Updated May 23, 2026
Key Takeaways
- Full-time Philippines VAs (40 hrs/week) cost $1,600-$2,000/month through Stealth Agents; part-time (20 hrs/week) costs $800-$1,000/month.
- Full-time VAs typically have a lower effective hourly rate than part-time because the dedicated commitment commands a small discount.
- Choose part-time when your delegatable task volume is 15-20 hrs/week; choose full-time when it exceeds 25 hrs/week.
- The right test: track your actual delegatable task volume for one week before deciding on the engagement size.
- Most businesses start part-time and scale to full-time within 2-4 months as the delegation habit develops and task volume grows.
The choice between a full-time and part-time VA depends on one thing: how many hours of delegatable work you actually have per week. Overpaying for hours you do not use, or underbuying and running your VA at constant over-capacity, are both expensive mistakes.
Here is the complete comparison.
What Each Engagement Costs
Part-time VA (typically 20 hrs/week = 80 hrs/month):
| Source | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|
| Stealth Agents ($10/hr) | ~$800-$1,000 |
| MyOutDesk ($14/hr) | ~$1,120-$1,200 |
| US-based agency ($35/hr) | ~$2,800-$3,200 |
| Direct hire Philippines ($6/hr) | ~$480-$560 |
Full-time VA (40 hrs/week = 160 hrs/month):
| Source | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|
| Stealth Agents ($10/hr) | ~$1,600-$2,000 |
| MyOutDesk ($14/hr) | ~$2,240-$2,400 |
| US-based agency ($35/hr) | ~$5,600-$6,400 |
| Direct hire Philippines ($6/hr) | ~$960-$1,120 |
Full-time rates are typically 5-10% lower per hour than part-time because the dedicated commitment reduces the VA's income risk. At Stealth Agents, the effective rate difference is small - the value difference is primarily in capacity.
How to Decide: The Delegation Audit
The right engagement size comes from a delegation audit, not a gut feel.
Process:
- Track your time for one week
- Mark every task you do that is recurring, remote-compatible, and could be delegated
- Sum the hours
- Add 20% for tasks you are not yet tracking (ad hoc requests, reactive work)
Typical results:
- Under 15 hours/week of delegatable work: consider part-time or hourly-as-needed
- 15-25 hours/week: part-time VA (20 hrs/week)
- 25-40 hours/week: full-time VA
- Over 40 hours/week: full-time VA plus additional capacity planning
What Part-Time Gets You
A part-time VA at 20 hrs/week handles:
- Daily inbox triage and scheduling management (~5 hrs/week)
- Customer follow-up and CRM updates (~4 hrs/week)
- Research and reporting tasks (~4 hrs/week)
- Social media scheduling (~3 hrs/week)
- Miscellaneous ad hoc requests (~4 hrs/week)
This covers the core administrative layer for most small businesses. The business owner reclaims roughly 20 hours per week of time previously spent on these tasks.
What Full-Time Gets You
A full-time VA at 40 hrs/week handles everything above plus:
- Deeper research and competitive analysis
- Content drafting support
- More thorough customer communication management
- Project coordination
- SOP documentation and process improvement
- Higher-volume support tasks
The jump from part-time to full-time is not just more of the same - it enables a qualitatively different delegation model where the VA takes on more complex and judgment-adjacent work.
The Scaling Path
Most successful VA relationships follow this trajectory:
Month 1-2: Part-time (20 hrs/week) Establish core task delegation, build SOPs, develop communication patterns. The VA builds context; you refine the delegation model.
Month 3-4: Expand scope within part-time Add task categories as the first set runs well. By month three, many business owners hit the 20-hour ceiling.
Month 4-6: Scale to full-time When the VA is consistently running at capacity and there are clear additional tasks to delegate, scale to 40 hours. The transition is straightforward - same VA, same relationship, expanded task set.
This path avoids the common mistake of starting full-time before the delegation model is established, which results in a full-time VA with idle hours and an uncertain scope.
The Full-Time Financial Case
At Stealth Agents' rates:
- Part-time (80 hrs): ~$800-$1,000/month
- Full-time (160 hrs): ~$1,600-$2,000/month
The delta is $800-$1,000/month for 80 additional hours. At your opportunity cost of $100/hr, those 80 hours produce $8,000 in recaptured time value. The $800 marginal cost produces $8,000 in value - a 10:1 return on the capacity expansion.
For most business owners where the full-time hours are genuinely filled with delegatable work, the upgrade from part-time to full-time is one of the highest-ROI operational decisions available.