Pricing & Cost
Cost-Per-Useful-Hour
Cost-per-useful-hour is the metric that exposes the real economics of VA services. It is calculated as:
Cost-per-useful-hour = Monthly spend / Hours of work that required no rework or correction
This is different from the headline hourly rate in every service’s marketing material — because the headline rate assumes 100% of hours produce useful output. In practice, particularly in month 1, a meaningful percentage of VA hours are spent rebuilding context, producing sub-optimal output that requires correction, or waiting for clarifying information.
Why the headline rate misleads
A $12/hr offshore dedicated VA who spends 30% of every hour rebuilding context costs you $17.14 per useful hour ($12 / 0.70 utilization), not $12.
A $45/hr Belay EA who, after proper onboarding, operates at 90%+ useful output efficiency costs you $50/hr per useful hour — not dramatically different, and the gap narrows further when you factor in the management overhead you save.
Real numbers from our testing
| Service | Headline rate | Month-1 utilization | Month-1 cost/useful-hour | Month-3 utilization | Month-3 cost/useful-hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belay | $45/hr | 70% | $64 | 90% | $50 |
| Time Etc | $35/hr | 65% | $54 | 85% | $41 |
| Wishup | $12.50/hr | 60% | $21 | 80% | $16 |
| Fancy Hands | ~$6/task | N/A (pool) | $9–$15 per useful task | N/A | Consistent |
[realism check] The “month-3 cost/useful-hour” is the number that determines whether a VA service earns out over time. Dedicated services with good onboarding improve dramatically between month 1 and month 3. Pool services (Fancy Hands, Magic) stay at a consistent per-task cost because there’s no context to build.
The key insight
Cost-per-useful-hour is why the pool-vs-dedicated decision isn’t just about price. Pool services have a consistent, predictable cost-per-useful-hour because every task starts fresh. Dedicated services start expensive (high onboarding overhead) and get cheaper month-over-month as context builds.
The crossover point: if your work is repeatable and you’ll use the service for 3+ months, dedicated services almost always win on cost-per-useful-hour by month 3.
Related concepts
- Onboarding period — the main driver of month-1 cost-per-useful-hour
- Pool VA service — consistent cost-per-useful-hour, no amortization curve
- Dedicated VA service — improving cost-per-useful-hour over time