Virtual Assistant Cost 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-author: Elena Rodriguez | Last updated: October 22, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.0
A virtual assistant (VA) costs between $6.24 and $65.00 per included hour across 20 published plans from seven managed providers, according to an Axis Intelligence Research calculation from prices verified on October 22, 2026. The median plan lands at $37.38 an hour. The spread is not about skill tiers. It is mostly about where the assistant lives.
Quick Answer: How Much Does a Virtual Assistant Cost in 2026?
Listed monthly prices run from $35 (Fancy Hands, 3 short requests) to $6,500 (Boldly, 100 hours). Normalized per included hour, Axis Intelligence Research finds a median of $42.46 for U.S. and North America–based hour-bucket plans and $11.50 for offshore full-time managed plans. A U.S. employee in comparable admin work costs employers $36.73 per hour worked, per BLS.
Key Findings
- Across 20 hour-normalized plans from Time etc, Zirtual, Boldly, Prialto, Wing Assistant, MyOutDesk and Wishup, the median price is $37.38 per included hour, an Axis Intelligence Research calculation from vendor pricing pages verified October 22, 2026.
- Onshore hour-bucket plans (Time etc, Zirtual, Boldly) carry a median of $42.46 per included hour, 3.7 times the $11.50 median of offshore full-time managed plans (Wing Assistant, MyOutDesk, Wishup), per Axis Intelligence Research.
- Private employers paid $36.73 per hour worked for office and administrative support staff in June 2026, wages and benefits combined, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
- A U.S. administrative assistant at the May 2025 BLS median wage of $47,540 costs about $69,199 a year once benefits are added, an Axis Intelligence Research estimate using BLS compensation-cost data.
- On Zirtual’s Entrepreneur plan, where unused hours expire, using 9 of 12 hours raises the real price from $49.92 to $66.56 per hour worked, per Axis Intelligence Research.
Axis Virtual Assistant Cost Estimator
Virtual Assistant Prices by Provider (Verified October 22, 2026)
The table lists each published plan, its monthly price, the hours it includes, and the effective hourly rate (monthly price divided by included hours). The effective rate is an Axis Intelligence Research calculation; no vendor publishes it in this form except Time etc, whose page states the per-hour figure. Full-time plans sold per day are converted at 173.33 hours a month (2,080 hours ÷ 12).
| Provider | Plan | Monthly price | Hours included | Effective $/hour | Where the assistant works | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time etc | 10 hours | $390 | 10 | $39.00 | United States | Time etc pricing |
| Time etc | 20 hours | $760 | 20 | $38.00 | United States | Time etc pricing |
| Time etc | 40 hours | $1,480 | 40 | $37.00 | United States | Time etc pricing |
| Time etc | 60 hours | $2,160 | 60 | $36.00 | United States | Time etc pricing |
| Zirtual | Entrepreneur | $599 | 12 | $49.92 | United States | Zirtual pricing |
| Zirtual | Grow | $899 | 20 | $44.95 | United States | Zirtual pricing |
| Zirtual | Small Business | $1,199 | 30 | $39.97 | United States | Zirtual pricing |
| Zirtual | Team Plan | $1,699 | 45 | $37.76 | United States | Zirtual pricing |
| Boldly | 40 hours | $2,600 | 40 | $65.00 | North America or Europe | Boldly pricing |
| Boldly | 60 hours | $3,900 | 60 | $65.00 | North America or Europe | Boldly pricing |
| Boldly | 80 hours | $5,200 | 80 | $65.00 | North America or Europe | Boldly pricing |
| Boldly | 100 hours | $6,500 | 100 | $65.00 | North America or Europe | Boldly pricing |
| Prialto | 1 unit | $1,600 | 55 | $29.09 | Not stated on pricing page | Prialto pricing |
| Wing Assistant | GVA Part-Time | $699 | 80 | $8.74 | Not stated in pricing section | Wing Assistant |
| Wing Assistant | GVA Full-Time | $999 | 160 | $6.24 | Not stated in pricing section | Wing Assistant |
| MyOutDesk | Managed Outsourcing (from) | $1,988 | 173.33* | $11.47 | Philippines, Latin America, Africa | MyOutDesk pricing |
| MyOutDesk | Specialized Outsourcing (from) | $2,500 | 173.33* | $14.42 | Philippines, Latin America, Africa | MyOutDesk pricing |
| Wishup | Prime VA, 8 h/day | $1,999 | 173.33* | $11.53 | India (per Wishup FAQ) | Wishup pricing |
| Wishup | Elite VA, 8 h/day | $2,999 | 173.33* | $17.30 | India (per Wishup FAQ) | Wishup pricing |
| Wishup | US-based VA, 8 h/day | $5,400 | 173.33* | $31.15 | United States | Wishup pricing |
*MyOutDesk sells full-time only, defined on its page as 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Wishup’s prices are the default view of its page: the 8-hours-a-day option, billed quarterly (annual billing saves $1,199 a year on Prime, $1,799 on Elite and $3,240 on US-based). Axis Intelligence Research converts both to 173.33 hours a month (2,080 hours ÷ 12).
Two more vendors publish prices that do not convert cleanly to an hourly rate:
| Provider | Plan | Monthly price | What you get | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fancy Hands | Small / Medium / Large | $35 / $55 / $125 | 3 / 5 / 15 requests, each up to 20 minutes, from a shared team | Fancy Hands pricing |
| BELAY | Quote-based | No rate card | Company-published U.S. market range: $30–$75 per hour, $1,200–$3,000 a month part-time | BELAY FAQ |
Fancy Hands requests cap at 20 minutes, so its plans imply a floor of $25 to $35 per hour of work if every request runs the full 20 minutes; shorter requests push the real rate up.
Why Is a U.S. Virtual Assistant Nearly Four Times the Price of an Offshore One?
Location explains more of the price than anything else on these pages. The onshore median of $42.46 per included hour against an offshore full-time median of $11.50 is a 3.7-to-1 gap, and it holds even though the offshore plans bundle more management (customer success managers at Wing Assistant, account managers and HR at MyOutDesk, a dedicated VA manager at Wishup).
The second driver is commitment. Offshore providers sell blocks of 80 to 173 hours. Onshore providers sell blocks of 10 to 100. Buying more hours lowers the rate everywhere except Boldly, which charges $65.00 an hour at every tier: Time etc drops from $39.00 at 10 hours to $36.00 at 60, and Zirtual from $49.92 at 12 hours to $37.76 at 45.
Commitment also cuts the onshore price. Wishup’s full-time US-based plan works out to $31.15 an hour, below every onshore hour-bucket plan in the table, because the buyer pays for 173 hours whether or not the work fills them.
So the honest framing for a buyer is not “cheap VA versus expensive VA.” It is “how many hours of work do I actually have, and does it need U.S. business hours and a U.S. voice on the phone?”
Is a Virtual Assistant Cheaper Than Hiring an Employee?
Per hour, an onshore VA is not cheaper than an employee. Per month, it usually is, because you buy fewer hours.
BLS reports that private employers paid $36.73 per hour worked for office and administrative support occupations in June 2026: $25.22 in wages and $11.51 in benefits (BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, Table 4). Time etc’s plans run $36.00 to $39.00 an hour. Zirtual’s run $37.76 to $49.92. The hours cost roughly the same as an employee’s hour, and Boldly’s cost more.
The saving comes from scope. A full-time U.S. administrative assistant at the May 2025 median wage of $47,540 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook) is a 2,080-hour commitment. A 20-hour Time etc plan is a 240-hour annual commitment at $9,120. The vendor decks that promise “up to 90% savings” (Time etc’s own claim) are measuring a part-time plan against a full-time salary. That math holds only if your real workload is part-time.
Fully loaded in-house cost: the formula
Axis Intelligence Research estimates the fully loaded annual cost of an employee as the BLS median wage divided by 0.687, the wage share of total compensation for private-industry office and administrative support workers in June 2026 (BLS ECEC). Recruiting, equipment and office space are excluded, so this is a floor.
| Role (BLS occupation code) | May 2025 median wage | Fully loaded annual cost (Axis estimate) |
|---|---|---|
| Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical and executive (43-6014) | $47,540 | $69,199 |
| Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants (43-6011) | $76,590 | $111,485 |
Sources: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook (wages, May 2025); BLS ECEC, June 2026 (wage share). Calculation: Axis Intelligence Research.
Virtual Assistant TCO at 1, 3 and 5 Years
Total cost of ownership (TCO) here means every dollar the buyer pays over the period: the monthly price times the months, plus one-time fees. Prices are held at October 22, 2026 levels with no escalation, which flatters every option equally.
| Option | Monthly cost | 1 year | 3 years | 5 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time etc, 20 hours | $760 | $9,120 | $27,360 | $45,600 |
| Zirtual Grow, 20 hours | $899 | $10,788 | $32,364 | $53,940 |
| Time etc, 40 hours | $1,480 | $17,760 | $53,280 | $88,800 |
| Prialto, 1 unit (55 h), month to month + $250 setup | $1,600 | $19,450 | $57,850 | $96,250 |
| Zirtual Team Plan, 45 hours | $1,699 | $20,388 | $61,164 | $101,940 |
| Boldly, 40 hours (ACH) | $2,600 | $31,200 | $93,600 | $156,000 |
| Wing Assistant, full-time (160 h) | $999 | $11,988 | $35,964 | $59,940 |
| MyOutDesk Managed, full-time | $1,988 | $23,856 | $71,568 | $119,280 |
| Wishup Prime VA, 8 h/day, quarterly billing | $1,999 | $23,988 | $71,964 | $119,940 |
| Direct hire, Philippines (Indeed average, see below) | $433.42 | $5,270 | $15,672 | $26,074 |
| U.S. employee, 43-6014 median, fully loaded | $5,766.62 | $69,199 | $207,598 | $345,997 |
| U.S. employee, 43-6011 median, fully loaded | $9,290.39 | $111,485 | $334,454 | $557,424 |
Formula: monthly cost × 12 × years + one-time fees. Source prices: vendor pages verified October 22, 2026; BLS; Indeed. Calculation: Axis Intelligence Research.
Read the table by workload, not by row. At 20 hours a month, Time etc’s five-year bill is $45,600 against $345,997 for a full-time median employee. At full-time volume, the comparison flips to offshore managed providers, where Wing Assistant’s five-year bill of $59,940 buys 160 hours a month, eight times the hours of the Time etc 20-hour plan for about a third more money.
What Does It Cost to Hire a Philippine Virtual Assistant Directly?
Indeed estimates the average virtual assistant salary in the Philippines at ₱27,457 a month, based on about 1,100 salaries in its job postings over the past 36 months, updated October 4, 2026, with a typical range of ₱14,365 to ₱52,481 (Indeed Philippines). At the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reference rate of ₱63.35 per U.S. dollar on October 22, 2026 (BSP Reference Exchange Rate Bulletin), that is about $433.42 a month, or $2.50 per hour at full-time hours, an Axis Intelligence Research conversion.
Direct hiring adds a recruiting fee rather than a markup. OnlineJobs.ph charges employers $69 a month (PRO) or $99 a month (Premium) for recruiting access and says it adds no salary markup (OnlineJobs.ph pricing). The trade is management: no account manager, no replacement guarantee, no backup assistant, and the employer handles payment, supervision and any bonuses.
Set the Indeed average beside the managed offshore prices and the gap is what you pay a provider to recruit, supervise and replace: Wing Assistant’s $999 full-time plan is about 2.3 times that average, and MyOutDesk’s $1,988 starting price about 4.6 times. Those ratios are an Axis Intelligence Research comparison of two different data sets. The Indeed figure covers all Philippine VA postings, not the wages these specific providers pay, so treat the multiple as a rough guide to the management premium, not a markup each vendor earns.
What Moves the Price of a Virtual Assistant?
Unused hours. Zirtual states that hours do not roll over and that cancellations are not prorated. Time etc states that unused hours roll over. On Zirtual’s 12-hour plan, using 9 hours turns $49.92 per included hour into $66.56 per hour actually worked. A cheaper headline rate with expiring hours can cost more than a pricier plan with rollover.
Minimum terms and setup fees. Prialto requires a 90-day minimum per unit and charges a $250 setup fee in the first month, waived with a one-year agreement. Time etc and Zirtual both state there is no setup fee and allow cancellation any time.
Payment method. Boldly’s prices assume ACH direct debit. Paying by credit card adds 2.9%, which takes the 40-hour plan from $2,600 to $2,675.40 a month.
Specialist work. Boldly bills project management, web development, blog writing and design at $79 an hour, outside the plan rate.
Seats. Zirtual ties the number of users to the plan: 1 user on Entrepreneur, 4 on Team. Time etc lets teams share an assistant at no extra charge.
Inconsistent pricing pages. Prialto’s pricing page shows $1,600 per unit on its plan cards and says pricing “starts at $1,500” in its FAQ. We use $1,600 because it is the price on the plan card a buyer would select; ask Prialto which applies before signing.
How to Choose a Virtual Assistant Plan Without Overpaying
Start with a two-week log of the tasks you would hand off and the minutes each takes. That number, not the vendor’s tier names, picks the plan.
- Under 5 hours a month of short errands: a request-based plan such as Fancy Hands costs $35 to $125 a month. Its 20-minute cap per request rules out anything multi-step.
- 10 to 60 hours a month, U.S. hours required: Time etc’s published rates ($36.00 to $39.00 an hour, with rollover) are the lowest onshore rates in this data set. Zirtual’s larger plans approach the same rate but expire unused hours.
- Executive support with a minimum-tenure promise: Boldly says its staff have 10 to 15 years of experience; that is the stated reason for its $65.00 rate. Pay it only if you need that seniority.
- Full-time volume, time zone flexible: offshore managed plans at $6.24 to $17.30 an hour, or direct hiring if you can supervise yourself.
- Quote-based vendors: BELAY publishes no rate card. Its own FAQ places U.S. VAs at $30 to $75 an hour. Ask for the hourly equivalent, rollover terms, minimum term and any buyout fee in writing, and compare against the table above.
For a cost estimate tailored to your hours and region, use the Axis virtual assistant cost estimator built from this data set.
FAQ
How much does a virtual assistant cost per hour?
Published plans from seven managed providers range from $6.24 to $65.00 per included hour, with a median of $37.38, per Axis Intelligence Research from prices verified October 22, 2026. U.S.-based hour-bucket plans have a median of $42.46; offshore full-time plans, $11.50.
How much does a full-time virtual assistant cost per month?
Published full-time managed plans start at $999 a month (Wing Assistant, 160 hours) $1,988 a month (MyOutDesk Managed Outsourcing) and $1,999 a month billed quarterly (Wishup Prime VA, 8 hours a day). Hiring directly in the Philippines averages about $433 a month in salary per Indeed’s October 2026 estimate, plus recruiting platform fees such as OnlineJobs.ph’s $69 a month.
Is a virtual assistant cheaper than an employee?
Per month, usually yes, because you buy only the hours you need. Per hour, onshore VAs cost about the same as a U.S. admin employee: $31.15 to $65.00 per plan hour versus $36.73 per hour worked in employer compensation cost for office and administrative support (BLS, June 2026).
Do unused virtual assistant hours roll over?
It depends on the provider. Time etc says unused hours roll over to the next month. Zirtual says they do not, and does not prorate cancellations. Check this term before comparing hourly rates.
How much does BELAY cost?
BELAY does not publish prices and quotes after a consultation. Its FAQ states that U.S.-based virtual assistants generally charge $30 to $75 an hour, or about $1,200 to $3,000 a month for part-time support.
Methodology
What we collected. On October 22, 2026, Axis Intelligence Research read the live pricing pages of Time etc, Zirtual, Boldly, Prialto, Wing Assistant, MyOutDesk, Wishup and Fancy Hands, plus BELAY’s published FAQ on U.S. VA costs and OnlineJobs.ph’s employer pricing. Every price is the vendor’s own (company-reported). Wage benchmarks come from BLS: median wages from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2025 release as published in the Occupational Outlook Handbook, and employer compensation cost from the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) release for June 2026. The Philippine salary figure is an Indeed estimate from its own job postings, labeled as such.
Formulas. Effective hourly rate = monthly price ÷ hours included. Full-time hours = 2,080 ÷ 12 = 173.33 a month. Fully loaded employee cost = median annual wage ÷ 0.687. TCO = monthly cost × 12 × years + one-time fees. Utilization-adjusted rate = monthly price ÷ hours actually used. Medians are taken across plans, not across providers, so a provider with four tiers carries four observations.
Limitations. Included hours are a ceiling, not delivered output; Time etc says it bills “to the second,” and other providers may count time differently. Wishup prices are the page’s default view (8 hours a day, quarterly billing), confirmed from editor screenshots of the live page on October 22, 2026; the 4-hours-a-day prices are not shown in that view and are not included. Prialto lists two starting prices; we use the plan-card figure. The Philippine conversion uses the BSP reference rate of October 22, 2026; peso movements change the dollar estimate. Upwork and other freelance marketplaces are not included because their client fee pages could not be verified from the primary source on the retrieval date. Prices change without notice; every row in the dataset carries its verification date.
About This Dataset
The file virtual-assistant-cost.csv contains 130 rows: every plan price, fee and benchmark on this page, plus each Axis calculation with its formula in the method_note column and its source in source_url. Licensed CC BY 4.0. Cite as: Axis Intelligence Research, Virtual Assistant Cost Statistics 2026, 2026.
Cite this page
- APA: Rodriguez, E., & Axis Intelligence Research. (2026, October 22). Virtual assistant cost statistics 2026. Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/virtual-assistant-cost/
- MLA: Rodriguez, Elena, and Axis Intelligence Research. “Virtual Assistant Cost Statistics 2026.” Axis Intelligence, 22 Oct. 2026.
- Chicago: Rodriguez, Elena, and Axis Intelligence Research. “Virtual Assistant Cost Statistics 2026.” Axis Intelligence, October 22, 2026.