IoT Gateway Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends and Forecast (2026 - 2031)

Global IoT Gateway Market Trends and Insights

5G-Enabled Low-Latency Edge Connectivity Roll-Outs

Enterprises are adopting 5G standalone cores that guarantee sub-20 millisecond latency, enabling gateways to control collaborative robots and augmented-reality service tools in real time. Qualcomm’s QCS8550 processor combines a 5G RedCap modem with a 12 TOPS AI engine, letting factory operators keep high-throughput vision inference on-premises while sending model retraining jobs to the cloud.^{[1]Qualcomm, “Qualcomm QCS8550 IoT Processor,” qualcomm.com} Private 5G sites increased by 140% year over year, with gateway shipments into automotive plants accounting for 38% of that volume.^{[2]Ericsson, “Ericsson Mobility Report 2025,” ericsson.com} RedCap became commercially available in mid-2025, however, most battery-powered sensors still rely on LTE-M, resulting in a two-tier architecture with high-bandwidth and low-power links. Early adopters report that deterministic latency cuts unplanned production stoppages by enabling microsecond-level machine coordination.

Industry 4.0 Adoption and Factory Edge Analytics

Manufacturers embed IoT gateways in CNC machines and conveyors to run predictive maintenance models that flag bearing failures 72 hours in advance, cutting downtime by nearly one-third. Siemens delivered more than 50,000 Industrial Edge gateways in 2024, each shipping with a marketplace for containerized analytics apps.^{[3]Siemens, “Industrial Edge,” siemens.com} ABB’s Ability Edgenius platform, launched in March 2025, enables maintenance teams to deploy TensorFlow Lite models via a drag-and-drop interface, eliminating the need for data science staff.^{[4]ABB, “ABB Ability Edgenius,” abb.com} While the return on investment is proven, air-gapped operational networks hinder over-the-air patching; many facilities still use USB keys for firmware updates, thereby extending the mean time to remediation for critical patches.

Rapid Smart-City LPWAN Gateway Deployments

Urban authorities in China, India, and the Gulf states are installing LoRaWAN and NB-IoT gateways on street furniture to monitor air quality, parking, and waste collection. China Mobile surpassed 300 million NB-IoT endpoints by December 2024, anchoring volume economics for ultra-narrowband silicon. Municipal managers report sensor battery life of over five years, resulting in reduced truck rolls for maintenance. European cities such as Lyon are layering Wi-Fi 7 backhaul onto LPWAN clusters to aggregate traffic into edge nodes that can execute basic analytics before forwarding summaries to the cloud. Government funding tied to sustainability goals accelerates deployment, yet procurement cycles remain long because each new gateway must comply with evolving cybersecurity rules.

AI/ML Inference Moving From Cloud to Gateway Silicon

Chipmakers now integrate neural processing units directly into gateway SoCs, delivering 1-8 TOPS of INT8 inference at sub-10-watt power budgets. Intel’s Atom x6000E line ships with a 1.5 TOPS accelerator and Time-Coordinated Computing for deterministic scheduling. NXP’s Ara-1 device reaches 8 TOPS while meeting ISO 26262 ASIL-B requirements, unlocking functional-safety use cases in automotive V2X gateways. Local inference avoids recurring cloud fees that can reach seven-figure sums in camera-rich factories, however, device fleets now require orchestrated model rollouts to sustain accuracy as operating conditions change. Bootloaders with A-B partitions and encrypted payloads are gaining favor to ensure rollback should an update malfunction.

Fragmented Protocol Standards and Legacy Integration Cost

Gateways juggle Modbus RTU, OPC UA, MQTT, CoAP, and vendor-specific fieldbus, forcing separate software stacks that bloat firmware images and complicate quality assurance. IEEE research shows conversion bugs trigger nearly half of gateway downtime, with data-type mismatches between Modbus and MQTT topping the list. While the Matter protocol gained momentum in smart homes, only a minority of industrial gateways shipped in 2025 support it, leaving factories to maintain parallel stacks indefinitely. Retrofitting a decade-old PLC with Ethernet/IP can cost more than replacing the controller, stalling upgrade projects in cash-constrained plants. OEMs respond by shipping modular gateway mezzanine cards, but these add BOM cost and lengthen certification cycles.

Escalating Cyber-Attack Surface at Distributed Gateways

Each deployed gateway exposes web services, message brokers, or SSH consoles that adversaries probe for privilege escalation. A 2024 CISA advisory listed 14 critical vulnerabilities across major gateway brands, including Remote Code Execution flaws in default management dashboards. Digi International’s annual security audit disclosed that 22% of its installed base ran firmware more than 18 months old, highlighting slow patch uptake. IEC 62443 certification enforces secure boot and signed updates, yet it stops short of mandating continuous runtime monitoring, leaving space for intrusion that hijacks sensor payloads. The Ponemon Institute pegs the average cost of an IoT-related breach at USD 4.2 million, with gateways the initial point of compromise in almost one-third of incidents.

Segment Analysis

By Component: Connectivity ICs Outpace Processors in Mixed-Radio Designs

Connectivity IC revenue is forecast to expand at 13.11% CAGR during 2026-2031 as multi-radio boards demand discrete RF front-ends for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth LE, and 5G RedCap. Qualcomm’s tri-band Wi-Fi 7 chipset generates 5.8 Gbps peak throughput, meeting vision inspection workloads that stream 4K video from production lines. Processors remain the largest line item because they anchor compute and security; yet, their growth lags as OEMs extend life cycles to recoup R&D investments. The IoT gateway market size for connectivity ICs is expected to surpass USD 1 billion by 2031, if unit forecasts hold. 

Edge AI inflection reshapes processor criteria. Intel and NXP bundle 1-8 TOPS accelerators plus deterministic clocks, commanding a 23% price premium that OEMs gladly pay to differentiate on inference latency. Memory and storage commoditize, though NOR flash with Execute-in-Place (XiP) retains margin because secure boot demands it. Power-management ICs are designed to accommodate wider input voltage ranges, aligning with global certification standards.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

By End-User Industry: Healthcare Surges, Manufacturing Holds Ground

Industrial manufacturing claimed 29.84% of IoT gateway market size in 2025, supported by predictive maintenance and collaborative robots that need real-time failsafe signals. Siemens, ABB, and Schneider Electric integrate gateways into PLC cabinets to simplify procurement. Healthcare grows at 12.98% CAGR as reimbursement frameworks cover remote patient monitoring devices that aggregate vital signs, infusion pump data, and ventilator metrics. A JAMA study reported hospital gateways cut sepsis detection times by six hours, saving critical care beds. 

Automotive and transportation sectors leverage V2X gateways for fleet telemetry; however, spectrum allocation delays in the EU are pushing large-scale deployment to 2026. Energy and utilities adopt IP67 gateways in substations for grid balancing, while retail chains install camera-enabled gateways to track footfall, although only one-third realize payback within two years.

By Application: Edge AI Leads New Value Creation

Predictive maintenance held 35.73% share of IoT gateway market size in 2025, leveraging vibration and thermal inputs to cut unscheduled stoppages. Edge AI and analytics is the fastest riser at 13.55% CAGR because running TensorFlow Lite or ONNX locally avoids cloud inference fees that can exceed hardware cost multiples. Intel’s OpenVINO toolkit lets engineers port vision models to gateways with minimal code changes, shortening pilot to production by weeks. 

Secure connectivity management gains momentum as enterprises migrate from static VPNs to software-defined zero-trust overlays. Protocol translation gateways grow slowly in greenfield projects that adopt MQTT natively, but they remain relevant in brownfield plants where Modbus devices continue to be in service for decades.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

By Deployment Environment: Rugged Outdoor Units Extend Edge to Harsh Sites

DIN-rail gateways retained 34.74% share in 2025, benefiting from mechanical compatibility with factory panels. Rugged outdoor models, sealed to IP67, will outpace the overall IoT gateway market at a 13.33% CAGR as utilities shift their monitoring to remote substations. Portable gateways address construction and event sites where short-term connectivity takes priority over capital expenditure, yet their unit price keeps the adoption niche. 

Thermal constraints shape enclosure design; outdoor housings cap processor TDP at 25 watts, limiting AI throughput unless vendors adopt advanced heat-pipe assemblies. Solar charging and five-day battery buffers are becoming mandatory in regions with unreliable grids, particularly in parts of Africa and South America.

Geography Analysis

North America captured 38.74% IoT gateway market share in 2025, bolstered by early 5G standalone deployments and logistics hubs that rely on private LTE for asset tracking. Cisco shipped 180,000 industrial gateways in fiscal 2025, bundling Splunk analytics to differentiate. Canada concentrates on mining and forestry with rugged units that endure sub-zero winters, while Mexico’s nearshoring wave installs greenfield IIoT lines for automotive suppliers. 

Asia-Pacific grows at 13.66% CAGR, the swiftest worldwide. China deploys NB-IoT gateways for smart meters at massive scale, and India rolls out LoRaWAN hubs in agricultural logistics corridors. Japan and South Korea are pioneers in 5G private networks for autonomous mobile robots, whereas Australia utilizes LPWAN for crop and cattle oversight across vast ranches. Regulatory fragmentation, such as India’s pending device security certification, can postpone launches by up to a year. 

Europe held 22% share in 2025. Germany invests heavily under the Industry 4.0 program, France pushes smart-city pilots, and the UK channels post-Brexit policy toward 5G campus networks. The NIS2 Directive mandates IEC 62443 compliance, adding 15-20% to the cost of gateway bills while enhancing baseline security. Southern European adoption trails due to lower automation intensity, and Eastern Europe grows as auto suppliers modernize. 

The Middle East and Africa hold a combined 7% share. The UAE and Saudi Arabia fund mega-projects where thousands of gateways support autonomous mobility and energy management. South America adopts LoRaWAN for irrigation and smart metering, though economic headwinds impede broad rollouts.