Virtual Assistant Rates 2026: Hourly Pricing and Retainers

Quick answer: Virtual assistant rates in 2026 should start from your floor: target income plus business costs plus self-employment tax, divided by realistic billable hours. For many US-based general VAs that works out at roughly $35 to $50 an hour, with specialists charging more. Most VAs sell monthly retainers of 10 to 40 hours, priced slightly below their ad hoc rate, with overage billed at the full rate.

This guide shows how to set virtual assistant rates that pay your bills and still win clients: how to calculate a VA hourly rate, how to build retainer packages, how to price specialist tasks, and a worked example with a real invoice. When you are ready to bill, our free invoice generator turns your rate into a professional PDF, and the virtual assistant invoice template guide covers what each invoice should include.

Virtual assistant rates in 2026: the benchmarks

Virtual assistance is a freelance version of administrative and executive support, so the closest official benchmark is employee wage data. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook for secretaries and administrative assistants reports a median of $48,310 a year, or $23.23 an hour, for all secretaries and administrative assistants as of May 2025. Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants had a higher median of $76,590 a year, which works out at about $36.82 an hour over a 2,080-hour year.

Those are employee wages. An employer also pays half of payroll taxes, provides the computer and software, pays for holidays and sick days, and fills the working week. As a freelance VA you cover all of that yourself and you will not bill every hour you work, because finding clients, onboarding, admin and invoicing are unpaid. That is why freelance VA hourly rates usually sit well above the employee median.

Freelance VA vs a part-time employee: what the client compares

When a client weighs your rate, they are often comparing it with hiring someone part-time. It helps to understand that comparison. An employer pays the wage plus its own share of Social Security and Medicare, which is 7.65% (half of the 15.3% a self-employed person pays), and usually also covers a computer, software licences, paid leave, recruiting time and the cost of managing payroll. An employee also has to be paid for a fixed schedule whether or not there is work that week.

A VA on a 20-hour retainer at $45 an hour costs the client $900 a month with none of those extras, and the client can scale up or down with a month's notice. That flexibility is your strongest argument when a client says your hourly rate looks high next to a local wage. Talk about the total cost and the flexibility, not just the hourly figure.

What drives a VA's rate

• Skill level: data entry and scheduling sit at the lower end; executive support, project management and bookkeeping support sit higher.
• Tools you master: CRMs, automation platforms, e-commerce back ends and accounting software make you harder to replace.
• Availability: guaranteed response times or overlapping office hours with another time zone are worth paying for.
• Location and market: VAs in lower-cost countries often charge less, so US and UK VAs compete on communication, reliability and specialism rather than price.
• Where you find work: marketplace fees cut your take-home pay, so platform rates need a buffer.

VA rates by service type

Many VAs keep one base hourly rate for general admin and add a premium for specialist work. The table below uses a $45 base rate as an example; the multipliers are a simple way to keep your pricing consistent.

Service	Typical pricing model	Premium on base	Example rate
General admin, inbox, calendar	Hourly or retainer	None	$45/hour
Customer support and e-commerce admin	Retainer	None to 10%	$45 to $49.50/hour
Social media scheduling	Monthly package	10%	$49.50/hour
Bookkeeping support (data entry, receipts)	Hourly or monthly	20%	$54/hour
Executive or project management support	Retainer	25% to 35%	$56.25 to $60.75/hour
Tech VA: automations, website updates	Per project or hourly	30% to 50%	$58.50 to $67.50/hour

If social media becomes a big part of your work, compare these numbers with our sibling guide to social media management pricing, which uses monthly packages rather than hours. Bookkeeping-heavy VAs should also read how much bookkeepers charge.

How to calculate your VA hourly rate

Your hourly rate is the minimum that keeps your business viable. Even if you sell retainers or fixed-price projects, you need this number to check each offer. Our full guide on how to set freelance rates goes deeper; here is the short version.

1. Set a target income for the year before tax.
2. Add business costs: laptop and phone, internet, software subscriptions, a password manager, training, insurance and accounting.
3. Add self-employment tax. In the US, the IRS self-employment tax rate is 15.3%, covering Social Security and Medicare.
4. Estimate billable hours: many full-time VAs bill 20 to 30 hours a week once admin, marketing and gaps between clients are counted.
5. Divide and round up to a clean number. That is your floor.

Worked example: a VA rate and a retainer invoice

This example follows a US-based general VA. The figures are illustrative and the arithmetic adds up, so you can swap in your own.

Step 1: the floor rate

• Target income: $45,000
• Business costs: $3,500 a year
• Self-employment tax set-aside: 15.3% x $45,000 = $6,885 (slightly conservative, because the IRS applies it to 92.35% of net earnings)
• Revenue needed: $45,000 + $3,500 + $6,885 = $55,385
• Billable hours: 48 weeks x 25 hours = 1,200 hours
• Floor rate: $55,385 / 1,200 = $46.15 an hour

The VA sets an ad hoc rate of $50 an hour, and a retainer rate of $45 an hour for clients who commit to 20 or more hours a month. The retainer rate sits slightly under the floor on paper, but retainers fill the calendar with guaranteed hours, so the VA can bill closer to 28 hours a week instead of 25. At 28 hours x 48 weeks x $45, annual revenue is $60,480, comfortably above the $55,385 needed.

Step 2: the monthly invoice

The client has a 20-hour monthly retainer billed in advance. Last month they used 23 hours, so 3 overage hours go on this month's invoice.

Line	Qty	Rate	Amount
VA retainer, November (20 hours)	20	$45.00	$900.00
Overage hours, October (see timesheet)	3	$50.00	$150.00
Tax		0%	$0.00
Total due			$1,050.00

Add a short note: "Retainer hours expire at month end. Overage billed at $50/hour in arrears. Payment due within 7 days." Our guide to retainer invoices explains rollover rules and how to word them, and a simple timesheet template keeps the overage line easy to check.

Building VA retainer packages

Retainers are the most popular way to sell virtual assistant services because they suit both sides. The client gets a reserved slice of your week; you get predictable income and fewer invoices. A three-tier ladder is easy for clients to compare.

Package	Hours a month	Rate	Monthly price	Response time
Starter	10	$48	$480	Within 1 business day
Core	20	$45	$900	Same business day
Partner	40	$43	$1,720	Within 4 business hours

Retainer rules to agree upfront

• Rollover: hours expire, roll over for one month only, or roll over up to a cap.
• Overage: charged at your ad hoc rate, and only after you flag that the client is near the limit.
• Billing date: in advance on the first of the month, with overage in arrears.
• Notice period: 30 days to cancel or change tier.
• Scope: list the kinds of task included. New types of work get a quote first, which protects you from scope creep.

Monthly retainers are easiest to manage with recurring invoices, so each client is billed on the same day every month.

Hourly vs retainer vs per-task: which model to use

Model	Best for	Pros	Watch out for
Hourly	New clients, unpredictable work	Simple, low risk for you	Income rises and falls with workload
Retainer	Ongoing support	Predictable income, reserved time	Clients who underuse then cancel
Per task or project	Repeatable jobs you do quickly	Rewards efficiency	Underestimating time on unfamiliar tasks

Many VAs start new clients on hourly billing for the first month to learn how they work, then propose a retainer sized to actual usage. If a client keeps asking for a specific project, such as setting up an online store or migrating a CRM, quote it as a fixed price with a clear scope. Our hourly invoicing guide covers the timesheet side in more detail.

Turning tasks into fixed prices

Fixed prices work best for tasks you have done many times. Time the task twice, take the longer figure, multiply by your ad hoc rate and round. For example, if setting up a monthly email newsletter template takes you 6 hours, a fixed price of 6 x $50 = $300 is fair. Sending each issue afterwards might take 3 hours, so $150 per issue. As you get faster, the fixed price stays the same and your effective hourly rate rises, which is exactly why per-task pricing rewards experience.

Keep a simple price list for these repeatable tasks: inbox clean-up, CRM import, travel booking for a trip, podcast show notes, or a monthly expense report. Clients like knowing the cost before they ask, and you spend less time quoting.

Sizing a retainer for a new client

Do not guess a client's retainer size on the first call. Bill hourly for the first four weeks, track every task, then propose the tier closest to their actual usage. If they used 17 hours, offer the 20-hour tier; if they used 26, suggest 20 hours plus overage or the next tier up, and let them choose. Basing the retainer on real data avoids the two most common problems: clients paying for hours they never use, and VAs giving away unpaid hours to stay within a package that was too small.

Platform fees and international clients

Many VAs find early clients on marketplaces. These platforms take a service fee from your earnings, and some add withdrawal or currency conversion costs. Upwork, for example, shows the freelancer fee for each contract before you send a proposal, so check it every time. Our breakdown of Upwork fees shows how to work out your take-home pay, and the same approach works on other marketplaces.

To protect your floor on a platform, divide your target rate by one minus the fee. If you need $45 an hour and the platform keeps 10%, you need to bill $45 / 0.90 = $50 an hour. For direct international clients, agree the currency in writing and compare transfer costs before you quote. If you are outside the US and work for US clients, our guide to the W-8BEN form for freelancers explains the paperwork clients may ask for.

Quoting in another currency

When a client pays in a currency other than the one you spend, exchange rates and transfer fees quietly eat into your rate. Two simple protections help. First, quote in your own currency where the client accepts it, so the conversion cost sits with them. Second, if you must quote in the client's currency, add a small buffer for conversion costs and review the rate every quarter rather than once a year. Either way, write the currency code next to every amount on the invoice, such as USD or GBP, so there is no doubt about what is owed.

How to raise your VA rates

Raise rates for new clients first, then move existing clients across with 30 to 60 days' notice. Good triggers include adding a specialist skill, hitting full capacity, or a client asking you to take on more strategic work. If you are just starting out, our sibling guide on how to become a virtual assistant covers finding first clients, and our guide to negotiating freelance rates has scripts for rate conversations. Keep the message simple: new rate, effective date, what stays the same.

Common VA pricing mistakes

• Pricing below your floor to win the first client, then struggling to raise it later.
• Unlimited retainers with no hour cap, which turn into a full-time job at part-time pay.
• Not tracking time on retainers, so you cannot prove overage.
• Absorbing tool costs: if a client needs a paid tool just for their work, ask them to pay for it directly or rebill it.
• Long payment terms: monthly retainers should be paid in advance, not 30 days after the work.

This guide is general information, not tax or legal advice. Check your local tax rules and platform terms before relying on any figure.

Create your virtual assistant invoice

Clear virtual assistant rates come from a known floor, a simple retainer ladder and firm rules on overage and rollover. Once a client signs on, bill the first month in advance the same day. Use our free invoice generator to add your retainer, any overage hours and your payment terms, and number it with the invoice number generator so every month follows the same sequence. It is free, needs no account, and exports a print-ready PDF invoice.