How Much Does a Virtual Assistant Cost in 2026?

Virtual assistant rates in 2026 run anywhere from $4 to $50 per hour, which makes "how much does a VA cost" a useless question until you pin down region, specialization and engagement model. Here are the real numbers, plus example monthly budgets you can plan around.

Rates by region

Where your VA lives is the biggest price driver, far bigger than skill differences at the same experience level:

• United States and Canada: $25 to $50 per hour.
• UK and Western Europe: $20 to $45 per hour.
• Philippines: $5 to $12 per hour, the longest established offshore VA market.
• Africa: $4 to $15 per hour, with strong English, growing fast out of Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa.
• Latin America: $6 to $15 per hour, popular with US companies for timezone overlap.

African VAs deserve a specific note for European founders: the timezone overlap is near total, so you get same day collaboration at offshore rates.

Rates by specialization

Within a region, what the VA does moves the price. Using African rates as the reference: general admin work like inbox, calendar and data entry runs $4 to $8 per hour. Ecommerce support, think Shopify listings, order management and returns, runs $6 to $12. Social media scheduling and community management sits around $6 to $12. Executive level support, where the assistant manages your calendar proactively and handles judgment calls, commands $8 to $15.

Specialized skills stack. A VA who knows your ecommerce stack and writes clean customer emails in fluent English earns the top of the band and is worth it.

Hourly versus retainer

Hourly billing suits the first month, when you are still learning how much work you actually have. After that, most founders switch to a monthly retainer: a fixed block of 40, 80 or 160 hours at a 10 to 20 percent lower effective rate, with priority on your work. Retainers also change the relationship, because the VA plans their week around you instead of squeezing you between other clients.

The hidden cost of not delegating

Run the math on your own hours. If your time is worth $100 per hour to the business, and most founders' time is worth more, then every hour you spend on $6 per hour work destroys $94 of value. Fifteen hours a week of admin, support tickets and scheduling is roughly $1,400 per week of founder attention spent on work someone else could do better. That is the number to compare VA costs against, not zero.

Three real monthly budgets

Starter: 10 hours per week with an African VA at $6 per hour comes to about $260 per month. Covers inbox triage, calendar management and basic admin. This is where most solo founders should begin.

Growth: 20 hours per week at $8 per hour is about $690 per month. Add customer support, ecommerce operations or social media on top of admin.

Full time support: 40 hours per week at $10 per hour is roughly $1,730 per month for dedicated, experienced help across everything above. The same full time coverage from a US VA runs $4,300 to $8,600 per month, so the savings sit comfortably in the 40 to 60 percent range and often beyond.

What moves a VA's price beyond region

Four things justify the top of any rate band: years of experience with founders like you, written English quality, tool fluency with your stack (Notion, Shopify, HubSpot, Slack), and timezone overlap with your working day. Pay for the ones that matter to your business and skip the ones that do not.

The most expensive assistant is the one you never hire.

Hire a VA through DevDey

DevDey connects you with vetted virtual assistants with verified reviews, direct payments and no agency markup between you and your hire. Browse VA profiles with transparent rates or post a job for free. For the full hiring process, read Hiring a Virtual Assistant: The Complete Guide for Founders.