Prices checked October 7, 2026
How Much Does a Virtual Assistant Cost?It Depends Where They Work.
About $6.50 to $15 an hour at the offshore agencies we checked, about $36 to $65 an hour at the U.S.-based agencies we checked, and whatever you negotiate on a marketplace. Those are the providers’ own published prices. The cost that’s easy to leave out is your own time to train and manage the VA, so we count that too.
Jump to: Prices by type GoHighLevel VAs The hidden cost The phone part Using both Where Lexi fits
Prices by Where the VA Works
Four Ways to Get a VA, Four Price Ranges.
The offshore agencies we checked list about $6.50 to $15 an hour, with full-time plans from about $1,040 to $1,988 a month. The U.S.-based agencies we checked list about $36 to $65 an hour. Upwork says $10 to $20 an hour is typical. What you get for the money differs too: an agency recruits and handles payroll, a marketplace leaves the vetting to you, and a U.S. agency sells hours in monthly blocks.
U.S.-Based Agency
About $36–$65 an hour, sold in monthly blocks of hours. U.S. time zones, U.S. workers, and the agency handles hiring.
Offshore Agency
About $6.50–$15 an hour, often full-time from $1,040–$1,988 a month. The agency recruits, vets, and handles payroll and HR.
Marketplace
Rates you negotiate. Upwork says $10–$20 an hour is typical for VAs; OnlineJobs.ph charges you $69–$99 a month to hire. The vetting is yours.
In-House U.S. Hire
$48,310 a year median wage for administrative assistants (May 2025, BLS), about $70,358 with benefits by our estimate.
| Provider (own page) | Where the VA works | Price shown | Works out to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time etc | U.S. (“100% U.S. based”) | $390/mo for 10 hrs · $760 for 20 · $1,480 for 40 · $2,160 for 60 | $36–$39/hr (stated) |
| Boldly | U.S. (W2 employees) | $2,600/mo for 40 hrs up to $6,500 for 100; specialist work $79/hr | About $65/hr (our math) |
| BELAY | U.S. | Flat monthly fee, amount not listed | By consultation |
| VA Masters | Philippines | $6.50–$15/hr · $1,040–$2,400/mo full-time | $6.50–$15/hr (stated) |
| Stealth Agents | Philippines | $1,600/mo VA · $2,400 senior EA · $3,000 ops/project manager; one-time onboarding fee; 3-month commitment | About $10/hr at 160 hrs (our math) |
| MyOutDesk | Philippines, Latin America, Africa | From $1,988/mo full-time; specialized from $2,500 | About $11.47/hr at 40 hrs/week (our math) |
| Upwork | Worldwide marketplace | Typically $10–$20/hr; median $13 | You negotiate |
| OnlineJobs.ph | Philippines marketplace | $69/mo Pro or $99/mo Premium to hire; pay negotiated with the worker | Subscription + the pay you agree |
| In-house (BLS) | U.S. employee | $48,310/yr median wage, $23.23/hr (May 2025) | About $70,358/yr with benefits (our estimate) |
Every price above is from the provider’s own page, checked October 7, 2026, monthly billing; “our math” means we divided the monthly price by the hours, and the provider doesn’t state that rate. Sources: Time etc pricing (U.S.-based; no setup fee); Boldly pricing (40-hour monthly minimum per assistant; 2.9% card fee) and Boldly (“US-based, Boldly W2 employees”); BELAY Virtual Assistants (U.S.-based, flat monthly pricing, no amount listed); VA Masters (no upfront payment; a refundable deposit once you choose a candidate); Stealth Agents pricing (one-time onboarding fee, amount not listed; 3-month commitment); MyOutDesk pricing (“starting at” prices, full-time); Upwork VA cost (rates from historical contracts worldwide, negotiable); OnlineJobs.ph pricing; BLS, Secretaries and Administrative Assistants; in-house estimate scales the BLS median by the BLS ratio of total employer cost to wages for private-industry office and administrative support workers ($36.73 to $25.22 per hour worked, June 2026). Prices change; check each site before you buy.
GoHighLevel VAs
A GoHighLevel VA: One Guide’s Numbers.
One guide, DDIY, puts a GoHighLevel VA at about $600 to $1,800 a month, or $10 to $25 an hour. Those are that site’s estimates, not a price list. A GHL VA often builds workflows, funnels and pages, which Lexi doesn’t do; Lexi works inside your GoHighLevel CRM, answering, booking and following up.
| Region (DDIY’s figures) | Hourly | Full-time a month |
|---|---|---|
| Philippines | $6–$12 | $600–$1,000 |
| Latin America | $8–$15 | $700–$1,500 |
| Eastern Europe | $12–$25 | $1,200–$2,000 |
| U.S., Canada, U.K. | $30–$60+ | $2,500–$5,000+ |
What a GHL VA Often Does
Builds and edits workflows, funnels and pages, sets up pipelines and automations, and keeps the account tidy. Lexi doesn’t build any of those; that work stays with you or your VA.
What Lexi Does in GHL
Works inside your GoHighLevel CRM: answers calls, books appointments, follows up with leads who reached out, and keeps contacts and notes current.
How Lexi Connects
She plugs into your existing GHL account with a Private Integration token and your Location ID, or comes with a free GoHighLevel sub-account set up for you.
Figures from DDIY, “How Much Does a GoHighLevel Virtual Assistant Cost?” (last modified February 9, 2026; checked October 7, 2026). They are that site’s estimates, not offers from any provider. How Lexi works inside GoHighLevel: AI for GoHighLevel.
The Phone Part of the Job
Compare Lexi to the Hours Your VA Spends on Phones.
Lexi doesn’t replace a VA’s whole job, so the fair comparison is only the phone and follow-up part. In our own example, a VA who spends 10 of 40 hours a week on calls and lead follow-up costs about $400–$497 a month for that slice, inside a shift; Lexi runs about $368 a month for that part and answers 24/7. If those VA hours are mostly talk time, Lexi’s usage is higher: every 100 call minutes adds $15.
| VA: 10 of 40 hours on phones | Lexi (our example volume) | |
|---|---|---|
| That slice costs | About $400–$497/mo (a quarter of a $1,600–$1,988 full-time VA) | About $368/mo ($299 + about $69 usage) |
| Hours answering | About 43 hours a month, inside the VA’s shift | 24/7, nights and weekends included |
| The other 30 hours a week | Bookkeeping, research, GHL builds, social posting and more | Not her job: she doesn’t do those tasks |
How we got these numbers: a quarter of the full-time prices listed by Stealth Agents ($1,600/mo) and MyOutDesk ($1,988/mo), checked October 7, 2026. Lexi is $299/month plus usage at 400 call minutes and 300 text segments a month, our own example volume; more calls mean more usage, and the one-time $100 setup fee is extra. A full-time shift covers about 40 of the 168 hours in a week. A VA is a remote general helper; a live answering service is something else: virtual receptionist vs. AI receptionist.
VA and Lexi
Each One Does a Different Job.
A VA is a person who can do many jobs Lexi can’t: bookkeeping, research, GoHighLevel builds, social posting. Lexi takes the phones and the follow-up, 24/7. Using both is a real option: Lexi answers and follows up, and your VA gets those hours back for the work only a person can do.
A Virtual Assistant
About $6.50–$65/hr, depending on where they work
- Bookkeeping, research, and data entry beyond the CRM
- Travel and calendar management for you
- Building and editing GoHighLevel workflows, funnels and websites
- Social media posting and graphics
- Customer-service email and cold calling
- Covers a shift: about 40 of 168 hours a week full-time
- Training and managing take your time (true of any hire)
Lexi (AI)
$299/mo founder pricing · + usage
- Answers every call 24/7 and says she’s an AI
- Books, moves and cancels appointments
- Follows up with every lead who reached out
- Writes and sends email and text campaigns; writes social posts for you to post
- Keeps your GoHighLevel CRM current; sends you a morning briefing
- None of the VA tasks on the left; she isn’t an outbound caller
- English only; doesn’t make up prices (a real quote needs you)
You Need Many Jobs Done
Hire a VA. Research, bookkeeping, GHL builds, posting: that’s a person’s work. Hire a VA or use AI?
Your VA Lives on the Phone
Use both. Let Lexi take the calls and lead follow-up 24/7, and give your VA those hours back for the work only a person can do.
It’s Mostly Phones and Follow-Up
Lexi may cover it on her own, and you take the calls that need you.
You Need Someone On-Site
Hire in-house. Neither a VA nor Lexi greets walk-ins. Hire a receptionist or use AI.
The VA tasks listed are common jobs VAs take on; what any one VA does depends on their skills and your agreement. Weighing a VA against AI in more depth: virtual assistant for small business.
Where Lexi Fits
If You’ve Trained a VA, You Can Train Lexi.
Train Lexi the way you’d train a new employee: upload your SOPs and anything you’d hand a new hire, and give her only the access you’d be comfortable giving a new employee. She follows the same instructions on every call, at 2 AM the same as 2 PM, and when she doesn’t know, she takes a message rather than guessing.
Lexi Isn’t a VA
She doesn’t do bookkeeping, research, GHL builds or social posting. If that’s the job, hire a person.
Lexi Isn’t a Cold Caller
She answers the people who reach out and follows up with them. She doesn’t cold-call or cold-text prospect lists.
Where Lexi Wins
The phones and the follow-through, around the clock: booking, follow-up with every lead, campaigns, a current CRM, and a morning briefing.
What Lexi does: answers every call 24/7, says she’s an AI and that the call may be recorded, books, moves and cancels appointments, takes a message rather than guessing, follows up with every lead who reached out, writes and sends email and text campaigns, writes social posts for you to post, keeps your GoHighLevel CRM current, and sends you a morning briefing. She can transfer a caller to you live once transfer is set up, and for urgent calls she texts, emails, or calls you right away and flags it in your portal. She doesn’t make up prices; a real quote needs you.
$299 a month at founder pricing, locked for life, plus a one-time $100 setup fee and usage (calls $0.15/min, texts 3¢ a segment, email $0.002). Texting registration and a GoHighLevel CRM are included. The public price is $997/month. No contract, cancel any time.
Free 6-minute demo. No card. No sales call.
Common Questions
Virtual Assistant Cost: Your Questions
On the providers’ own pages, checked October 7, 2026, a virtual assistant costs about $6.50 to $15 an hour at the offshore agencies we checked and about $36 to $65 an hour at the U.S.-based agencies we checked. Full-time offshore agency plans start at $1,040 to $2,400 a month (VA Masters), $1,600 (Stealth Agents) and $1,988 (MyOutDesk). U.S.-based Time etc starts at $390 a month for 10 hours, and Boldly at $2,600 a month for 40 hours. On Upwork, VA rates typically run $10 to $20 an hour, with a median of $13. Prices change, so check each site before you buy.
Through agencies that recruit in the Philippines, full-time plans on their own pages start around $1,040 to $1,600 a month, checked October 7, 2026. VA Masters lists $6.50 to $15 an hour, or $1,040 to $2,400 a month for 40 hours a week. Stealth Agents lists $1,600 a month for a full-time VA, plus a one-time onboarding fee and a 3-month commitment. MyOutDesk, which recruits in the Philippines, Latin America and Africa, starts at $1,988 a month. Hiring directly, for example through OnlineJobs.ph, you pay a $69 or $99 monthly subscription and negotiate pay with the worker yourself.
U.S.-based agencies we checked charge about $36 to $65 an hour, sold in monthly blocks of hours. Time etc, whose assistants are U.S.-based, charges $390 a month for 10 hours up to $2,160 for 60 hours ($39 to $36 an hour). Boldly, whose assistants are U.S.-based W2 employees, charges $2,600 a month for 40 hours up to $6,500 for 100, about $65 an hour by our math. BELAY offers U.S.-based assistants at a flat monthly fee but doesn’t list the amount on its site.
Upwork says VA rates typically run $10 to $20 an hour, with a median of $13; OnlineJobs.ph charges employers $69 or $99 a month to hire and contact workers. Upwork’s own page notes rates are negotiable and based on historical contracts worldwide. Its own table for experienced North American freelancers (over 1,000 hours, 90% success) shows $12 to $20+ an hour for admin and data entry, $20 to $35+ for marketing, customer service and accounting support, and $38 to $50+ for advanced VAs and executive assistants. On OnlineJobs.ph, the free plan doesn’t let you hire or message workers, and the site says it adds no salary markup: what you pay the VA is what you negotiate with them. With a marketplace, the finding, vetting and managing are yours.
One guide, DDIY, puts a GoHighLevel VA at about $600 to $1,800 a month, or $10 to $25 an hour. Those are that site’s estimates, not a price list. It gives $6 to $12 an hour for the Philippines and $30 to $60 or more for the U.S., Canada and the U.K. A GoHighLevel VA often builds workflows, funnels and pages; Lexi doesn’t build those. She works inside your GoHighLevel CRM: answering, booking, following up and keeping records current.
The biggest one is your own time to train and manage them. The BLS says secretaries and administrative assistants typically learn on the job in training that lasts a few weeks. In our own example, not a vendor figure, 5 hours a week in the first month and 2 hours a week after that is 116 hours a year, about $5,800 if your hour is worth $50. Also check the fine print: Stealth Agents lists a one-time onboarding fee, Boldly adds 2.9% for card payments, and OnlineJobs.ph charges a monthly subscription.
On the prices we checked, yes: a full-time offshore agency VA runs about $12,480 to $28,800 a year, against about $70,358 all-in for a U.S. administrative assistant by our estimate. The in-house figure is the BLS median wage for secretaries and administrative assistants, $48,310 a year (May 2025), scaled by the BLS ratio of total employer cost to wages. A U.S.-based agency VA costs more per hour but you buy only the hours you need. Either way, you still train and manage them.
Not the whole job. An AI like Lexi can take the phones and lead follow-up; a VA does many jobs Lexi doesn’t. Lexi answers every call 24/7, books appointments, and follows up with every lead who reached out. A VA can do bookkeeping, research, travel and calendar management for you, data entry, GoHighLevel builds, social media posting, graphics, customer-service email, and cold calling. Lexi isn’t an outbound caller. Using both is a real option.
Yes. Train Lexi the way you’d train a new employee: upload your SOPs and anything you’d hand a new hire, and give her only the access you’d be comfortable giving a new employee. The documents you wrote for your VA are the same kind of thing she needs. She follows the same instructions on every call, at 2 AM the same as 2 PM, and when she doesn’t know, she takes a message rather than guessing.
Lexi costs $299 a month at founder pricing, locked for life, plus a one-time $100 setup fee and usage. Usage: calls $0.15 per minute, texts 3 cents per segment (about 160 characters), and email $0.002 per email. Texting registration and a GoHighLevel CRM are included. The public price is $997 a month. No contract, and Lexi is available to U.S. businesses only.
Before You Budget for Phone Hours, Make One Call.
Talk to Lexi for six minutes. Play one of your own customers and try to book an appointment, then decide whether you need a VA, Lexi, or both.
Talk to Lexi Now →No card. No sales call. U.S. businesses only.