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Compare · Billing platforms

Limitr vs OpenMeter.

OpenMeter enforces at the Kong gateway, eventually, and fails open. Limitr decides in your app, at the call, with the customer, their contract, and your cost in view.

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The short answer
OpenMeter

Open-source metering, now Kong Konnect Metering & Billing.

Limitr

Decides every call in your app, with prices, costs, limits, and contract terms, then bills it.

Side by side

What happens when…

The moments that decide it, answered from each product's own docs and pricing.

When…OpenMeterLimitr
An agent loop runs away at 2 a.m.Enforced at the Kong gateway, eventually consistent: counts catch up after calls pass.The call that would break the budget never runs. Task, customer, and org budgets are checked in your app first.
A customer costs more than they payComputes LLM model costs. We found no margin view.Margin per account is live, and a cap on what an account can cost you stops it before it turns unprofitable.
Sales signs a custom dealPlans and grants. We found no CRM or CPQ link.Write it as a contract in Limitr Cloud. Its prices, limits, and terms are enforced in the product on the next call.
The service is unreachableThe enforcement plugin fails open, and credits are not enforced.Nothing to reach. Decisions run in your process and keep working offline.
Open sourceApache 2.0 metering core.The engine and policy format, Apache 2.0.

Checked November 10, 2026. Sources: OpenMeter joins Kong · Kong Metering & Billing · Kong Entitlement Enforcement plugin. Something out of date? Tell us.

Architecture

Where the decision happens.

The difference most comparisons skip: where a call is allowed, priced, and capped, and when.

OpenMeter
A gateway in the request path

Every call routes through their gateway or proxy, which enforces budgets per key at provider prices.

Your app
every call
Gatewaycaps per key
then
Model or APIthe cost
Limitr
Inside your app, before the call

The engine runs natively in your process and decides every call in about a millisecond: allowed, priced at your cost and your price, and held to the contract. Usage goes to Limitr Cloud in the background.

Your appLimitr engine inside
decided first
Model or APIthe cost
in the background
Limitr Cloudledger and invoices

Proof

Don't take our word for it.

Bring last month's usage. We'll replay it through Limitr Analyst and show your margin per account, and what Limitr would have stopped.

100,000+users metered for The Regis Company's Fortune 500 contract971 of 1,000attack calls stopped inside the app in our abuse demo, on a real policy0network calls to decide a request. It keeps deciding when the network doesn't.Apache 2.0Read exactly what decides your calls.
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The gap

What you'd still build on OpenMeter.

Teams pair OpenMeter with code of their own. With Limitr, that part is the product.

With OpenMeter, you still build
With Limitr, you get
Limits that hold at the call, not eventually
Budgets and limits checked in your app before the call
Margin per account
Your cost and your price on every call, so margin per account is live
Credits and contract terms that are enforced
Contracts enforced in the product on the next call

Choose OpenMeter if Kong is already your gateway and metering is the whole job.

Switching

From OpenMeter to Limitr.

No migration day. Limitr runs next to what you have until the numbers match.

Book a replayMap your pricing
Map your OpenMeter plans and prices to a Limitr policy, line by line.
Run Limitr in observe mode next to OpenMeter and compare the numbers on real traffic.
Switch enforcement on. Customers come over as they appear, with no migration day.

Common questions

Limitr vs OpenMeter, answered.

Yes. OpenMeter joined Kong in September 2025, and its cloud is now Kong Konnect Metering & Billing.

OpenMeter enforces at the Kong gateway, eventually, and fails open. Limitr decides in your app, at the call, with the customer, their contract, and your cost in view. Choose OpenMeter if Kong is already your gateway and metering is the whole job.

OpenMeter: a gateway in the request path. Every call routes through their gateway or proxy, which enforces budgets per key at provider prices. Limitr: inside your app, before the call. The engine runs natively in your process and decides every call in about a millisecond: allowed, priced at your cost and your price, and held to the contract. Usage goes to Limitr Cloud in the background.

Map your OpenMeter plans and prices to a Limitr policy, line by line. Run Limitr in observe mode next to OpenMeter and compare the numbers on real traffic. Switch enforcement on. Customers come over as they appear, with no migration day.

Limitr is built for them. An agent is a customer like any other, with its own plan, limits, and budget, linked to the workspace it works for. Budgets per task, customer, and org are checked in your app before each step runs, and the agent can see what it has left as a Claude tool.

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npm i @formata/limitr
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