US virtual assistant firms that publish their prices charge $36 to $65 an hour. Time etc charges $36 to $39 an hour on monthly plans from $390 for 10 hours, and Boldly charges $65 an hour on plans from $2,600 for 40 hours. MyOutDesk publishes a starting price of $1,988 a month for its managed plan.
For comparison, the BLS median pay for an employed secretary or administrative assistant is $23.23 an hour. The difference is what a business pays to avoid hiring: no payroll, no tax filings, no recruiting, and no paying for hours with nothing to do.
How much do virtual assistants charge per hour?
US firms that publish prices charge $36 to $65 an hour. Time etc's plans work out to $39 an hour for 10 hours a month, $38 for 20, $37 for 40 and $36 for 60. Boldly's plans work out to $65 an hour at every size from 40 to 100 hours, and it bills specialist tasks at $79 an hour.
| Firm and plan | Price per month | Hours included | Price per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time etc, Ten Hours | $390 | 10 | $39 |
| Time etc, Twenty Hours | $760 | 20 | $38 |
| Time etc, Forty Hours | $1,480 | 40 | $37 |
| Time etc, Sixty Hours | $2,160 | 60 | $36 |
| Boldly, 40 Hour Plan | $2,600 | 40 | $65 |
| Boldly, 100 Hour Plan | $6,500 | 100 | $65 |
| MyOutDesk, Managed Outsourcing | From $1,988 | Not stated | Not stated |
| Employed admin assistant (BLS median) | About $4,026 | About 173 (full time) | $23.23 |
Firm prices from each firm's own pricing page, 11 October 2026. Price per hour is the monthly price divided by the hours. The employee row is the BLS annual median of $48,310 divided by 12.
Time etc says its plans come with a "Dedicated U.S. assistant," and Boldly's specialist rate covers "Project Management, web development, blog writing, design and other specialist tasks." MyOutDesk does not say how many hours its starting price covers, so it cannot be compared per hour.
Want to sell the time-saving instead of buying it? The AI Automation Agency walkthrough lays it out step by step.
Why does a virtual assistant cost more per hour than an employee?
Because the hourly price includes everything an employer would otherwise pay for separately. The $23.23 BLS median is a wage. An employer also pays its share of payroll tax, holidays, recruiting and the hours when there is nothing to do. A firm's $36 to $65 an hour covers those and its own margin.
The real saving for a small business is paying only for the hours it uses. Ten hours a month at Time etc is $390. A part-time employee for ten hours a month is hard to find, hard to keep, and still needs payroll.
The comparison flips at full time. 160 hours a month at Boldly's $65 would be $10,400, against about $4,026 for an employee at the median wage before employer costs. That is why Boldly lists its 160-hour plan as "Ask us for pricing," and why full-time help usually ends up as a hire.
What do the monthly plans include?
Time etc's plans are 10, 20, 40 or 60 hours a month, and its 20-hour plan and above let unused hours roll over. Boldly's plans run 40 to 100 hours a month at the same hourly rate, with 160 hours priced on request. Both match you with a named assistant rather than a different person for each task.
Rollover matters more than it looks. A business that buys 20 hours and uses 12 in a quiet month keeps the other 8 on Time etc's larger plans. Without rollover, the effective hourly price rises every month you underuse the plan.
The other thing to check is what counts as a specialist task. Boldly bills design, writing, web development and project management at $79 an hour, $14 more than its standard rate. Most guides quote only the standard rate.
How much should a new virtual assistant charge?
A new US-based assistant can reasonably start at or just below the published firm range, around $30 to $36 an hour, and should not price near the $23.23 employee wage. A freelancer pays the employer's side of payroll tax and has unpaid hours finding clients.
The self-employment tax alone is 15.3%: an employee pays half of it and the employer the other half, while a freelancer pays all of it. Add unpaid hours spent on admin and finding clients, and $23 an hour as a freelancer pays much less than $23 an hour as an employee.
Selling hours in monthly blocks, as the firms do, beats billing by the task. It gives the client a fixed number to budget and gives you predictable income. Our free freelance hourly rate calculator works out the rate you actually need.
Can AI replace a virtual assistant?
For part of the work, yes. Scheduling, inbox sorting, first drafts and data entry are increasingly done by AI tools that cost $20 a month, against $390 for 10 hours of a US assistant. Judgement, phone calls, chasing people and anything that needs trust are still a person's job.
The measured evidence is mixed. A study we covered in is AI cheaper than human labour found AI agents far cheaper per task but worse at the work, and prone to hiding their mistakes. For an assistant, a hidden mistake in a calendar or an invoice costs more than the hour saved.
The practical split is AI for the repetitive, checkable tasks and a person for the rest. That split is also a business: setting up the AI half for small businesses is what an AI automation agency sells.
The honest hard part
The hourly price is the easy comparison. The hard part is that an assistant only saves time once they know how the business works, and the first month of any assistant, human or AI, costs the owner time to explain things.
The second hard part is that prices change and guides lag. Time etc's 10-hour plan is $390 on its pricing page today, while some guides still quote an older, lower price. Always check the firm's own page.
The third is what this page does not cover. Offshore assistants are priced very differently, and many firms quote only after a call. Treat $36 to $65 an hour as the published US part of the market, checked on one day.
