How much does a virtual assistant cost in 2026?

By Veronica Loyal · Updated 13 September 2026 · 8 min read

When people ask me what a virtual assistant costs, they usually want one number. I understand why. But the price of support depends on three things: how much work there is, what kind of work it is, and who is doing it. A tidy inbox and a CRM build are not the same job, and they should not be priced as if they were.

This guide walks through what hiring really costs, how the main options compare, what pushes the price up, and how to size a plan so you are not paying for time you do not use. I use my own prices as the reference point because they are the ones I can state accurately, but the thinking applies whoever you hire.

Start with the real cost of an in-house hire

Salary is the part everyone budgets for. It is rarely the whole cost. On my pricing page I break down what one full-time, US-based hire typically costs across a year:

• Annual salary: $45,000 to $65,000
• Health insurance: $6,000 to $12,000
• Payroll taxes (7.65%): $3,442 to $4,972
• Office space and equipment: $3,000 to $8,000
• Paid time off (15 days): $2,596 to $3,750
• Training and onboarding: $2,000 to $5,000
• Software and tools: $1,200 to $3,000
• Workers' comp insurance: $500 to $1,500

Added together, that is $63,738 to $103,222 a year, or roughly $5,300 to $8,600 a month once you spread it out. That is before the two to four weeks it usually takes to hire and onboard someone, and before the risk that they leave and you pay the whole cost again.

For comparison, a full year on my largest plan, full-time support at the current $1,999 a month, comes to $23,988. A year on the smallest plan, Launch, is $1,308. The gap between the top of the in-house range and a full year of full-time support is $79,234.

That does not make an in-house hire the wrong choice. If the role needs someone physically in your office, or someone who will grow into running a team, hiring may be right. But if what you need is capable help with admin, marketing and systems, it is worth knowing what the alternative costs before you post the job.

Freelancers, agencies and managed partners

Once you decide not to hire in-house, there are three broad ways to buy support. Each is priced differently, and each carries a different kind of risk.

Freelancers from marketplaces

Freelance marketplaces have the widest range of prices and the widest range of quality. You can find excellent people there. You can also spend weeks interviewing, testing and replacing people before you find one who sticks.

The sticker price is often low, but the hidden cost is your own time: writing the job post, screening, training, checking the work, and starting over if someone disappears. Many freelancers also juggle several clients, so availability can change without much warning.

Larger VA agencies

Agencies take the hiring off your hands and can usually replace an assistant who leaves. The trade-off is that you may not know who is doing the work, the person assigned to you can change, and contracts often come with minimum terms. Specialist work such as a website or a CRM build is often sold as an add-on or passed to someone else entirely.

A managed partner

This is the model I run. You get one point of contact who does the work and manages it, with scope agreed in writing, time tracked and visible to you, and the freedom to change plans month to month. It costs more than the cheapest marketplace option and far less than an in-house hire. What you are paying for is consistency, and someone who can cover admin, design, websites and CRM without you coordinating three different people.

What actually drives the price

Scope

The clearer the scope, the more accurate the price. "Help with admin" could mean a few minutes a day or three full days a week. Before you compare quotes, write down the tasks you want gone and how often they come up.

Hours

Most retainers are sold as a block of time each month. Mine run from 5 hours on Launch at $109 a month up to 160 hours on Full-time. A steady monthly plan also tends to be better value than buying the same time in occasional blocks, because the work can be planned rather than squeezed in.

Specialist skills

General admin and specialist work are priced differently almost everywhere. Building a website, setting up CRM pipelines, writing automations or designing a brand system takes skills a general assistant may not have. If you need those, check whether they are included or charged on top.

I cover ongoing upkeep inside retainers, but a build with a clear start and end is quoted as a fixed-price project, so you are not paying a retainer while it is being built. For reference, landing pages start at $450, full websites at $1,500, a CRM build at $900, and a website with a CRM at $2,200.

Response times and management

Faster turnaround and a dedicated project manager cost more, because capacity has to be held back for you. Decide whether you truly need same-day responses, or whether a 48-hour turnaround is fine for most requests.

The hidden costs nobody quotes

• Training time. Every new assistant has to learn your tools, your clients and your preferences. If you pay for that learning twice because someone leaves, the cheap option gets expensive.
• Turnover. Replacing someone means repeating the hiring, the onboarding and the early mistakes. Ask how continuity is handled before you start.
• Management time. An assistant who needs step-by-step instructions for every task saves you less than you think. Count the time you will spend writing briefs and checking work.
• Tools and licences. Find out who pays for software, and whose name each account sits in.
• Undocumented work. If a process only lives in one person's head, it leaves with them. Documentation should be part of the job, not an extra.

How to choose the right plan size

The easiest way to size support is to map your tasks to hours per month. It does not take long, and it stops you guessing.

1. List every recurring task you want to hand off in one normal month. Include the small ones.
2. Note how often each one happens: daily, weekly or monthly.
3. Estimate how long each takes you now, then multiply by how often it happens to get a monthly figure.
4. Add a buffer for one-off requests and for the first few weeks, when there is more learning.
5. Match the total to a plan, then review it after the first month.

Here is an example for a service business owner. The figures are illustrative, so use your own:

• Inbox triage and calendar management: 8 hours a month
• Social media scheduling and graphics: 6 hours a month
• Lead follow-up and CRM updates: 6 hours a month
• Website updates and small fixes: 3 hours a month
• Invoices and document prep: 2 hours a month

That comes to 25 hours, which lines up with the Professional plan at $469 a month. If your list comes to around 10 hours, Basic at $209 fits. If it is closer to 50, Enterprise at $885 covers roughly three days a week.

For quick reference, here is how my monthly plans are sized:

• Launch: $109 a month, 5 hours
• Basic: $209 a month, 10 hours
• Professional: $469 a month, 25 hours
• Enterprise: $885 a month, 50 hours
• Scale: $1,359 a month, 80 hours
• Full-time: $1,999 a month for new clients starting before 30 September 2026 (normally $2,439), 160 hours

If you are unsure, start smaller. It is easier to move up once you trust the work than to pay for capacity you are not ready to use. And if you are consistently under your hours, a good partner should suggest moving you down a plan rather than keep taking the money.

Red flags to watch for

• No written scope. If nobody writes down what is included, you will end up disagreeing about it later.
• Long lock-in contracts. A provider who is confident in their work does not need to tie you in for a year.
• No visibility into time. You should be able to see what was done and how long it took.
• Accounts in their name. Your domain, CRM, social accounts and files should belong to you from day one.
• Asking for your passwords by email. A professional asks for their own user access with the right permissions instead.
• Prices that look too good. Very low prices usually mean the cost shows up somewhere else: in turnover, rework or your own time.
• No way to try before committing. A short paid trial is the fairest way for both sides to find out whether it works.
• Big results claims with nothing to show. Ask to see real work and to speak to a reference.

How I can help

If you want to see what support would cost for your business, my pricing page lists every plan and fixed-price project with nothing hidden. Plans run month to month with no lock-in, and most people start with a paid trial week at $109 so they can see the standard of work before choosing a plan. If you would rather talk it through, send me your task list and I will tell you honestly which plan fits, even if the answer is the smallest one.