This article reports the experimental and theoretical assessments of the optical characteristics of recently-introduced vertically-coupled microdisk resonators made by selective oxidation of AlGaAs multilayer structures. Experimental measurements show that the Q-factors are in the 10 3 to 10 4 range for diameters ranging from 75 to 300 µm. To establish the origins of this limited performance a coupled-mode-theory-based model of the single-access-waveguide-coupled resonator system was developed. It includes features which are specific to oxide-based vertically-coupled resonators, namely losses towards the slab waveguide lying under the resonator and a coupling region with an asymmetric and multilayer structure. Setting this simulation tool required the proposal and validation of a general criterion to select an appropriate set of decomposition permittivity profiles to be able to accurately model the characteristics of these more complex couplers using the coupled-mode-theory approach. This theoretical development is generic and can be now deployed to simulate any device which includes multi-waveguide couplers with arbitrary piece-wise-constant profile of the dielectric permittivity. Exploiting this particular development and experimental measurements of the disk sidewall roughness and of the coupling lengths, the calculated and experimental Q-factors are found to be in good agreement and allow establishing that the current performance is limited by the scattering losses and the slab-leakage losses for small-and large-diameter devices respectively.