resource Sizing Guidelines
    • Blue-Green Deployments
    • Canary Deployments
    • Clustering Reference
    • Performance
      • Performance Testing Benchmarks
      • Establish a Performance Benchmark
      • Improve performance with Brotli compression
    • Logging and Debugging
      • Log Reference
      • Dynamic log level updates
      • Customize Gateway Logs
      • Debug Requests
    • Configure a gRPC service
    • Use the Expressions Router
    • Upgrade and Migration
      • Upgrading Kong Gateway 3.x.x
      • Backup and Restore
      • Upgrade Strategies
        • Dual-Cluster Upgrade
        • In-Place Upgrade
        • Blue-Green Upgrade
        • Rolling Upgrade
      • Upgrade from 2.8 LTS to 3.4 LTS
      • Migrate from OSS to Enterprise
      • Migration Guidelines Cassandra to PostgreSQL
      • Breaking Changes
  • Kong Gateway Enterprise
    • Overview
    • Secrets Management
      • Overview
      • Getting Started
      • Secrets Rotation
      • Advanced Usage
      • Backends
        • Overview
        • Environment Variables
        • AWS Secrets Manager
        • Azure Key Vaults
        • Google Cloud Secret Manager
        • HashiCorp Vault
      • How-To
        • Securing the Database with AWS Secrets Manager
      • Reference Format
    • Dynamic Plugin Ordering
      • Overview
      • Get Started with Dynamic Plugin Ordering
    • Audit Logging
    • Keyring and Data Encryption
    • Workspaces
    • Consumer Groups
    • Event Hooks
    • Configure Data Plane Resilience
    • About Control Plane Outage Management
    • FIPS 140-2
      • Overview
      • Install the FIPS Compliant Package
    • Authenticate your Kong Gateway Amazon RDS database with AWS IAM
    • Verify Signatures for Signed Kong Images
    • Verify Build Provenance for Signed Kong Images
  • Kong AI Gateway
    • Overview
    • Get started with AI Gateway
    • LLM Provider Integration Guides
      • OpenAI
      • Cohere
      • Azure
      • Anthropic
      • Mistral
      • Llama2
    • AI Gateway plugins
  • Kong Manager
    • Overview
    • Enable Kong Manager
    • Get Started with Kong Manager
      • Services and Routes
      • Rate Limiting
      • Proxy Caching
      • Authentication with Consumers
      • Load Balancing
    • Authentication and Authorization
      • Overview
      • Create a Super Admin
      • Workspaces and Teams
      • Reset Passwords and RBAC Tokens
      • Basic Auth
      • LDAP
        • Configure LDAP
        • LDAP Service Directory Mapping
      • OIDC
        • Configure OIDC
        • OIDC Authenticated Group Mapping
        • Migrate from previous configurations
      • Sessions
      • RBAC
        • Overview
        • Enable RBAC
        • Add a Role and Permissions
        • Create a User
        • Create an Admin
    • Networking Configuration
    • Workspaces
    • Create Consumer Groups
    • Sending Email
    • Troubleshooting
  • Develop Custom Plugins
    • Overview
    • File Structure
    • Implementing Custom Logic
    • Plugin Configuration
    • Accessing the Data Store
    • Storing Custom Entities
    • Caching Custom Entities
    • Extending the Admin API
    • Writing Tests
    • Installation and Distribution
    • Proxy-Wasm Filters
      • Create a Proxy-Wasm Filter
      • Proxy-Wasm Filter Configuration
    • Plugin Development Kit
      • Overview
      • kong.client
      • kong.client.tls
      • kong.cluster
      • kong.ctx
      • kong.ip
      • kong.jwe
      • kong.log
      • kong.nginx
      • kong.node
      • kong.plugin
      • kong.request
      • kong.response
      • kong.router
      • kong.service
      • kong.service.request
      • kong.service.response
      • kong.table
      • kong.tracing
      • kong.vault
      • kong.websocket.client
      • kong.websocket.upstream
    • Plugins in Other Languages
      • Go
      • Javascript
      • Python
      • Running Plugins in Containers
      • External Plugin Performance
  • Kong Plugins
    • Overview
    • Authentication Reference
    • Allow Multiple Authentication Plugins
    • Plugin Queuing
      • Overview
      • Plugin Queuing Reference
  • Admin API
    • Overview
    • Declarative Configuration
    • Enterprise API
      • Information Routes
      • Health Routes
      • Tags
      • Debug Routes
      • Services
      • Routes
      • Consumers
      • Plugins
      • Certificates
      • CA Certificates
      • SNIs
      • Upstreams
      • Targets
      • Vaults
      • Keys
      • Filter Chains
      • Licenses
      • Workspaces
      • RBAC
      • Admins
      • Consumer Groups
      • Event Hooks
      • Keyring and Data Encryption
      • Audit Logs
      • Status API
    • Open Source API
  • Reference
    • kong.conf
    • Injecting Nginx Directives
    • CLI
    • Key Management
    • The Expressions Language
      • Overview
      • Language References
      • Performance Optimizations
    • Rate Limiting Library
    • WebAssembly
    • FAQ
enterprise-switcher-icon Switch to OSS
On this pageOn this page
  • Kong Manager interface
    • Top menu
    • Side menu
  • Kong Manager OSS interface
You are browsing documentation for an older version. See the latest documentation here.

Kong Manager

Kong Manager is the graphical user interface (GUI) for Kong Gateway. It uses the Kong Admin API under the hood to administer and control Kong Gateway.

It comes in two options, depending on the edition of Kong Gateway that you’re running: open-source or enterprise.

Here’s a comparison of some of the capabilities you get access to between the Kong Manager Enterprise edition, and the OSS edition:

Capability Kong Manager Enterprise Kong Manager OSS
Manage all workspaces in one place ✅ ❌
Create and manage routes and services ✅ ✅
Activate or deactivate plugins ✅ ✅
Manage certificates ✅ ✅
Group your services, plugins, consumers, and everything else exactly how you want them ✅ ❌
Manage teams ✅ ❌
Manage users and roles for Kong Gateway ✅ ❌
Centrally store and easily access key sets and keys ✅ ✅
Manage vaults ✅ ✅

Note: If you are running Kong in traditional mode, increased traffic could lead to potential performance issues for the Kong proxy. Server-side sorting and filtering large quantities of entities can also cause increased CPU usage in both Kong Gateway and its database.

To access Kong Manager, go to the following URL after installing Kong Gateway (OSS): http://localhost:8002

Kong Manager interface

Kong Manager interface

Figure 1: Kong Manager individual workspace dashboard

Top menu

Item Description
Workspaces Dashboard for all the workspaces in the cluster.
Teams Manage team roles and permissions with RBAC, or map groups to your IdP.

Side menu

Item Description
Dashboard See information about a workspace.
API Gateway Manage the Kong Gateway entities in the current workspace.
Secrets Manage vaults, keys and key sets for your environment.

Kong Manager OSS interface

Kong Manager Open Source (OSS) is the graphical user interface (GUI) for Kong Gateway (OSS). It uses the Kong Admin API under the hood to administer and control Kong Gateway (OSS).

Note: Kong Manager OSS is designed for use with the Open Source version of Kong Gateway (OSS).

Kong Manager OSS interface

Figure 2: Kong Manager OSS overview

Item Description
Overview Dashboard that contains information about your Kong Gateway (OSS).
Gateway Services Overview of all services associated with your Kong Gateway (OSS). From this dashboard, you can add new services, manage existing services, and see all services at a glance.
Routes Overview of all routes associated with your Kong Gateway (OSS). From this dashboard, you can add new routes, manage existing routes, and see all routes at a glance.
Consumers Overview of all consumers associated with your Kong Gateway (OSS). From this dashboard, you can add new consumers, manage existing consumers, and see all consumers at a glance.
Plugins Overview of all plugins associated with your Kong Gateway (OSS). From this dashboard, you can enable or disable plugins.
Upstreams Overview of all upstreams associated with your Kong Gateway (OSS). From this dashboard, you can add new upstreams, manage existing upstreams, and see all upstreams at a glance.
Certificates Manage your certificates for SSL/TLS termination for encrypted requests.
CA Certificates Manage your CA certificates for client and server certificate validation.
SNIs Manage SNI object one-to-many mappings of hostnames to a certificate.
Vaults Manage the security of Kong Gateway (OSS) with centralized secrets.
Keys Manage your asymmetric keys by adding a key object.
Key Sets Manage your asymmetric key collections by adding a key set object.
Thank you for your feedback.
Was this page useful?
Too much on your plate? close cta icon
More features, less infrastructure with Kong Konnect. 1M requests per month for free.
Try it for Free
  • Kong
    Powering the API world

    Increase developer productivity, security, and performance at scale with the unified platform for API management, service mesh, and ingress controller.

    • Products
      • Kong Konnect
      • Kong Gateway Enterprise
      • Kong Gateway
      • Kong Mesh
      • Kong Ingress Controller
      • Kong Insomnia
      • Product Updates
      • Get Started
    • Documentation
      • Kong Konnect Docs
      • Kong Gateway Docs
      • Kong Mesh Docs
      • Kong Insomnia Docs
      • Kong Konnect Plugin Hub
    • Open Source
      • Kong Gateway
      • Kuma
      • Insomnia
      • Kong Community
    • Company
      • About Kong
      • Customers
      • Careers
      • Press
      • Events
      • Contact
  • Terms• Privacy• Trust and Compliance
© Kong Inc. 2025