What a High-Quality Remote Executive Assistant Costs Monthly

If Ask what a high-quality remote executive assistant costs each month and you’ll get a number. A number on its own won’t tell you whether the support is worth paying for.

We’ve spent decades hiring executive assistants and working as them. That experience is what ProAssisting is built on, so we’ll give it to you straight. The right monthly budget depends on the hours you need, the level of the work, and how you set up the relationship.

This guide walks through what each option costs, where the real value sits, and how to land on a number that fits your business.

TL;DR: What a Remote Executive Assistant Costs per Month

Here’s the short version of what to budget and why the number moves around:

• Genuine, high-quality US-based support runs from about $3,300 a month for a fraction of an assistant up to roughly $9,000 a month for a full-time hire.
• A full-time US executive assistant earns a median of $76,590 a year, before you add benefits, payroll taxes, and overhead.
• Overseas virtual assistants cost far less per hour, but you give up experience, retention, and time-zone overlap.
• Fractional support from ProAssisting starts at $3,300 a month for 1/3 of an assistant’s capacity.
• More than 75% of a ProAssisting retainer goes straight to the assistant, which is what keeps good people around.
• The real value comes from the hours you buy back and what your own time is worth.

ProAssisting places seasoned, US-based executive assistants who each take on 3 clients at most, so you get real attention without paying a full-time salary.

Why the Monthly Price Is the Wrong Number to Chase

The monthly price is the easiest thing to compare, so it gets all the attention. It also happens to tell you the least about whether the support will actually pay off.

Start with your own time instead. Every hour you spend on email, scheduling, travel, and chasing follow-ups is an hour you’re not spending on the work only you can do.

You can put a real number on that. Take your yearly income and divide it by 2,080, the working hours in a year. That gives you what an hour of your time is worth.

Say you earn $350,000 a year. That’s about $168 an hour. If you spend even 1 hour a day on work an assistant could handle, that’s more than $43,000 a year of your own time gone.

So once you can see what your time is worth, the monthly fee for good support reads very differently. The real question is how many of those hours you can hand to someone you trust.

Here’s what each option looks like in practice:

1. Full-Time In-House or Remote Executive Assistant

A full-time hire gives you 40 hours a week and someone focused entirely on you. Executive assistants earn a median of $76,590 a year, according to the BLS, which is about $6,400 a month before benefits.

But that’s just the salary. Once you add benefits, payroll taxes, equipment, and the time you’ll spend recruiting and replacing, the real cost runs well past the headline number.

At the very top, the most experienced assistants, the ones supporting a full C-suite in a major market, can reach $200,000 to $250,000 a year.

2. Independent or Freelance Executive Assistant

An independent EA works for you directly, usually by the hour. You pay only for the hours you use and skip the overhead of a full employee.

Their rates sit above the roughly $37 an hour that the BLS median works out to, because they’re covering their own benefits and downtime.

The catch is management. You handle the onboarding, the coverage when they’re away, and the search for a replacement when they move on.

3. Overseas Virtual Assistant

An overseas virtual assistant is the cheapest option by a wide margin. For simple, repeatable work like inbox sorting and data entry, it can be a sensible fit.

But the trade-offs are real. You’ll often get less experience, more turnover, and only a few hours of overlap with your own day.

So ask any provider how much the assistant is actually paid. Pay tells you how skilled they are and how long they’ll stick around.

4. Fractional Executive Assistant

A fractional executive assistant gives you a slice of a senior professional’s time for a flat monthly fee. You get full-time-caliber experience for a fraction of a full-time salary.

ProAssisting starts at $3,300 a month for 1/3 of an assistant’s capacity. You can step up to 1/2 or 2/3 as your needs grow.

More than 75% of that fee goes straight to your assistant, which is well above the industry norm and a big reason experienced people stay.

For many leaders, fractional support lands 50 to 80% below the cost of a comparable in-house hire.

You can compare the fractional support pricing tiers to see what each level includes.

The Costs That Do Not Appear on the Invoice

The monthly fee is only part of what support costs you. That’s why top executive assistant agencies often win on total value, even when their sticker price looks higher.

A few of these costs never make it onto the quote:

• Your management time: Recruiting, training, and directing a freelancer or new hire can eat several hours of your week.
• Coverage gaps: When a solo assistant is out sick or on vacation, the work just stops until they’re back.
• Turnover: Replacing an assistant means running the search and onboarding all over again, plus losing everything they’d learned about you.
• Onboarding ramp: A new assistant needs time to hit full speed, usually around 90 days, before they can run with little direction.

Added together, these quietly turn the cheapest hourly rate into the most expensive choice. A steady, experienced assistant who stays for years saves you money that never shows up on an invoice.

Our book, The 29-Hour Work Day, is the whole playbook for getting more done through an assistant. It shows how leaders turn the hours they hand off into real output. Get your free copy.

How to Set Your Own Monthly Budget

Setting your own budget comes down to your workload and what your time is worth. Work through these 3 steps to land on a number you can defend:

1. Track the Work You Should Hand Off

Spend 2 weeks writing down every task that pulls you off your real priorities. Note the scheduling, the inbox triage, the travel booking, the follow-ups, and the personal errands.

In our experience, that comes to 10 to 20 hours a week for a lot of leaders. That’s the range to size your support around.

If you want a benchmark, our guide to the hours a founder actually needs breaks it down by workload.

2. Put a Dollar Value on Your Time

Divide your yearly income by 2,080, the number of work hours in a year, to get your hourly value. Then multiply that by the hours you want to hand off.

Say your time is worth $150 an hour and you want to offload 12 hours a week. That’s $1,800 a week going toward work an assistant could take. Next to that, a monthly fee in the low thousands is easy to justify.

3. Match the Budget to a Support Level

Now match your hours and your budget to the right option. A few hours a week of simple tasks might point to a virtual assistant. A steady 12 to 15 hours of higher-level work is a good fit for a fractional assistant.

Client-facing work pushes the number up. If your assistant represents you to customers and investors, you’re paying for more polish and judgment. A specialized industry does the same when the role needs specific knowledge.

Whichever level you pick, the payoff comes from putting the freed-up time into higher-value work. Our breakdown of the ROI of hiring an assistant shows how founders turn that into real numbers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are quick answers to what leaders ask us most when they’re budgeting for remote support:

What Is a Reasonable Monthly Budget for a Remote Executive Assistant?

For genuine high-quality US-based support, plan on $3,300 to about $9,000 a month. Where you land depends on the hours you need and whether you go full-time or fractional. 

Fractional sits at the lower end because you’re only paying for the share of an assistant you use.

How Much Does a Full-Time Executive Assistant Cost?

A full-time US executive assistant earns a median of $76,590 a year, or about $6,400 a month. Once you add benefits, payroll taxes, and equipment, the real cost climbs from there. Senior assistants in major cities run well into 6 figures.

Is a Cheaper Overseas Virtual Assistant Worth It?

It can be worth it for simple, repeatable tasks on a tight budget. For work that needs judgment, client contact, or a fast turnaround in your time zone, the savings tend to disappear into rework and turnover.

The best test is to ask what the assistant is paid, because that tells you their experience and how long they’ll stay.

How Many Hours of Support Do I Actually Need?

Track your admin work for 2 weeks and add up the hours you could hand off. You’ll usually land somewhere between 10 and 20 hours a week. For a lot of busy founders, 1/3 of a full-time assistant, about 13 hours a week, covers it.

Can I Adjust the Budget as My Needs Change?

Yes, you can. Fractional support is built to flex, so you can start at 1/3 of an assistant and move up to 1/2 or 2/3 as you grow. And you can scale back just as easily if your workload eases.

How Do I Pay a Remote Executive Assistant?

An individual EA usually takes a credit card or a bank transfer. At ProAssisting, we bill a flat monthly retainer by ACH. We also take credit cards for a small processing fee.

Get Right-Sized Executive Support With ProAssisting

The best budget is the one matched to the work you need done and the hours you want back. Chasing the lowest price costs you more later, in rework and lost time. Once you start from what your time is worth, the right number gets clear.

ProAssisting places seasoned, US-based executive assistants who each take on no more than 3 clients. You get 1 dedicated partner who learns your business, guards your calendar, and represents you well, for 50 to 80% less than a full-time hire.

More than 75% of your fee goes straight to your assistant, which is how we keep the best people.

Book a free consultation with ProAssisting and start winning back hours every week.