How much does a Filipino virtual assistant cost in 2026? The honest answer

Every week someone asks me for a "good VA at $3 an hour."

I get why. You've seen the posts. Someone in a Facebook group swears they found a rockstar for $500 a month. So you go looking, and three months later you're back doing the work yourself and telling people VAs don't work.

VAs work. Cheap VAs usually don't. Here's what the market actually looks like, and why the lowest number is almost never the lowest cost.

What Filipino VAs earn

Start with the local market. Indeed Philippines puts the average monthly salary for a virtual assistant at ₱27,457, from about 1,100 reported salaries, with a typical range of ₱14,365 to ₱52,481 a month (Indeed, updated October 2026). In Makati, the average is ₱38,096.

That's less than $500 a month at the average.

Now compare that with hiring the same role at home. In the US, the median pay for secretaries and administrative assistants is $48,310 a year. For executive assistants it's $76,590 (BLS, May 2025). That's before benefits, payroll tax, a desk and a laptop.

So yes, the gap is real. That's why you're here. But the local average isn't what you'll pay, and it isn't what you should want to pay.

Why you'll pay more than the local average

The Indeed number is mostly local jobs. Local hours, local clients, a local manager down the hall. Your VA is doing something different:

• Working your hours. If you're in the US, that's a night shift in Manila. Every night. Good people who'll hold that schedule for years are rare and they know their value.
• Writing to your clients. Emails, DMs, proposals, in a voice your customers can't tell apart from yours.
• Using your stack. HubSpot, Shopify, GoHighLevel, Meta Ads Manager, whatever you run on. Someone who already knows it saves you weeks.
• Working without a manager in the room. Nobody is checking on them at 2 AM. They need to be the kind of person who doesn't need checking.

That combination costs more than the local average. It should.

The $3-an-hour VA

Let's talk about the number everyone's chasing.

Full-time is roughly 176 hours a month. At $3 an hour, that's $528. Close to the local average, for someone working nights, in English, for a foreign client, with no benefits.

So who takes that deal? Mostly two kinds of people:

1. Genuine beginners. Some will be great in a year. Right now they need training, clear instructions and someone checking their work. That someone is you.
2. People juggling four other clients. The rate is low because you're getting a slice of their day. Your "full-time" VA is full-time for someone else too.

Neither is a bad person. But neither is what you thought you were buying.

If you're paying far below the market, ask yourself who else that VA is working for. You probably won't like the answer.

What actually moves the price

• The role. Admin and data entry sit at the low end. Anything tied to revenue (sales, paid ads, automation, GoHighLevel builds) sits at the top, because fewer people can actually do it.
• Experience. The biggest lever. A senior EA who's run a CEO's calendar before is a different hire from a fresh graduate.
• Hours. Night shift and overlap with your timezone cost more. Part-time hourly rates are often a little higher too, because the VA is giving up hours they could sell elsewhere.
• Tools. Knowing your exact stack is worth paying for.

The three ways to hire

Freelance marketplaces. Quick to start, good for one-off projects. The platform takes fees on both sides, and freelancers price their share into the rate. You do all the vetting yourself, from profiles that all look the same.

Hiring directly. The cheapest per hour. Also the most work. You write the post, read the applications, run the interviews, sort out payments, do the training and manage the person. When they leave, you do it all again.

A managed team. You get a Specialist who's already vetted and trained, backed by a team that checks in and reassigns if it doesn't work out. More per hour than hiring directly. What you're buying is your time back and someone else carrying the risk.

The costs nobody puts in the quote

This is where "cheap" turns expensive.

• Your time. Job post, applications, interviews, test tasks, then weeks of training. Put your own hourly rate on that. For most founders it's the biggest cost of the whole hire.
• Turnover. Gallup estimates that replacing an employee costs one-half to two times their annual pay (Gallup). That's US employees, but the logic carries. Every time a VA leaves, you pay to recruit and train again, and everything they knew about your business walks out with them.
• The 13th month. Philippine law requires employers to pay rank-and-file employees a 13th month pay, one-twelfth of the year's basic salary, by December 24 (PD 851). It's for employees, not contractors, but most Filipino VAs still expect something in December. Budget for it or be upfront that you don't pay it.
• Payment fees. Every transfer service takes a cut, and some take a lot more than others. Check before you pick one.
• Tools and seats. Your VA needs logins. Those cost money.
• Management. Someone checks the work, answers questions and notices when attendance slips. If that's you, it's your time again.

How we price at VAST

We don't publish a price list. A part-time admin assistant and a full-time Meta ads strategist aren't the same job, and pretending they are is how you end up with the wrong person.

You tell us the work and the hours. You get a real number within one business day.

That one monthly service fee covers your dedicated Specialist and the parts that usually eat your time: vetting, training before day one, monthly check-ins, and an end-of-day report from your Specialist every shift so you always know what got done. No upfront fees. Your Specialist can start in as little as 72 hours, and if the fit isn't right, we reassign for free in your first 90 days.

If you want to see what a role covers first, start with the roles we hire for.

The bottom line

• Filipino VAs are good value. The gap with hiring at home is real.
• The local average isn't your price. Night shifts, client-facing work and specialist tools cost more, and should.
• The $3-an-hour VA is the most expensive hire you'll make. You pay for it in your own time, in rework, and in hiring again in four months.
• Pay for the role you actually need. Cheap help you have to keep fixing isn't cheap.