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title: Gateway API keywords:

• APISIX Ingress
• Apache APISIX
• Kubernetes Ingress
• Gateway API

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Gateway API is dedicated to achieving expressive and scalable Kubernetes service networking through various custom resources.

By supporting Gateway API, the APISIX Ingress controller can realize richer functions, including Gateway management, multi-cluster support, and other features. It is also possible to manage running instances of the APISIX gateway through Gateway API resource management.

Concepts

• GatewayClass: Defines a class of Gateways with a shared configuration and behavior. Each GatewayClass is managed by a single controller, although a controller may support multiple GatewayClasses.
• Gateway: Represents a request for network traffic handling within the cluster. A Gateway specifies how traffic enters the cluster and is directed to backend Services, typically by binding to one or more listeners.
• HTTPRoute: Configures routing for HTTP traffic.
• GRPCRoute: Configures routing for gRPC traffic.
• ReferenceGrant: Grants permission to reference resources across namespaces.
• TLSRoute: Defines routing rules for terminating or passing through TLS traffic.
• TCPRoute: Configures routing for TCP traffic.
• UDPRoute: Configures routing for UDP traffic.
• BackendTLSPolicy: Specifies how a Gateway should validate TLS connections to its backends, including trusted certificate authorities and verification modes.

Gateway API Support Level

Resource	Core Support Level	Extended Support Level	Implementation-Specific Support Level	API Version
GatewayClass	Supported	N/A	Not supported	v1
Gateway	Partially supported	Partially supported	Not supported	v1
HTTPRoute	Supported	Partially supported	Not supported	v1
GRPCRoute	Supported	Supported	Not supported	v1
ReferenceGrant	Supported	Not supported	Not supported	v1beta1
TLSRoute	Supported	Supported	Not supported	v1alpha2
TCPRoute	Supported	Supported	Not supported	v1alpha2
UDPRoute	Supported	Supported	Not supported	v1alpha2
BackendTLSPolicy	Not supported	Not supported	Not supported	v1alpha3

Examples

For configuration examples, see the Gateway API tabs in Configuration Examples.

For a complete list of configuration options, refer to the Gateway API Reference. Be aware that some fields are not supported, or partially supported.

Unsupported / Partially Supported Fields

The fields below are specified in the Gateway API specification but are either partially implemented or not yet supported in the APISIX Ingress Controller.

HTTPRoute

Fields	Status	Notes
spec.timeouts	Not supported	The field is unsupported because ADC provides finer-grained timeout configuration (connect, read, write), whereas spec.timeouts only allows a general total timeout and upstream timeout, so it cannot be directly mapped. To configure route timeouts, you can use BackendTrafficPolicy.
spec.retries	Not supported	The field is unsupported because APISIX does not support the features in retries. To configure route retries, you can use BackendTrafficPolicy.
spec.sessionPersistence	Not supported	APISIX does not support the configuration of cookie lifetimes. As an alternative, you can use chash load balancer.
spec.rules[].backendRefs[].filters[]	Not supported	BackendRef-level filters are not implemented as data plane does not support filtering at this level; only rule-level filters (spec.rules[].filters[]) are supported.

Gateway

Fields	Status	Notes
spec.listeners[].port	Not supported*	The configuration is required but ignored. This is due to limitations in the data plane: it cannot dynamically open new ports. Since the Ingress Controller does not manage the data plane deployment, it cannot automatically update the configuration or restart the data plane to apply port changes.
spec.listeners[].allowedRoutes.kinds	Partially supported	Only HTTPRoute (group gateway.networking.k8s.io) is accepted; other kinds are rejected.
spec.listeners[].tls.certificateRefs[].group	Partially supported	Only "" is supported; other group values cause validation failure.
spec.listeners[].tls.certificateRefs[].kind	Partially supported	Only Secret is supported.
spec.listeners[].tls.mode	Partially supported	Terminate is implemented; Passthrough is effectively unsupported for Gateway listeners.
spec.addresses	Not supported	Controller does not read or act on spec.addresses.