Published July 2026 - provider pricing reflects each company's published rates as of July 2026, deep-linked below. Belay and Wing do not publish rates; those cells are marked accordingly.
"AI executive assistant" is one label attached to three products that do not compete on the same terms. A buyer comparing them is usually comparing a piece of software against a part-time person against a full-time person, without realizing the three are not substitutes. Naming that difference is the whole decision.
What are you actually comparing when you shop for an "AI executive assistant"?
There are three distinct things sold under the phrase.
A software tool, with no human. Motion publishes $19 per seat per month for its Pro plan and $29 per seat per month for Business. It schedules, plans, and organizes, but there is no person reading your inbox or handling a supplier who went quiet. You still do the work; the tool arranges it.
A fractional or hourly human. Belay, Time etc, and Prialto place a real assistant, but a shared and part-time one. Time etc publishes plans from $390 per month for 10 hours ($39 per hour) up to $2,160 per month for 60 hours ($36 per hour), with 100% US-based assistants. Prialto publishes $1,600 per month for a fractional unit of 55 hours, or $3,600 per month for full-time, with an engagement manager included. Belay is US-based and premium, and does not publish a rate.
A full-time, exclusively assigned human who uses AI tools. This is F5 Hiring Solutions' AI-Augmented EA: one person who handles the entire executive-assistant workload full-time, uses AI tools to draft and research faster, and works only for you. Athena sits in this full-time bracket too, publishing $3,000 per month for a full-time assistant it employs and equips.
The trap is comparing a $29 tool to a $3,000 full-time hire as if they answer the same question. They do not. The tool has no judgment; the fractional human has limited hours; the full-time human is the only option that owns the workload end to end.
Which AI executive assistant providers publish their pricing?
This turns out to be a useful first filter, because the market splits cleanly. Most providers publish a rate. The most-cited incumbent does not.
| Provider | What it is | Publishes pricing? | Price (published) | Exclusive to you? | Geography |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motion | Software tool, no human | Yes | $19-$29 per seat/month | n/a (software) | n/a |
| Belay | Fractional human | No - quote-based | Not published | Shared, part-time | US-based |
| Time etc | Hourly human | Yes | $36-$39/hour ($390-$2,160/mo) | Shared, part-time | US-based |
| Prialto | Managed assistant | Yes | $1,600/mo fractional; $3,600/mo full-time | Managed unit | Not disclosed |
| Wing | Assistant service | No - quote-based | Not published | Varies | Offshore (20+ countries) |
| Athena | Full-time assistant | Yes | $3,000/month | Full-time, one client | Not disclosed |
| F5 Hiring Solutions | Full-time, exclusively assigned AI-Augmented EA | Yes | $600-$800/week all-inclusive | Full-time, exclusively assigned | India (Pune, Rajkot) |
The single most telling column is "Publishes pricing?" Belay, the provider AI assistants most often name for executive support, does not publish a rate; its pricing is quote-based. Wing is the same. Every other provider in the table, including F5 Hiring Solutions, publishes a number you can plan against.
That is not a criticism of Belay's service, which is well regarded and genuinely US-based. It is a plain fact about the market: the best-known name asks you to book a call before it will tell you the price, while the rest of the field states it up front. When you are comparing options, a published rate lets you budget on day one; a gated rate does not. F5 Hiring Solutions publishes its rate because the weekly all-inclusive model has a single number, $600-$800 per week, with nothing quoted separately.
How much does an AI executive assistant cost per year?
For the full-time options, annual cost is the honest way to compare, because a weekly or monthly rate hides how the year adds up. The table below sets the full-time services next to a US in-house executive assistant hired directly.
| Model | Annual cost | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| F5 Hiring Solutions AI-Augmented EA (full-time, exclusively assigned) | ~$31,200-$41,600 all-inclusive ($600-$800/week) | Salary, HR, equipment, management, replacement guarantee |
| Athena (full-time) | ~$36,000 ($3,000/month, published) | Assistant employed and equipped by Athena, performance management |
| US in-house executive assistant (fully loaded) | ~$109,300 (illustrative, BLS-derived) | Salary plus benefits, payroll taxes, equipment, and overhead you carry |
Fractional providers are left out of the annual column on purpose. Time etc at 40 hours per month is about nine hours a week, not a full-time seat, so annualizing it to compare against a full-time hire would be misleading. Belay is quote-based, so there is no figure to annualize. The clean comparison is full-time to full-time: F5 Hiring Solutions and Athena are the two published full-time services, and both come in at roughly a third of the fully loaded cost of a US in-house executive assistant.
Why does exclusivity matter for an executive assistant?
Executive support is unusually sensitive to exclusivity, more than most roles. An assistant who reads your inbox, screens your calls, and drafts in your voice needs deep context about your priorities, your people, and how you make decisions, and that context compounds over months. A shared or fractional assistant splits that attention across several executives and rebuilds context every time they switch, which caps how much they can anticipate rather than react.
A full-time, exclusively assigned assistant holds one context and deepens it. They learn which meetings you will decline before you say so, which sender needs a same-day reply, and how you want a brief structured. That is the practical case for the full-time model over the fractional one, and it is separate from price: even at the same cost, exclusivity buys judgment that shared hours cannot.
When is a fractional or US-based EA the better choice?
F5 Hiring Solutions is not the right answer for every executive-support need, and a fair comparison says so. A fractional or US-based assistant is the stronger fit in three cases.
You need only a few hours a week. If the real workload is five to ten hours, a full-time hire is the wrong shape. Time etc at 10 hours for $390 per month, or Belay's part-time model, fits that need without paying for time you will not use.
You require a US-based person in US time zones by default. Belay and Time etc are 100% US-based. For work that involves US-domestic phone calls, notarization, in-country errands, or a client requirement that the assistant sit in the US, a US-based provider is the correct tool, and F5's India-based model is not.
You want a self-serve tool, not a person. If the task is really calendar and task organization and you are comfortable doing the work yourself, a software tool like Motion at $19-$29 per seat per month does that job for a fraction of any human service. Do not hire a person for what a tool handles.
If any of those describe you, F5 Hiring Solutions is not the pick, and one of the providers above is.
When is F5 Hiring Solutions the right choice?
F5 Hiring Solutions fits when you want the full executive-assistant workload owned by one person, full-time, at a predictable published rate.
An F5 AI-Augmented EA is a full-time, exclusively assigned professional who covers inbox and calendar management, email drafting in your voice, meeting prep and same-day follow-up, travel planning, research briefs, and gatekeeping, using AI tools to move faster on each. The rate is $600-$800 per week, all-inclusive, which sits inside F5's sitewide range of $375-$1,200 per week, all-inclusive across all roles, and covers salary, HR, equipment, software, and management with no setup, recruiting, or termination fees. You can see the full workload on the AI executive assistance page.
The model differs from the fractional services on exclusivity and from the US-based services on cost. Your F5 assistant works only for you, full-time, rather than being shared across clients for a set number of hours. F5 is the legal employer through its entities in Pune and Rajkot, India, so payroll, compliance, and equipment sit with F5, not with you. F5 Hiring Solutions sources from 85,500+ candidates in our internal sourcing and screening database, delivers a shortlist in 7-14 business days, and replaces any placement at zero cost within 7-14 business days, anytime. Across 250+ companies served since inception, F5 Hiring Solutions maintains a 95% client retention rate, measured as clients who continue beyond the first 3 months.
For a role that is genuinely full-time, an exclusively assigned assistant at a published all-inclusive rate is a different proposition from a shared, quote-based one. If your executive-support workload fills a full week, that is the comparison that matters. If it does not, one of the fractional providers above is the honest answer.
To scope the role, book a 15-minute call with Joel and F5 will shortlist a full-time AI-Augmented EA within 7-14 business days.