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Head to head · Venue management · October 2026 research run

Square Appointments (Bookings API) vs Tock

Square Appointments (Bookings API) scores 68.1 (B) on agent readiness against Tock's 12.4 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do venue management.

Best restaurant reservation and local appointment APIs for AI agents · All 36 bookings comparisons

Square Appointments (Bookings API)Block, Inc. · HTTP API B68.1/100#242 of 1076 TockTock (American Express) · Platform F12.4/100#1062 of 1076

Which one, for what

Square Appointments (Bookings API) B

Best for Venue-side appointment booking for salons, clinics and other service businesses already on Square.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 55 against 25
  • Schema & documentation, 89 against 5
  • Agent ergonomics, 80 against 0
  • Security & auth, 70 against 0
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 0
  • Maintenance & community, 71 against 23
  • Transparency & trust, 70 against 52

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

Seller-level create, update and cancel fail with 403 unless the seller pays for Plus ($49) or Premium ($149) per location

Tock F

Best for Restaurants and wineries taking reservations and experience bookings, and for diners booking in person.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

No public API or MCP server an outside agent can call. The docs index reads "Docs coming soon"

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runSquare Appointments (Bookings API)TockEdge
Reliability16%205525Square Appointments (Bookings API) +30
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.2895Square Appointments (Bookings API) +84
Agent ergonomics13%16.2800Square Appointments (Bookings API) +80
Security & auth14%17.5700Square Appointments (Bookings API) +70
Payments & pricing10%12.5400Square Appointments (Bookings API) +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87123Square Appointments (Bookings API) +48
Transparency & trust7%8.87052Square Appointments (Bookings API) +18
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 68.1/100F 12.4/100

Facts side by side

FactSquare Appointments (Bookings API)Tock
KindHTTP APIPlatform
VendorBlock, Inc.Tock (American Express)
Hosted endpointhttps://connect.squareup.com/v2/bookingsno (local only)
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPaid
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under the Square Developer Terms of Service. The OpenAPI specification and MCP server are Apache 2.0Proprietary service under the Tock Terms of Use (effective 12 February 2026) and merchant terms
Tools exposed3none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-09-16none
Terms last updated2026-09-102026-02-12
Privacy policy last updated2026-09-152025-11-24
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesyes

Verdicts

Square Appointments (Bookings API)

The Bookings API lets an agent working for a Square seller search availability and create, change and cancel appointments, with a public OpenAPI spec, appointment OAuth scopes and idempotency keys. It acts for the venue. Seller-level writes need Plus or Premium, services with a no-show fee can't be booked through it, and it hasn't changed since September 2024.

Tock

Tock takes reservations and experience bookings for restaurants and wineries and now feeds its venues into Resy. There is no public API or MCP server an outside agent can call today. api.exploretock.com publishes reservation data models without endpoints, and the Terms of Use forbid automated access to the site.

Before you call either

Square Appointments (Bookings API)

  1. Act for the seller. This API books into one Square seller's calendar, not across businesses
  2. Call RetrieveBusinessBookingProfile and check support_seller_level_writes before trying to create or cancel a seller-level booking
  3. Call SearchAvailability first, then CreateBooking with the service variation ID and version, team member, location and customer
  4. Send a fresh idempotency_key on each create, update or cancel, and pass booking_version when cancelling
  5. Check no_show_fee on the service. A service with a non-zero fee must be booked by the customer elsewhere

Tock

  1. Don't plan to call Tock from another agent. Hand the booking to the person on exploretock.com or in the Resy app
  2. Do not script the Tock website, which the Terms of Use forbid. A venue wanting data should ask Tock through its dashboard account

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Square Appointments (Bookings API) or Tock?

Square Appointments (Bookings API) scores 68.1 (B) on agent readiness against Tock's 12.4 (F), and leads in every scored category.

Can an agent call Square Appointments (Bookings API) and Tock without installing anything?

Square Appointments (Bookings API) has a hosted endpoint at https://connect.squareup.com/v2/bookings. No hosted endpoint is listed for Tock.

Other comparisons with Square Appointments (Bookings API) or Tock

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