Hire a virtual assistant
Inbox, calendar, travel, invoices and the small jobs that eat your week. Every virtual assistant here passed an English test, a typing test and a VA quiz before you see them, and their scores and rates are on the profile.
Browsing and the AI shortlist are free.
What virtual assistants cost
- Freelance rate, worldwide
- $10–20/hr
Typical range for virtual assistants on past Upwork contracts. Upwork (opens in a new tab), checked Oct 2026
- Full-time salary in the Philippines
- $480–2,000/month
Beginner $480–900 to expert $1,200–2,000, as workers report them. OnlineJobs.ph salary guide (opens in a new tab), updated April 2026
- US employee wage, median
- $23.23/hr
Secretaries and administrative assistants, $48,310 a year. US Bureau of Labor Statistics (opens in a new tab), May 2025 data
What a virtual assistant does
- Inbox triage: answering what they can, flagging what needs you
- Calendar and meeting booking across time zones
- Travel booking and itineraries
- Chasing unpaid invoices
- Research, lists and data entry
- Customer emails and follow-ups
- Shared documents and folders kept tidy
- A short daily note on what's done and what needs you
How we test virtual assistants
- English
- Read a client's email, answer five questions about it and write a reply of 80 to 150 words. AI grades the reply for grammar, clarity, tone and whether it answers the email. The result is a CEFR band from A2 to C2 with a score out of 100.
- Typing
- A 60-second passage written like a weekly update to a client. Scored on words per minute and accuracy, with 5 characters counted as a word. Only correct characters count.
- Virtual assistant quiz
- Six situations from a VA's week, like booking one call across New York, London and Sydney, spotting a fake invoice and getting a full inbox under control, plus a short written reply to a client. Scored out of 100.
- ID check
- A person on our team checks a government ID against a selfie. The images are deleted after review.
Angelica R.
Virtual assistant, Philippines
- English C2
- 91
- Typing
- 72wpm
- Virtual assistant quiz
- 89
Tested virtual assistants on StaffPick
Live profiles. Each person passed the tests above, and we reviewed the profile before it went live.
A US Eastern 9-to-5 is 10 pm to 6 am in Manila, 3 pm to 11 pm in Lagos and 9 am to 5 pm in Bogotá (on EST). A Sydney 9-to-5 is 7 am to 3 pm in Manila (AEST). Every profile shows which business hours the person covers.
IANA time zone database (opens in a new tab), checked Oct 2026
Questions about hiring a virtual assistant
Still unsure? Contact us. A person reads every message.
Keep reading
- How much does a virtual assistant cost in 2026?A full-time virtual assistant costs about $480 to $2,000 a month hired direct in the Philippines, or $999 and up through an agency. Rates by country and role.
- How to hire a virtual assistant: 7 steps (2026)How to hire a virtual assistant in 7 steps: list the work, write a brief, test English and typing, ask 12 interview questions, then contract and onboard.
- Virtual assistant companies compared (2026)Where to hire a virtual assistant: marketplaces from a 5% fee, full-time agencies from $999 a month, or direct with no markup. 2026 prices, side by side.
- Hiring a Filipino virtual assistant in 2026Filipino VAs earn $480 to $2,000 a month full-time, by experience. What to pay, hours that cover US, UK and Australian days, English levels and how to pay.
- Hiring a virtual assistant in the PhilippinesRates, hours for US, UK and Australian teams, and how paying works.
- Virtual assistant cost calculatorMonthly cost by role, country, hours and how you hire, from published rates.
- Upwork, Fiverr and OnlineJobs.ph comparedTheir published fees, and when each one is the better choice.
- All role guidesTen roles, each with cited rates and the tests every person passes.