BELAY pricing and BELAY cost for a US virtual assistant in 2026

We read BELAY's website and its pricing FAQ in October 2026. These are the points BELAY states itself.

Two things are worth reading closely. The 30 to 75 USD hourly band is BELAY's description of the US market, not a BELAY rate card. And BELAY says plainly that its service layer makes it more expensive than that band, so the real quote for a part-time assistant usually lands above 1,200 to 3,000 USD per month.

Because BELAY publishes no numbers, most figures online come from competitor blogs quoting forum posts. The most repeated one is roughly 3,800 USD per month for a package under 90 hours, which works out to about 42 USD per hour. BELAY has not confirmed it, and packages differ by role and hours, so treat it as a rough sign of the level rather than a price. If you are budgeting, ask BELAY for the monthly fee, the hours included, what happens to unused hours and the notice period before you sign.

The premium buys three things a do-it-yourself hire does not include. First, recruiting and screening by BELAY, so you never read a pile of applications. Second, matching by a person who interviews you about your work style. Third, ongoing support from a Client Success Consultant and a rematch if the first person is not a fit. For a busy executive who wants one call and an assistant two weeks later, that service is the product. The trade is the price, and the fact that the assistant's rate and BELAY's margin come bundled in one fee you cannot see inside.

Here is the same part-time role priced two ways. The BELAY column uses the lower end of BELAY's own monthly range, which BELAY says it sits above. The direct column uses a US-time-zone assistant with executive support experience at 25 USD per hour, inside the experienced executive assistant band of 20 to 40 USD in our virtual assistant cost per hour guide.

The gap grows with hours. A full-time assistant at 25 USD per hour hired directly costs about 4,330 USD per month plus a flat plan. A managed agency bills full time at its own rate, and the reported BELAY figure of about 42 USD per hour would put the same 40 hours above 7,000 USD per month.

The right alternative depends on what you are paying BELAY for. If it is the matching service, another managed agency is the like-for-like swap. If it is simply a capable US-hours assistant, a marketplace with verification does most of the screening and costs far less.

For a deeper side by side of agencies versus marketplaces, see our comparison of virtual assistant companies.

BELAY is worth it when your time is worth far more than the premium and you will not interview anyone. A CEO billing 500 USD an hour who wants a US-based executive assistant matched in a week is the buyer BELAY is built for, and its guarantee removes most of the hiring risk. It is harder to justify for a founder or a small team that needs 15 to 30 hours of inbox, calendar, CRM and admin work a week. That buyer pays mostly for the matching, and can do the matching in an afternoon if the identity checks and time zone filtering are already done.

That is the gap Aides fills. Every assistant passes a government ID and liveness check before a profile goes live, you search by skill and by the hours that overlap with your day, and you run a paid two-hour trial on your own work before hiring. You then pay the assistant directly, so the rate you agree is the rate they earn. The checks are explained on the verified virtual assistant page, and the hiring steps in how to hire a virtual assistant.

Ask the same four questions of every provider. What is the all-in monthly cost for the hours you need. What share of that reaches the assistant. What notice period applies if you stop. What happens when the assistant leaves. Then add the work you would do yourself: an afternoon of reviewing profiles and one paid trial task. If BELAY also handles your books, compare the bookkeeping fee against keeping a part-time assistant on admin and using bank reconciliation software to match transactions each month, since the matching is often the hours you are actually paying for.

BELAY does not publish prices. Its FAQ says US-based virtual assistants typically cost 1,200 to 3,000 USD per month for part-time support and that BELAY's onboarding and Client Success Consultant make it more expensive than that. Reported packages are around 3,800 USD per month for under 90 hours, unconfirmed by BELAY.

BELAY quotes a monthly fee rather than an hourly rate. Its own FAQ puts the US market at 30 to 75 USD per hour, and figures reported online work out to roughly 42 USD per hour. Hiring an experienced executive assistant directly on Aides typically costs 20 to 40 USD per hour, and admin support 14 to 24 USD, plus a flat plan.

Yes. BELAY says its assistants are US-based contractors and that it accepts only the top 3 percent of applicants. That is a large part of the price. If US citizenship is not a requirement but US working hours are, a marketplace that filters by time zone overlap gives you the same live hours at a lower rate.

BELAY offers a Right Fit Guarantee, a rematch at no added cost if the first assistant is not right. Contract length, minimum commitment and notice period are not listed on its public pages, so ask for them in writing during the sales call and compare them with month-to-month options.

The cheaper alternative is hiring an assistant directly from a marketplace that verifies identity, so you skip the agency margin and still avoid unknown applicants. On Aides you pay the assistant's own rate with no markup plus a flat plan from 24 USD per month billed yearly, and you can filter by US time zone overlap.

Search assistants by skill and time zone, message the ones who fit and run a paid trial task before you commit.