Version compatibility

Kong Ingress Controller is compatible with different versions of Kong Gateway, Kubernetes, and Istio.

Kong Gateway

The following table shows the compatibility of Kong Ingress Controller with Kong Gateway versions:

Kong Ingress Controller 2.12.x 3.0.x 3.1.x 3.2.x 3.3.x 3.4.x 3.5.x
Kong Gateway 2.8.x
Kong Gateway 3.4.x
Kong Gateway 3.5.x
Kong Gateway 3.6.x
Kong Gateway 3.7.x
Kong Gateway 3.8.x
Kong Gateway 3.9.x
Kong Gateway 3.10.x

Kubernetes

Kong Ingress Controller compatibility with Kubernetes depends on Kubernetes and Gateway API versions.

General

The following table presents the general compatibility of Kong Ingress Controller with specific Kubernetes versions.

Kong Ingress Controller 2.12.x 3.0.x 3.1.x 3.2.x 3.3.x 3.4.x 3.5.x
Kubernetes 1.33
Kubernetes 1.32
Kubernetes 1.31
Kubernetes 1.30
Kubernetes 1.29
Kubernetes 1.28
Kubernetes 1.27

Gateway API

The following table presents the compatibility of Kong Ingress Controller’s Gateway API with specific Kubernetes minor versions. As Kong Ingress Controller implements Gateway API features using the upstream project, which defines its own compatibility declarations, the expected compatibility of Gateway API features might be limited to those.

Kong Ingress Controller 2.12.x 3.0.x 3.1.x 3.2.x 3.3.x 3.4.x 3.5.x
Gateway API 1.3
Gateway API 1.2
Gateway API 1.1
Gateway API 1.0
Gateway API 0.8

For specific Gateway API resources support, see the Gateway API page.

Istio

The Kong Ingress Controller can be integrated with an Istio Service Mesh to use Kong Gateway as an ingress gateway for application traffic into the mesh network.

We run tests for each Kong Ingress Controller release to verify this documentation with upcoming versions of KIC and Istio. The following table lists the tested combinations:

Kong Ingress Controller 2.12.x 3.0.x 3.1.x 3.2.x 3.3.x 3.4.x 3.5.x
Istio 1.24
Istio 1.23
Istio 1.22
Istio 1.21

FAQs

Because Kubernetes resources are the source of truth for configuring Kong Gateway in Kubernetes, the KIC instance configuration in Konnect is marked as read-only. This prevents configuration drift in Kong Gateway caused by changes made outside the Ingress or Kubernetes Gateway API.

For example, if a Route is created via the Kubernetes Gateway API and then modified in Kong Gateway, those changes wouldn’t be reflected in the CRD and would conflict with the desired state defined in the CRD.

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