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A dedicated executive assistant (also sold as a dedicated virtual assistant) is one person who works only for you, about 160 hours a month, and costs $2,000 to $2,160 a month from lighter-touch providers (Wing, Magic) and from around $3,000 a month from managed providers that select at a high bar and manage the person after placement (Oceans Talent, Athena, Pearl Talent). A shared executive assistant, sold as a block of hours from a person who also serves other clients, costs $36 to $65 an hour on published US plans, or $390 to $6,500 a month for 10 to 100 hours (Time etc, Double, Zirtual, Boldly). A team-backed model, one primary assistant with trained backups and a manager, costs $1,500 to $1,600 per 55-hour unit and $3,600 for full-time coverage (Prialto). The arithmetic crossover is 46 to 83 hours a month, or 11 to 19 hours a week: below that, buy hours; above it, a dedicated assistant is cheaper per hour and better in the ways that are not on the invoice. The three models, their published prices, where each breaks, and a decision rule follow.
What is a dedicated executive assistant, and what does “shared” mean?
A dedicated executive assistant, or dedicated virtual assistant, is one assistant assigned to one client for the whole of their working month, usually 160 hours, employed by the client or by a provider. A shared assistant serves several clients and sells each a block of hours. Providers use both words loosely, so the definitions below are by what you get rather than by what the plan is called.
| Model | What you get | Who else the assistant serves | How it is sold | Providers, as they describe themselves (checked September 7, 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour block, fractional | A named assistant, for a fixed number of hours a month | Other clients, in the hours you are not using | Monthly plan priced per hour block; unused hours may or may not roll over | Time etc (10 to 60 hours; rollover on the 20, 40, and 60-hour plans); Double (10 to 60 hours); Zirtual (12 to 45 hours, US-based); Boldly (40 to 100 hours, “North America or Europe-based,” 160 on request) |
| Team-backed | A primary assistant plus trained backups and an engagement manager, with documented processes so a backup can step in | The backups serve other clients; the primary is yours for the unit hours | Units of hours; full-time is three or more units | Prialto ($1,500 to $1,600 per 55-hour unit; full-time from $3,600; 90-day minimum per unit; two trained backups and an engagement manager) |
| Dedicated full-time | One assistant, working only for you, about 160 hours a month | Nobody | Flat monthly fee; the provider employs the assistant | Oceans Talent (from around $3,000); Athena ($3,000 on a 12-month commitment); Pearl Talent (from $3,000); Wing ($1,999 for an executive assistant at 160 hours); Magic ($540 a week full-time) |
“Shared,” in the sense buyers usually mean it, is the hour-block model: your assistant is dedicated to you for your hours and to someone else for theirs. True pooled models, where any available person picks up any task, exist for one-off errands and research but are not sold as executive assistant services by the providers above, and are not covered here.
How much does each model cost?
Read from the providers’ own pricing pages on September 7, 2026. Full-time equivalents assume 160 hours a month.
| Provider and plan | Hours a month | Monthly price | Effective hourly | Model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time etc | 10 / 20 / 40 / 60 | $390 / $760 / $1,480 / $2,160 | $39 / $38 / $37 / $36 | Hour block, US-based |
| Zirtual | 12 / 20 / 30 / 45 | $599 / $899 / $1,199 / $1,699 | $50 / $45 / $40 / $38 | Hour block, US-based |
| Double | 10 / 20 / 40 / 60 | $549 / $999 / $1,899 / $2,799 | $55 / $50 / $47 / $47 | Hour block |
| Boldly | 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 | $2,600 / $3,900 / $5,200 / $6,500 | $65 | Hour block, North America or Europe-based |
| Prialto | 55 per unit; 165 for three units | $1,500 to $1,600 per unit; from $3,600 full-time | $27 to $29 per unit; about $22 full-time | Team-backed |
| Wing, executive assistant | 80 / 160 | $1,299 / $1,999 | $16 / $12 | Dedicated |
| Magic | 80 / 160 (20 / 40 hours a week) | $1,080 / $2,160 (priced $270 / $540 a week, billed every four weeks) | $14 / $14 | Dedicated |
| Oceans Talent | 160 | From around $3,000 | About $19 | Dedicated, managed |
| Athena | 160 | $3,000 on a 12-month commitment; $3,600 after a 90-day commitment (FAQ) | About $19 to $23 | Dedicated, managed |
| Pearl Talent | 160 | From $3,000 | About $19 | Dedicated, managed |
The hour-block model is two to five times the hourly price of a dedicated one, which is the price of buying only the hours you use, in the US, from a person whose other clients absorb the rest of the week. Within the dedicated column there is a gap of about $1,000 a month between Wing or Magic and the managed providers, and that gap is the selection, training, and post-placement management layer, or its absence. The executive assistant cost page compares all of these against a US in-house hire at about $110,000 a year fully loaded.
What do the hours buy?
Hours are the wrong unit, and the reason is what an executive assistant’s work is. Almost all of it is continuous: the calendar is never finished, the inbox refills, the follow-up list is a living document, and the value of the assistant grows with how much of your business they carry in their head. Forty hours a month is one working day a week. That is enough to clear a backlog, book travel, and handle a defined list of tasks. It is not enough to own anything, because ownership requires being there when the thing happens.
The research on interruption and context switching applies here in a way providers rarely mention. Gloria Mark and colleagues found that office workers took an average of 25 minutes 26 seconds to resume interrupted work on the same day (CHI 2005), and that people working under interruption worked faster but with “more stress, higher frustration, time pressure and effort” (CHI 2008). An hour-block assistant is switching between clients by design, several times a day, and the switching cost lands on the quality of your work. A dedicated assistant switches between your tasks, which is the job.
There is a second thing you buy with a dedicated assistant that the hour-block model cannot sell: access. A person who works only for you can hold your credentials under your security policy, sit in your Slack, attend your standups, and be trusted with the judgment calls that make an assistant useful. Providers in the hour-block model manage this within their limits, but a person with six clients cannot be inside six businesses.
When is a shared or hour-block assistant the right choice?
Four situations, all common.
- The work is bounded and under about 10 hours a week. Travel, expenses, a monthly newsletter, calendar cleanup: a 40-hour plan handles that at $1,480 to $2,600, and a dedicated assistant would sit idle.
- The work must be done by a US or Europe-based person. Time etc, Zirtual, and Boldly state their assistants’ locations; if a client-facing role or a compliance requirement demands it, the hour-block market is where that is sold, at $36 to $65 an hour.
- The workload is spiky. A quarterly board cycle or an annual conference does not justify a permanent person, and hour plans with rollover (Time etc’s 20, 40, and 60-hour plans) can bank capacity for the peak.
- You have never had an assistant and want to learn how you would use one. A 20-hour plan for two months is a $760 to $1,000 experiment. Its result should tell you whether you are a 10-hour person or a 40-hour one, and the answer decides the next step.
When is a dedicated assistant the right choice?
When the role is continuous, when you want ownership rather than task completion, and when the hours pass the crossover.
The crossover is arithmetic. A managed dedicated assistant at around $3,000 a month buys 160 hours. At Time etc’s $36 an hour, $3,000 buys 83 hours; at Boldly’s $65, 46. So at 11 to 19 hours a week, the hour-block model costs the same as a dedicated one, and above that it costs more for less time. Most executives who track two weeks of delegable work find 10 to 20 hours a week on the first pass, which is the crossover band; the ROI of a remote executive assistant page works the payback for an executive earning $250,000.
Beyond the arithmetic, three signals say dedicated:
- You want to stop doing the thing, not just get help with it. Ownership of the calendar, the inbox, the CRM hygiene, or the weekly reporting means one person is accountable for it every day.
- The work requires learning your business. Investor relations logistics, customer escalations, vendor management, and anything involving judgment about who matters get better with tenure and worse with rotation.
- There is more than one person to support. A dedicated assistant can run the operating layer for a founder and a head of operations; an hour block cannot stretch that far.
Where does each model break?
Every model has a characteristic failure, and the honest way to choose is to pick the failure you can live with.
| Model | Where it breaks | What to ask the provider |
|---|---|---|
| Hour block | You start rationing. Tasks that would take an owner five minutes go undone because “it’s not worth the hours.” Unused hours expire on plans without rollover; overages are billed at the plan rate or higher. The assistant’s context resets between your sessions. | Do unused hours roll over, and for how long? What is the overage rate? How many other clients does my assistant have? What is the notice period to change plans? |
| Team-backed | The backup knows less than the primary, so coverage is real but thinner. Process documentation is what makes the model work, and it takes your time to build. Unit pricing means growth comes in 55-hour steps. | How are backups trained on my account? How often has my primary changed in the past year for other clients? What does the engagement manager do week to week? |
| Dedicated | Dependency on one person: sick days, leave, and resignation land on you unless the provider covers them. A poor match wastes a month. Without post-placement management, performance drifts. | What happens when my assistant is out? What is the replacement or rematch guarantee, and how long does a replacement take? Who manages the assistant after placement, and how? What is your first-match success rate? |
The dedicated column’s failure is the one providers price differently. Oceans Talent covers it with a free rematch if the first match is not right, an 86% first-match success rate, a pod leader who coaches the operator after placement, and a structured first 90 days; Pearl Talent states a 30-day replacement guarantee; Wing states replacement “within 24 hours”; Athena says it “will partner you with a different Athena EA if things don’t improve.” Ask every provider the four questions in the table, and ask specifically about planned leave, because that is where the difference between “we employ this person” and “we manage this person” shows.
How do you decide?
- Count the hours. Track two weeks of work you would hand off. Under 10 hours a week, buy an hour block. Over 20, buy dedicated. Between 10 and 20, go to question two.
- Ask whether the work is a list or a role. A list of tasks with clear edges is hour-block work. A role with a calendar and an inbox in it is dedicated work, whatever the hours, because it does not stop.
- Ask whether location is a requirement or a preference. If a US-based person is required, price the hour-block plans at $36 to $65 an hour against a US in-house hire at about $53 an hour fully loaded (BLS, May 2025 median plus benefits). If it is a preference, a managed remote dedicated assistant at about $19 an hour is the comparison.
- Ask what you will do with the hours you get back. If the answer is “the same work, faster,” an hour block is fine. If the answer is “the work only I can do,” you want someone who is there every day.
The process from scope to first 30 days, for either model, is in how to hire a remote executive assistant, and the difference between an executive assistant and a general virtual assistant, which cuts across all three models, is in executive assistant vs virtual assistant.
Oceans Talent sells the dedicated model only, to 600+ companies: one full-time operator per client, recruited in Sri Lanka, employed and managed by Oceans Talent, with a four-to-five-hour real-time overlap in your time zone, starting at around $3,000 a month. If your two-week count comes out above the crossover, book a call and we will scope the role.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a dedicated executive assistant?
One assistant who works only for you, typically full-time at about 160 hours a month, employed either by you or by a provider that places and manages them. Dedicated providers and their published prices as of September 7, 2026: Oceans Talent from around $3,000 a month, Athena $3,000 on a 12-month commitment, Pearl Talent from $3,000, Wing $1,999, Magic $2,160 ($540 a week). The defining feature is not the hours but the exclusivity: the assistant holds your context, your access, and your priorities without switching to another client.
What is a shared or fractional executive assistant?
An assistant who serves several clients and sells each a block of hours a month. You usually get a named person, so the model is “dedicated for your hours, shared across the day.” Published hour-block plans run $390 to $2,160 a month for 10 to 60 hours at Time etc, $549 to $2,799 at Double, $599 to $1,699 for 12 to 45 hours at Zirtual, and $2,600 to $6,500 for 40 to 100 hours at Boldly, which is $36 to $65 an hour. Prialto’s team-backed model, one primary assistant with two trained backups and a manager, is a variant priced at $1,500 to $1,600 per 55-hour unit.
How much does a dedicated executive assistant cost?
From around $3,000 a month for a full-time remote dedicated assistant from a managed provider (Oceans Talent, Athena, Pearl Talent), $2,000 to $2,160 from lighter-touch providers (Wing $1,999, Magic $2,160), and $3,600 for Prialto’s full-time team-backed coverage; the difference is how much selection and management is included. That is $12 to $22 an hour at 160 hours. A US in-house executive assistant costs about $110,000 a year fully loaded, or about $53 an hour, on the BLS median of $76,590 plus benefits.
Is a dedicated executive assistant worth it?
Above about 11 to 19 hours a week of delegated work, yes on cost alone: at $36 to $65 an hour, 46 to 83 hours a month costs what a managed dedicated assistant costs for 160. Below that, an hour block is cheaper. The non-cost case for dedicated is continuity, ownership, and access: the assistant learns your business, holds your systems, and does not reset context between clients. The ROI at three executive salary levels, with the formula, is on the ROI of a remote executive assistant page.
What happens when a dedicated assistant is sick, on leave, or leaves?
It depends on the provider, and it is the first question to ask. Team-backed models (Prialto) cover absence with trained backups by design. Dedicated providers handle it through replacement and rematch terms: Oceans Talent offers a free rematch if the first match is not right and reports 86% first-match success; Pearl Talent states a 30-day replacement guarantee; Wing states replacement within 24 hours; Athena says it will partner you with a different assistant if things do not improve. Ask specifically about planned leave and about how long a replacement takes to reach full speed.
Which providers offer dedicated versus shared executive assistants?
Hour-block (shared across clients): Time etc, Double, Zirtual, Boldly. Team-backed: Prialto. Dedicated full-time: Oceans Talent, Athena, Pearl Talent, Wing, Magic. BELAY places dedicated assistants but publishes no pricing. Several hour-block providers will sell a full-time block (Boldly offers a 160-hour plan on request), and several dedicated providers sell part-time (Wing’s 80-hour executive assistant plan is $1,299; Magic’s 20-hour week is $270).
How many hours a week justify a dedicated executive assistant?
About 11 to 19, by cost alone. A managed dedicated assistant at around $3,000 a month for 160 hours costs the same as 83 hours at Time etc’s $36 rate or 46 hours at Boldly’s $65 rate. Most executives who track two weeks of delegable work find 10 to 20 hours a week on the first pass and more once the assistant is in place. Under 10 hours a week of bounded tasks, buy hours.
Sources and Methodology
Provider pricing and model descriptions. Every figure and description was read from the provider’s own pages on September 7, 2026: Time etc pricing; Double; Zirtual; Boldly; Prialto pricing and FAQ (Prialto also charges a $250 first-month setup fee); Wing executive assistant; Magic; Athena pricing and FAQ; Pearl Talent. BELAY publishes no pricing and is described only by model. Provider prices move; treat any figure here as a snapshot from the date above. Effective hourly rates are the monthly price divided by plan hours, rounded.
Research. Gloria Mark, Victor González, and Justin Harris, “No Task Left Behind? Examining the Nature of Fragmented Work,” CHI 2005 (25 minutes 26 seconds average same-day resumption); Gloria Mark, Daniela Gudith, and Ulrich Klocke, “The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress,” CHI 2008.
Government sources. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Secretaries and Administrative Assistants (May 2025 median for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, $76,590); BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, March 2026 (private-industry benefits 30.1% of total compensation, about 43% on top of wages).
Estimates. The crossover hours are a $3,000 monthly fee divided by the $36 and $65 hourly rates; the $110,000 loaded in-house figure is the BLS median plus 43%; the $53 in-house hourly rate is that figure over 2,080 hours; the $19 managed rate is $3,000 over 160 hours. Which layer each price tier buys is our reading of the providers’ own descriptions.
First-party data. Oceans Talent figures (pricing from around $3,000 a month, 86% first-match success, free rematch, pod leader, structured first 90 days, four-to-five-hour overlap, Sri Lanka, 600+ companies) are stated at how we hire, why us, hire executive assistants, and the home page.
Oceans Talent places one dedicated, full-time, vetted executive operator per client, employed and managed by Oceans Talent, starting at around $3,000 a month. See how placements are structured, or book a call to scope the role against your two-week count.
