What is the difference between monthly credits and PAYG credits in my balance?

Your Valid Email Checker balance is the sum of two separate buckets, not one big pool. The split exists because the two types of credits have different rules — most importantly, around expiration. Understanding the split makes credit usage predictable.

Monthly credits

Monthly credits come from an active subscription. When you sign up for a $10/month plan that includes 5,200 credits, those 5,200 land in your Monthly bucket the moment the subscription activates. Each billing cycle (every 30 days, roughly) the bucket resets back to the plan total. Unused credits from the previous cycle do not roll forward — they reset.

If you cancel a subscription mid-cycle, the credits already in the Monthly bucket stay usable until the period ends. After that, the Monthly bucket goes to zero and stays there unless you subscribe again.

Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) credits

PAYG credits come from one-time purchases (or the 200-credit welcome bonus on a new account, or auto-refill top-ups). They sit in your PAYG bucket and never expire. No reset timer, no clock. The 200 welcome credits you get when you sign up still work three years from now if you have not spent them. See do credits expire for the longer version.

They behave differently — both visually and functionally

In the balance widget popover, the two are listed on separate rows so you can see at a glance how much of each you have. Functionally, when you verify an email VEC checks the Monthly bucket first and spends from there until empty, then dips into PAYG (see why monthly gets used first and credit consumption order). This protects your never-expire PAYG balance from being burned through while you have reset-monthly credits sitting unused.

Why have two types at all

Two buckets give you flexibility. Monthly subscriptions are 15-20% cheaper per credit, which is great if you have steady volume. PAYG never expires, which is great if your volume is unpredictable. Most teams that scale beyond 25k credits/month run both: a monthly plan for the steady baseline plus PAYG top-ups for unexpected spikes. The two-bucket model in your VEC account makes that combination work cleanly.