Time etc pricing and Time etc cost per hour for a US virtual assistant in 2026

We read Time etc's pricing page and FAQ in October 2026. These are the plans as published.

The discount for buying more hours is small. Going from 10 to 60 hours a month cuts the hourly price by 3 USD, about 8 percent. So the real decision is not which bundle, but whether 36 to 39 USD per hour is the right price for the work you want to hand over.

Time etc lists the same extras on every plan: a dedicated US-based assistant, extra assistants and team sharing at no added cost, cover for holidays and sickness, a satisfaction guarantee, a dashboard and mobile app for tasks, a Client Happiness manager and time tracked to the second. Your assistant can also get a branded email address at your domain. You can send a first task as a free trial with no card, and after that you pay for your first month to start. There is no notice period, so one email or call cancels the plan.

Here is the same workload priced two ways. The direct column uses an assistant who works US hours at 20 USD per hour, inside the 14 to 24 USD band for admin support in our virtual assistant cost per hour guide.

At 10 hours a month, the gap is small enough that convenience can win. At 40 hours and above, you save more than 7,000 USD a year by hiring directly, which is a part-time assistant's pay for several months. Above 60 hours, Time etc moves to custom quotes, while a direct hire keeps the same hourly rate. If you only need a few hours, the Starter plan at 24 USD per month billed yearly brings the 10 hour total down to 224 USD. Every plan is on the virtual assistant cost page.

The hourly price bundles three things. The assistant's time, Time etc's recruiting and matching, and a support layer that covers your work when the assistant is away. For an executive who sends five tasks a week and never wants to think about who does them, that is a fair deal. The trade is that you do not choose from a pool of people, you cannot see what share of the 36 to 39 USD reaches the assistant, and the hour bundle is the same whether the task is booking a flight or reconciling a vendor list.

Hour bundles also shape how you work. Teams on 10 or 20 hours tend to send quick, separate tasks and avoid ongoing work that would eat the bundle. If what you need is a person who owns your inbox, CRM or order queue every morning, a part-time hire at a fixed weekly schedule usually fits better than a bank of hours.

The right swap depends on what you value in Time etc.

For a wider look at agencies against marketplaces, see our comparison of virtual assistant companies.

Time etc is worth it when you need under 20 hours a month, want a US-based person and value the backup cover more than the hourly rate. A consultant who sends travel bookings, calendar clean-ups and research a few times a week will rarely beat 390 USD a month on convenience. It is harder to justify once the work becomes a daily routine. At 40 hours a month, you pay 1,480 USD for the equivalent of two hours a day, and a direct hire for the same routine costs a little over half that.

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 steps are in how to hire a virtual assistant.

Write down the recurring tasks your Time etc assistant handles and the logins they use. Hire your direct assistant while the current month runs, give them the same task list and an email address at your domain, and set one shared email signature so clients see no change when the sender's name does. Cancel the Time etc plan once the new person has run a full week without help, since there is no notice period.

Time etc costs 390 USD per month for 10 hours, 760 USD for 20 hours, 1,480 USD for 40 hours and 2,160 USD for 60 hours. Larger plans are quoted after a consultation. There is no setup fee and no notice period to cancel.

Time etc charges 36 to 39 USD per hour, depending on the bundle: 39 USD on the 10 hour plan, 38 USD on 20 hours, 37 USD on 40 hours and 36 USD on 60 hours. An admin assistant hired directly typically charges 14 to 24 USD per hour, plus a flat platform plan.

Yes, on the 20, 40 and 60 hour plans unused hours roll into the next month. The 10 hour plan does not list rollover on the pricing page, so ask before you choose it if your workload is uneven from month to month.

Yes. Time etc says its assistants are based in the US and that each client gets a dedicated US assistant. If you need US working hours rather than US residence, a marketplace that filters assistants by time zone overlap gives you the same live hours at a lower rate.

The cheaper alternative is hiring an assistant directly from a marketplace that verifies identity, so you skip the agency margin. On Aides you pay the assistant's own rate with no markup plus a flat plan from 24 USD per month billed yearly. At 40 hours a month and 20 USD per hour that is about 849 USD, against 1,480 USD.

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