How to Price Virtual Assistant Services
Set a VA hourly floor from your target income divided by realistically billable hours — around 1,000 a year, not 2,000 — then sell prepaid blocks of 10, 20, or 40 hours a month billed in advance rather than loose hourly work. Specialist work prices well above general admin, and rush or out-of-hours carries a 1.25–1.5× uplift. ShowTheReceipts bills the recurring block and tracks the overage line.
Find the floor before quoting anything
- Target income + business costs + tax set-aside
- Divide by ~1,000 billable hours a year — admin, client-hunting, and unpaid comms take the rest
- That’s the floor. Your rate sits above it, never on it.
Dividing by 2,000 hours is the single most common way a VA prices themselves into a break-even year.
Rate reference points
| Work | Common solo range |
|---|---|
| General admin, inbox, calendar | $25–$45 / hr |
| Specialist (bookkeeping support, email marketing, exec support) | $50–$85 / hr |
| Rush / out-of-hours | 1.25–1.5× base |
| 20-hour monthly block | Base rate × 20, in advance |
Blocks beat hourly
A prepaid block is capacity you reserved. Bill 10, 20, or 40 hours in advance, don’t roll unused hours forward past a month, and bill overage at your hourly rate.
Loose hourly work makes every quiet week your problem. A retainer makes it the client’s decision.
Price the specialism, not the average
Clients bring the cheap task first and the valuable one three months later. Put specialist work on its own line at its own rate the day it appears, or your blended rate drifts down to your lowest-value task.
What not to do
- Don’t divide by 2,000 hours
- Don’t stay loose-hourly once the work is steady
- Don’t do specialist work at your admin rate
- Don’t absorb evenings and weekends into the base rate
Frequently asked questions
How much should a virtual assistant charge per hour?
General admin commonly runs $25–$45 an hour for solo VAs, while specialist work — bookkeeping support, email marketing, podcast production, executive support — runs $50–$85. Build yours from target income plus costs and tax divided by about 1,000 billable hours a year.
Why sell hour blocks instead of hourly?
Because hourly means re-selling yourself every month and eating the quiet weeks. A prepaid 20-hour block billed in advance books the capacity, gets paid before the work starts, and turns an unpredictable income into a floor you can plan on.
Should I charge more for specialist tasks?
Yes, on their own line. A client who hires you at an admin rate and then hands you their email platform, ad reporting, and books is buying a different service. Price the specialism separately or your average rate quietly collapses toward your cheapest task.
How do I raise my rate with an existing client?
30 days' notice, applied at the next retainer renewal rather than mid-block, in 10–20% steps. Anchor it to what the scope has become — 'this started as inbox and calendar and now includes reporting and invoicing' — which is a fact, not a request.