# Aurinko Calendar API vs Cal.com API v2 + MCP

> Cal.com API v2 + MCP scores 57.2 (C) on agent readiness against Aurinko Calendar API's 45.6 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Aurinko Calendar API leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. Both do calendar read. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aurinko-calendar-vs-cal-com
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aurinko-calendar-vs-cal-com.md (~2,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aurinko-calendar-vs-cal-com.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aurinko-calendar-vs-cal-com.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Cal.com API v2 + MCP scores 57.2 (C) on agent readiness against Aurinko Calendar API's 45.6 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Aurinko Calendar API leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. Both do calendar read.

- Aurinko Calendar API: grade E, 45.6/100, rank #654 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aurinko-calendar.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/aurinko-calendar.json
- Cal.com API v2 + MCP: grade C, 57.2/100, rank #480 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cal-com.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cal-com.json

## Which one, for what

### Aurinko Calendar API (E)

Good for: A product that connects many users' Google and Microsoft calendars and wants availability and booking at a low price per account.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 56 against 50
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30

Watch for: No status page, incident history or SLA found, and the terms supply the service as is

### Cal.com API v2 + MCP (C)

Good for: An agent that books, reschedules and cancels meetings into a Cal.com user's event types, or routes leads with routing forms.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 60 against 40
- Schema & documentation, 76 against 66
- Security & auth, 56 against 41
- Maintenance & community, 50 against 20
- Transparency & trust, 78 against 44

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: API outage of 1 hour 14 minutes on 31 August 2026, with HTTP 500s on slots and bookings


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Aurinko Calendar API | Cal.com API v2 + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 40 | 60 | Cal.com API v2 + MCP +20 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 76 | Cal.com API v2 + MCP +10 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 56 | 50 | Aurinko Calendar API +6 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 41 | 56 | Cal.com API v2 + MCP +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 30 | Aurinko Calendar API +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 20 | 50 | Cal.com API v2 + MCP +30 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 44 | 78 | Cal.com API v2 + MCP +34 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **45.6 · E** | **57.2 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Aurinko Calendar API | Cal.com API v2 + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Yoxel, Inc. | Cal.com |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.aurinko.io` | `https://api.cal.com/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Yoxel's Terms of Services Agreement | Proprietary (hosted product since April 2026). The @calcom/cal-mcp package and repository carry no licence |
| Tools exposed | none | 63 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-09-15 |
| Terms last updated | 2022-08-11 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2022-08-11 | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 30 stars, 786 npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Aurinko Calendar API.** A public OpenAPI 3.0 spec covers 154 operations, with free/busy, meeting-time suggestion and booking profiles alongside calendar reads and writes, and prices start at $1 an active account a month. No status page, SLA, changelog or official SDK was found, and the application's client secret reaches every connected account.

**Cal.com API v2 + MCP.** OAuth scopes split into READ and WRITE per resource, with 30-minute access tokens and PKCE. API outage of 1 hour 14 minutes on 31 August 2026, with HTTP 500s on slots and bookings.

## Before you call either

### Aurinko Calendar API

1. Use `https://api.aurinko.io/v1`. Several cURL examples in the docs print `https:/api.aurinko.io` with one slash
2. Send `If-Match` with the event's `etag` on `PATCH /v1/calendars/{calendarId}/events/{eventId}`. A stale value returns 412
3. Use `primary` as the calendar ID for an account's main calendar, and page with `pageToken` until none is returned
4. Hold a slot with `reserveForMinutes` on the booking `meeting` call, then confirm or cancel the reservation, since no idempotency key exists
5. Retry 429, 408 and 5xx with exponential backoff. Do not retry 404. A 429 can come from Google or Microsoft limits behind the API

### Cal.com API v2 + MCP

1. Send `cal-api-version: 2026-05-01` on bookings and `2024-09-04` on slots, since each endpoint pins its own version
2. Append `?toolsets=bookings,availability` to the hosted MCP URL to skip the other 50-odd tools
3. Page bookings with `pagination.nextCursor`, not offsets
4. Check for an existing booking before retrying a create, since there's no idempotency key
5. Use `cal_` test keys while building so bookings don't reach real calendars

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Aurinko Calendar API or Cal.com API v2 + MCP?

Cal.com API v2 + MCP scores 57.2 (C) on agent readiness against Aurinko Calendar API's 45.6 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Aurinko Calendar API leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing.

### Do Aurinko Calendar API and Cal.com API v2 + MCP need an API key?

Aurinko Calendar API uses an OAuth sign-in. Cal.com API v2 + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Aurinko Calendar API and Cal.com API v2 + MCP without installing anything?

Yes. Aurinko Calendar API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.aurinko.io and Cal.com API v2 + MCP at https://api.cal.com/v2.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aurinko-calendar-vs-cal-com.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aurinko-calendar-vs-cal-com.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "aurinko-calendar", "b": "cal-com"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare aurinko-calendar cal-com`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/aurinko-calendar.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cal-com.json

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