Head to head · Calendar access · October 2026 research run
Cronofy API vs SavvyCal API + MCP
Cronofy API scores 67.5 (B) on agent readiness against SavvyCal API + MCP's 57 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. SavvyCal API + MCP leads on schema & documentation. Both do calendar access.
Best calendar and scheduling APIs for AI agents · All 89 scheduling comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Products that schedule across many people and rooms with strict data residency, especially in the UK and EU.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 95 against 70
- Agent ergonomics, 76 against 53
- Security & auth, 60 against 50
- Maintenance & community, 71 against 40
Watch for
Production pricing starts at $819 a month billed yearly
Best for An agent booking on a person's SavvyCal links or driving their account through the MCP server.
Ahead on
- Schema & documentation, 74 against 58
Also in its favour
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
No general rate limit documented. The spec names one 429, on creating events (10 a minute per link)
Why the edge
Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.
Maintenance & community Cronofy API +31
Cronofy API 71
Cronofy's UI Elements, the JavaScript components it publishes for its API, carry a dated changelog in the docs with three code releases in October 2026, 1.68.0 (15 October, Romanian language support), 1.68.1 (22 October, the Availability Rules element now encodes rule IDs in its request) and 1.68.2 (28 October, Date Time Picker keyboard and screen reader support), so the last code release is within 30 days (30). pycronofy 2.1.2 (30 October) and 2.1.1 (25 September) change only packaging, 2.1.0 (8 May) only replaces the pytz dependency with the standard library, and cronofy-node's newest tag, v3.8.4 (15 September 2025), bumps axios. In the 90 days from 4 August, the three UI Elements releases and the two pycronofy packaging releases, counted half (20, was 5). Support through the docs, support pages and support@cronofy.com, and cronofy-node merged an outside docs pull request on 7 October; the API changelog can't be read (5). SDKs exist in several languages but most are slow-moving, Node last tagged v3.8.4 on 15 September 2025 and Ruby last tagged in 2023 (8). CI on the Node and Python SDKs, with Python 3.15 added on 30 October 2026 (8). 30+20+5+8+8 = 71.
SavvyCal API + MCP 40
Read as a closed service. The newest dated change is the MCP integration of 27 October 2026 on the updates board (30). It is the only dated entry since 7 July, so fewer than three in 90 days (0 of 20). A public updates board, a feature request board and a support address with a stated 24-hour reply within US Central business hours (10 of 15). No official SDKs (0). No package to assess (0). 30 + 0 + 10 + 0 + 0 = 40.
Reliability Cronofy API +25
Cronofy API 95
Atlassian Statuspage at status.cronofy.com with the API, Scheduler, Meeting Agents and each calendar provider as components (20). history.atom shows nothing touching the service from 4 August to 2 November 2026; its one post in the window, on 22 October, says Cronofy is unaffected by two PHP vulnerabilities. The 7 July Event Triggers incident in the US data centre left the window, so a clean record (30, was 20). 50 requests a second and 500 in any 60 seconds by default (15). 429 documented with advice to stop requests temporarily, but no Retry-After or backoff figures. Event writes are upserts keyed on your event_id, so a repeat updates rather than duplicates (10). 99.99% uptime guarantee on Emerging and Growth, and an API SLA policy page (10). The API is GA, and the MCP server page no longer carries an early-access label but warns the standard is likely to change (10). 20+30+15+10+10+10 = 95.
SavvyCal API + MCP 70
Read with the hosted lines. Instatus page at savvycal.instatus.com with App, Microsoft 365, Google Calendar and Integrations components and a month-by-month history (20). No notices from June to November 2026 and 100 per cent App uptime each month, a clean record (30). The only limit with a number is in the OpenAPI spec, 10 event creations a minute per link, failed ones included; nothing covers the rest of the API (7 of 15). That 429 is declared with no Retry-After, backoff guidance or idempotency key, and webhooks are the only place retries are described (3 of 15). No SLA; the terms give the service as is (0). The v1 API is generally available and the MCP server, announced 27 October 2026, is not marked beta (10). 20 + 30 + 7 + 3 + 0 + 10 = 70.
Agent ergonomics Cronofy API +23
Cronofy API 76
API responses can be narrowed, for example Availability's response_format of slots and the only_managed flag on events (15). Pagination and filters exist on event reads per the docs, but we didn't verify page sizes (12). Specific errors an agent can act on, such as 402 for a plan gap, 403 naming the missing scope and 423 when the user must relink (18). Event creates are idempotent by event_id, though we couldn't see MCP tool annotations (16). Official SDKs in Node, Python, Ruby, C# and more (15).
SavvyCal API + MCP 53
List responses are sized by limit (default 20, at most 100) with no field selection. The MCP server lists 63 tools with no documented toolset or read-only list, though a client can ask for the mcp:read scope alone (10 of 25). Cursor pagination with after, before and limit, and date and status filters on events (17 of 20). Errors name the field, the failed validation and a limit count, which an agent can act on, but a 429 carries no wait time (14 of 20). No idempotency key on booking or link creation, and the MCP annotations could not be read; the docs say the assistant confirms before cancelling, deleting or inviting (6 of 20). Creating an event needs five fields, and there is no official SDK in any language (6 of 15). 10 + 17 + 14 + 6 + 6 = 53.
Schema & documentation SavvyCal API + MCP +16
Cronofy API 58
No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract found (0). llms.txt with about 35 to 40 links and Markdown copies of pages (10). Reference pages explain each parameter and spell out provider differences, such as Exchange and Office 365 taking only the start time zone (17). Required parameters, types and limits (such as 1,024 characters for summary) on each page (12). Examples on every endpoint, and an error page covering 400 to 500 with 422 bodies that carry a machine-readable key (14). /v1 in the path. The changelog at changelog.cronofy.com is on a host whose robots.txt disallows every agent but a list of search crawlers, so the 1 October reading of it (undated entries, years old) is struck and it is unread (5, on path versioning alone).
SavvyCal API + MCP 74
OpenAPI 3.0.0 at api.savvycal.com/v1/spec covers all 22 operations with 56 schemas; the MCP tools' schemas could not be read without signing in (23 of 25). llms.txt and a Markdown twin of every docs page (10). Only 8 of the 22 operations carry a description, and those state constraints (events must match an open slot, an invalid filter resets every filter) rather than when to choose another endpoint (10 of 20). Required flags on 14 of 43 parameters, 34 enum properties across the schemas, limit bounded 1 to 100, until at most 31 days after from (12 of 15). Example values on parameters and a documented error shape keyed by field, with 400, 401, 404, 422 and 429 declared per operation, but no full response examples (10 of 15). A /v1 path and a promise that changes are additive, with dated product updates on the feedback board but no API changelog (9 of 15). 23 + 10 + 10 + 12 + 10 + 9 = 74.
Security & auth Cronofy API +10
Cronofy API 60
Per-user OAuth with fine scopes, including free_busy alone, read_only, and delete_event separate from create_event. Application calls and the single-tenant MCP use the application's client_secret as a Bearer token, which reaches every connected account (25). An agent can be limited to free/busy or to events it created (only_managed), but nothing confirms deletes (17). Event titles and descriptions from third parties come back with no injection guidance (0). No operator audit log found (0). ISO 27001, 27018 and 27701, SOC 2 Type 2 and a public bug bounty policy. No security.txt, per the 30 September check (18).
SavvyCal API + MCP 50
OAuth 2 authorisation code apps with 2-hour access tokens and refresh tokens, and personal access tokens, both in the Authorization header only. The spec declares no scopes for either, and PAT expiry and revocation are not described. The MCP server uses OAuth 2.1 with PKCE S256, dynamic client registration, mcp:read and mcp:write scopes and a revocation endpoint (22 of 30). mcp:read gives a read-only MCP grant, and the vendor says the assistant asks before booking, cancelling, deleting or inviting. REST tokens have no read-only form (14 of 20). Invitee names, answers and metadata written by outsiders come back through events and webhooks with no injection guidance; the AI page says the assistant sees calendar conflicts but not event names (2 of 15). Webhook request logs and a Connected Apps list with revoke, but no per-call audit log for the operator (4 of 15). Valid security.txt to 2 May 2027, a security page and an SSDLC page, but no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 (the page says not yet) and no bug bounty (8 of 20). 22 + 14 + 2 + 4 + 8 = 50.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Cronofy API | SavvyCal API + MCP | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 95 | 70 | Cronofy API +25 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 58 | 74 | SavvyCal API + MCP +16 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 76 | 53 | Cronofy API +23 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 60 | 50 | Cronofy API +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 30 | 30 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 71 | 40 | Cronofy API +31 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 72 | 73 | SavvyCal API + MCP +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | B 67.5/100 | C 57/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Cronofy API | SavvyCal API + MCP |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Cronofy | SavvyCal, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.cronofy.com | https://api.savvycal.com/v1 |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 63 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-30 | 2026-10-27 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-01-21 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-10-17 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 51 stars, 11k npm/wk, 10k PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | none |
How the scores have moved
SavvyCal API + MCP
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
Cronofy API
OAuth scopes as narrow as free_busy, with delete_event separate from create_event, a 99.99% uptime guarantee and no incident touching the service since July 2026. Production pricing starts at $819 a month billed yearly, and the Python and Node SDKs' recent releases only change packaging or dependencies.
SavvyCal API + MCP
A small REST API with a public OpenAPI spec, cursor pagination and signed webhooks, plus a hosted MCP server with 63 tools, OAuth 2.1 and read and write scopes, on every plan. No general rate limit, idempotency key, SDK or certification was found, and booking through a link needs a paid seat.
Before you call either
Cronofy API
- Call the data centre host the account was created in (api-uk, api-de and so on), since data never crosses regions
- Reuse the same
event_idwhen retrying an event write, since Cronofy upserts on it - Ask for
response_formatslots when you want bookable times rather than free periods - On 423, ask the user to relink, since Cronofy has already emailed them
- Keep under 50 requests a second and 500 a minute, and pause on 429
SavvyCal API + MCP
- Call GET /v1/links/{link_id}/slots with
fromanduntil(at most 31 days apart) and book only a returned slot; POST /v1/links/{link_id}/events refuses other times with 422 - Keep event creation under 10 requests a minute per link, failed attempts included, or expect 429 with no Retry-After
- Page with the
afterandbeforecursors frommetadataandlimitup to 100; an invalid filter value resets every filter to its default - Connect the MCP server with a client that supports dynamic client registration, and request
mcp:readwhen the task only reads - Verify webhooks with HMAC-SHA256 over the raw body against
x-savvycal-signatureand answer 2xx quickly
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Cronofy API or SavvyCal API + MCP?
Cronofy API scores 67.5 (B) on agent readiness against SavvyCal API + MCP's 57 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. SavvyCal API + MCP leads on schema & documentation.
Do Cronofy API and SavvyCal API + MCP need an API key?
Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.
Can an agent call Cronofy API and SavvyCal API + MCP without installing anything?
Yes. Cronofy API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.cronofy.com and SavvyCal API + MCP at https://api.savvycal.com/v1.
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/cronofy-vs-savvycal.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/cronofy.json·/api/v1/tools/savvycal.json - From a terminal
anchor compare cronofy savvycal(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "cronofy", "b": "savvycal"}at/mcp, no key