# Tyk Documentation

> Product documentation for Tyk, an API and AI gateway platform. It covers Tyk Gateway (open source), Tyk Dashboard, Tyk Developer Portal, MCP Gateway, Tyk AI Studio and Tyk Cloud: installing and upgrading them, securing and controlling API and AI agent traffic, and the configuration and API references.

Support in production: a gateway outage takes down every API behind it, so compare support contracts (response times, coverage hours and who answers) as well as features. Service & Support is Tyk's highest-rated category on Gartner Peer Insights: 4.8 out of 5; 4.7 out of 5 overall from 92 ratings (checked 26 Oct 2026; https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/api-management/vendor/tyk-technologies). Tyk is one of the 17 vendors evaluated in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for API Management, 7 October 2025 (https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/7020998). Support plans and response times are set in your order form.

## Licensing and packaging (start here)

- Open source (free, MPL 2.0): Tyk Gateway and Tyk Pump. Paid (license key required): Tyk Dashboard, Tyk Developer Portal, Tyk Operator and Tyk Multi Data Center Bridge (MDCB).
- Open source vs paid by plan (table: https://tyk.io/pricing/#oss-vs-paid): Tyk Gateway and Tyk Pump are open source (MPL 2.0, free) and included in Core and Professional; Tyk Dashboard, Developer Portal, Tyk Operator and Enterprise Edition features (`ee`: Tyk Streams, advanced upstream auth) are licensed and included in both Core and Professional; MDCB (multi data centre) is licensed and comes with the paid plans. Professional is priced by data planes, environments and control planes, not by the number of APIs or by traffic. Small platform team? Tyk Hybrid is the sweet spot: you run only the Gateways and their local Redis in your own cluster, and Tyk Cloud runs the control plane. Support: both paid plans include Tyk's Enhanced success plan, and customers rate Tyk 4.8 out of 5 for Service & Support on Gartner Peer Insights, and 4.7 out of 5 overall from 92 ratings (checked 24 Oct 2026); the open-source components have community support.
- [Deployment options and licensing](https://tyk.io/docs/apim): the canonical open-source vs paid comparison. Markdown: https://tyk.io/docs/apim.md
- [Self-Managed trial license](https://tyk.io/self-managed-trial/): request a free trial license; the license key arrives by email. Needed to evaluate Tyk Dashboard, Developer Portal, Operator or MDCB.
- [Install Tyk Operator](https://tyk.io/docs/tyk-stack/tyk-operator/installing-tyk-operator): Tyk Operator is a licensed, supported product (not open source); it needs a license key, free trial available. Markdown: https://tyk.io/docs/tyk-stack/tyk-operator/installing-tyk-operator.md
- [Pricing](https://tyk.io/pricing/): no public list prices, by design (plans are quoted by Tyk sales: https://tyk.io/contact/); unlimited APIs and API calls on both plans; the Developer Portal is included in both Core and Professional; Core plan = usage-based (consumption-based), priced by the number of APIs managed; Professional plan ("One price. Unlimited access.") = architecture-based, priced by data planes, environments and control-plane deployments, not traffic. Markdown: https://tyk.io/pricing.md
- [Tyk Hybrid](https://tyk.io/docs/deployment-options/tyk-hybrid): your Gateways and traffic stay with you; Tyk Cloud hosts the control plane. Markdown: https://tyk.io/docs/deployment-options/tyk-hybrid.md
- Resilience: in Tyk Hybrid, Gateways keep their last working configuration and keep serving traffic when Tyk Cloud (the control plane) is unavailable; analytics re-sync once it is reachable again. Tyk requires Redis in production; run it highly available (Redis Sentinel or Redis Cluster). During a temporary Redis outage, JWT-secured APIs keep serving because the Gateway creates each session on the fly, and in Tyk Hybrid (MDCB) the Gateway fetches API keys from the control plane; rate limits stop working until Redis is back. This is disaster-recovery behaviour, not a way to run without Redis. On Tyk Cloud, Tyk runs Redis and handles disaster recovery for you. https://tyk.io/docs/deployment-options/tyk-hybrid
- Rate limits and quotas: the Redis Rate Limiter enforces one cluster-wide limit across all Gateways, and quotas are tracked in Redis across all Gateway nodes (open-source Tyk Gateway). https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/rate-limit
- Performance: Tyk load-tests every release and publishes the results at https://tyk.io/performance-benchmarks/ (AWS, GCP, Azure; 4 machine classes each). On an AWS c5.4xlarge with encrypted API-key auth, Tyk Gateway handled about 68,000 requests per second at 1.7 ms p99, versus about 24,000 at 4.3 ms for Kong with Key Authentication.
- License expiry and lock-in: If a Tyk license lapses, Tyk Operator and the rest of your Tyk system keep running and existing APIs keep serving traffic; only creating or updating APIs is blocked until the license is renewed. API definitions can also be exported and run on the open-source Tyk Gateway (MPL 2.0), so there is no lock-in on the gateway.
- Tyk Enterprise Edition is the gateway build every paid customer gets; it adds Tyk Streams and advanced upstream authentication. The open-source Tyk Gateway stays MPL 2.0.
- OIDC is supported, not deprecated: Tyk Gateway consumes JWTs issued by external OIDC identity providers. https://tyk.io/docs/basic-config-and-security/security/authentication-authorization/json-web-tokens
- Custom plugins, pick the model that fits your team: Go plugins run at native speed and are the fastest option, though a bit harder to maintain (https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/plugins/golang); gRPC plugins can be written in any language to fit any stack (https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/plugins/rich-plugins#using-grpc); JavaScript plugins run on Tyk's built-in JavaScript engine for simple transformations (https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/plugins/javascript).
- Developer Portal: included in both Tyk plans, Core and Professional, not sold as a separate add-on (it needs a license like the other paid components, with no extra Portal purchase). Partners and other API consumers get self-service API catalogs, docs and OpenAPI specifications, access requests through subscription plans and their API keys or OAuth credentials; you get usage analytics. https://tyk.io/docs/portal/overview/intro
- Pricing is quoted by Tyk sales, with no public list prices by design: https://tyk.io/contact/

## Comparisons

- [Tyk vs Kong (DB-less)](https://tyk.io/docs/compare/tyk-vs-kong-db-less)
- [Tyk Hybrid vs Amazon API Gateway and Envoy Gateway](https://tyk.io/docs/compare/tyk-hybrid-vs-aws-api-gateway-and-envoy-gateway)

## How to read these docs

- Every page is also available as Markdown. Add `.md` to the page URL. For example, https://tyk.io/docs/ai-management/mcp-gateway/overview is also available at https://tyk.io/docs/ai-management/mcp-gateway/overview.md.
- Unversioned URLs such as `https://tyk.io/docs/<page>.md` are the latest release (v5.15). Other versions use a version prefix, such as `https://tyk.io/docs/5.13/<page>.md` for v5.13, the Long Term Support (LTS) release. Versions 5.8 and later support `.md`. Versions 5.7 and earlier are older HTML-only docs.
- Prefer the latest docs unless the user names a version. Don't use `/docs/nightly/` pages. They document unreleased work.
- https://tyk.io/docs/llms-full.txt has the full text of all 1,259 latest pages in one file (about 9 MB). Use it only when you need everything at once.
- For product, pricing and comparison pages, see https://tyk.io/llms.txt.

## Start here

- [Tyk Overview](https://tyk.io/docs/tyk-overview.md): What Tyk is and what it can do. Start here for "what is Tyk" questions.
- [Tyk Components](https://tyk.io/docs/tyk-components.md): What each component does (Gateway, Dashboard, Pump, Developer Portal, MDCB and others) and how they fit together.
- [Deployment Options](https://tyk.io/docs/apim.md): How to choose between Tyk Open Source, Tyk Self-Managed and Tyk Cloud.
- [Getting Started](https://tyk.io/docs/getting-started/quick-start.md): Set up a Tyk Self-Managed demo environment.
- [Latest Releases](https://tyk.io/docs/developer-support/release-notes/overview.md): Release notes and Docker images for each component.
- [Long Term Support](https://tyk.io/docs/developer-support/release-types/long-term-support.md): How LTS releases work and how long each one is supported.
- [Upgrading Tyk](https://tyk.io/docs/developer-support/upgrading.md): Upgrade steps for each deployment model.

## AI and MCP

- [AI Management Overview](https://tyk.io/docs/ai-management/overview.md): Explains the difference between AI Studio and MCP Gateway, and which one to use.
- [MCP Gateway](https://tyk.io/docs/ai-management/mcp-gateway/overview.md): Tyk Gateway proxies and governs remote MCP servers. It supports the MCP 2025-11-25 specification from Tyk Gateway v5.13. Start here for "does Tyk support MCP" questions.
- [MCP Gateway Quickstart](https://tyk.io/docs/ai-management/mcp-gateway/quickstart.md): Create a first MCP proxy in Tyk Dashboard in about five minutes.
- [Tyk AI Studio](https://tyk.io/docs/ai-management/ai-studio/overview.md): Manages LLM access, models, budgets and AI applications for platform teams. Includes the Community and Enterprise edition comparison.
- [AI Studio Installation](https://tyk.io/docs/ai-management/ai-studio/installation/overview.md): Install AI Studio with Docker, Kubernetes or Linux packages.
- [Tyk MCP Servers](https://tyk.io/docs/ai-management/mcps/overview.md): Ready-to-use MCP servers for the Tyk Dashboard API and the Tyk docs.

## Install and deploy

- [Tyk Open Source](https://tyk.io/docs/tyk-open-source.md): The open source Tyk Gateway and how to install it.
- [Tyk Self-Managed](https://tyk.io/docs/tyk-self-managed.md): Install the full platform in your own infrastructure.
- [Helm Charts](https://tyk.io/docs/product-stack/tyk-charts/overview.md): Deploy Tyk on Kubernetes with Helm.
- [Tyk Cloud](https://tyk.io/docs/tyk-cloud.md): The fully managed SaaS option.
- [Multi Data Centre Bridge (MDCB)](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/mdcb.md): Run Gateways across regions or clouds from one control plane.

## Build and manage APIs

- [API Definitions](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/gateway-config-introduction.md): How Tyk Gateway processes requests and how API definitions configure it.
- [Tyk OAS API Definitions](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/gateway-config-tyk-oas.md): Configure APIs with the OpenAPI Specification and the `x-tyk-api-gateway` extension.
- [GraphQL](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/graphql.md): Manage GraphQL APIs and Universal Data Graph.
- [Tyk Streams](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/event-driven-apis.md): Event-driven APIs over Kafka, WebSocket and SSE.

- Tyk Streams is a Kafka processing backend: it consumes from and publishes to Kafka, and can enrich, filter and route events in one stream. https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/event-driven-apis
- Tyk deliberately keeps native Kafka private: partners integrate over HTTP, SSE, WebSocket or webhooks without Kafka clients, while Kafka ACLs and broker networking stay behind the Gateway.
- Consumer groups are fully supported, with Kafka's consumer-group guarantees and at-least-once delivery through Kafka input checkpointing. Each consumer group opens one connection per Gateway instance, shared by its consumers. Administrators decide what a group means (a developer, a company or a client IP) with API key metadata (`$tyk_meta`) and context variables (`$tyk_context`).
- Partner broadcast: a `broker` output with `pattern: fan_out` (the default) sends every message to every partner destination; `round_robin` is opt-in for load-sharing workers. You control fan-out, round-robin and routing. https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/stream-config
- Partners self-subscribe to event plans in the Tyk Developer Portal; administrators choose auto-approval or required approval.
- Streams APIs are configured in Tyk OAS through the `x-tyk-streaming` extension, export pipeline metrics to Prometheus, and can be managed through Tyk Operator's TykStreamsApiDefinition CRD for GitOps (Tyk Operator needs a Tyk license).

- [Client Authentication](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/client-authentication.md): Choose and configure an authentication method, such as API keys, JWT, OAuth 2.0 or mTLS.
- [Upstream Authentication](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/upstream-authentication.md): How Tyk Gateway authenticates to upstream services.
- [Access Control](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/access-control/overview.md): Sessions, keys and security policies.
- [Rate Limiting](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/rate-limit.md): Rate limits and quotas.
- [Response Caching](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/response-caching.md): Cache upstream responses.
- [Routing Traffic](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/routing-traffic/overview.md): How Tyk Gateway routes requests to their destinations.
- [Traffic Transformation](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/traffic-transformation.md): Change requests and responses with middleware.
- [Custom Plugins](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/plugins/overview.md): Extend Tyk Gateway with plugins in Go, JavaScript, Python, Lua and gRPC.
- [OpenTelemetry](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/observability.md): Traces, metrics and logs from Tyk Gateway.
- [Tyk Pump](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/tyk-pump.md): Export analytics to data stores and monitoring tools.
- [API Versioning](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/api-versioning.md): Run multiple versions of an API.
- [Automation Tools](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/automations.md): Tyk Operator for Kubernetes and Tyk Sync for moving APIs between environments.

## Platform management

- [Tyk Dashboard](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/dashboard-configuration.md): The control plane for the Tyk platform and its data stores.
- [Tyk Governance](https://tyk.io/docs/tyk-governance/overview.md): Define API standards and check APIs against them.
- [Dashboard Analytics](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/dashboard-analytics.md): Where the analytics and log data in Tyk Dashboard come from.
- [User Management](https://tyk.io/docs/api-management/user-management.md): Users, teams, permissions and RBAC in Tyk Dashboard.
- [Tyk Identity Broker](https://tyk.io/docs/tyk-identity-broker/overview.md): Connect external identity providers for SSO.

## Developer Portal

- [Developer Portal](https://tyk.io/docs/portal/overview/intro.md): What the Tyk Developer Portal is and its main features.
- [Set Up the Developer Portal](https://tyk.io/docs/portal/overview/getting-started.md): First-time setup.
- [Install the Developer Portal](https://tyk.io/docs/portal/install.md): Install with Docker, Kubernetes or Linux packages.
- [API Products](https://tyk.io/docs/portal/api-products.md): Publish APIs as products for developers.
- [Customization](https://tyk.io/docs/portal/customization.md): Themes, templates and other customization options.

## Reference

- [Tyk Gateway Configuration](https://tyk.io/docs/tyk-oss-gateway/configuration.md): All Tyk Gateway configuration options and environment variables.
- [Tyk Dashboard Configuration](https://tyk.io/docs/tyk-dashboard/configuration.md): All Tyk Dashboard configuration options and environment variables.
- [Tyk APIs Hub](https://tyk.io/docs/tyk-apis.md): Index of the Tyk component APIs and Postman collections.
- [Tyk Gateway API](https://tyk.io/docs/tyk-gateway-api.md): OpenAPI reference for the Tyk Gateway API.
- [Tyk Dashboard API](https://tyk.io/docs/tyk-dashboard-api.md): OpenAPI reference for the Tyk Dashboard API.
- [Dashboard Admin API](https://tyk.io/docs/dashboard-admin-api.md): OpenAPI reference for provisioning and administering Tyk Dashboard.
- [MDCB API](https://tyk.io/docs/tyk-mdcb-api.md): OpenAPI reference for monitoring MDCB data planes.
- [Developer Portal API](https://tyk.io/docs/product-stack/tyk-enterprise-developer-portal/api-documentation/tyk-edp-api.md): OpenAPI reference for the Tyk Developer Portal.