See what a virtual assistant actually costs.
Compare a UK-managed VA against hiring locally. Real numbers, no marketing maths.
Your exact numbers, not a ballpark.
Select your role, tier, and hours. See the year-one cost difference instantly.
Cumulative cost over 12 months
Exact monthly values (table)
Comparison assumptions
- UK in-house: benchmark salary for the selected role and tier (editable above); equipment and IT £500/yr; office £4,800/yr (pro-rated for part-time); benefits 5% of salary; management overhead of 2 hours a week over 46 weeks at ONS manager pay for the selected tier (£1,867 / £2,764 / £3,866 a year for Entry / Mid / Expert, full-time). Employer NI, Employment Allowance, pension, sick pay, onboarding and recruitment are not costed.
- Freelancer: £22/hour at the same monthly hours; recurring cost only.
- Agency: £25/hour at the same monthly hours; recurring cost only.
- Ant Assist: £5/hour introductory rate for the tier’s promo period (Entry 6 / Mid 3 / Expert 1 months), then the standard rate for the selected role, tier, and working pattern.
- Sources: ONS ASHE 2025 Table 14 (14.7a annual and 14.5a hourly gross pay, full-time, by occupation; 2025 provisional, 23 October 2025); Hubble, How much does office space cost across the UK; Connection Technologies, IT budget for small business UK; CIPD Reward survey: focus on employee benefits; Fast Company on Leadership IQ’s manager-time study; Hadzima (MIT), How much does an employee cost, whose 1.25 to 1.4× salary rule of thumb our in-house totals sit inside (1.25 to 1.29×) even with NI and pension excluded.
Real numbers, not marketing maths.
Every line in this calculator is a cost a UK business carries when it hires locally, and every rate has a published source behind it (listed under the graph). Employer NI and pension are deliberately left out, so the in-house figure is a floor, not a ceiling. For the rates and ranges behind these figures, see what a virtual assistant costs in the UK.
ONS earnings data (ASHE 2025) for the role and seniority you pick, uprated 4.5%. Edit it if you know your figure.
£400 a month per desk, below the £463 UK average, plus £500 a year for equipment.
Health, life cover and perks. UK employers typically spend far more, so this is conservative.
Two hours a week of a manager’s time at ONS manager pay: £1,867 (Entry), £2,764 (Mid) or £3,866 (Expert) a year.
The real cost of hiring locally.
Every line item below comes from the same model as the calculator above, using its defaults: Admin role, Entry tier, one full-time hire at 160 hours/month, both sides at their standard rate. Change any input in the calculator and both sides re-price together.
What you might still be wondering.
See what your VA actually does
You’ve costed the role. Now explore what each VA handles day to day.
Inbox, calendar, documents, and back-office admin, so you reclaim the hours that disappear into day-to-day operations.
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Email, live chat, calls, and ticket queues handled under your brand voice and fully trained on your products.
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Prospect research, cold outreach, LinkedIn prospecting, CRM hygiene, and appointment booking to fill your pipeline.
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Listings, orders, returns, inventory, and marketplace admin across Shopify, Amazon, and eBay.
Learn more →Stop paying for overhead you don’t need.
Book a 15-minute discovery call. We’ll talk through what you need, recommend a role and hours, and confirm fit. No pressure.
Office-based · Managed by Ant Assist · UK hours · Human VAs · From £5/hour