How do I read the credit balance widget in the sidebar?

The credit balance widget is the indigo-blue pill near the top of the Valid Email Checker sidebar. It carries a coin icon and a number — your total available credits across every bucket — and it sits in the same spot on every dashboard page so you never have to hunt for it.

The collapsed pill

By default the pill reads something like "1,247 Credits" with a small down-arrow on the right edge. That total is the sum of every bucket on your account: Monthly + PAYG (+ legacy rollover, if your account predates that policy change). One number, all sources, the ground truth for "how many emails can I verify right now."

On a fresh page load, the pill briefly reads "Credits" with no number while it fetches your balance. This is deliberate. We hide a "0 Credits" flash that would otherwise appear during the sub-second auth resolution window. Once the fetch completes, the number snaps in.

Clicking opens the breakdown popover

Click the pill (anywhere on it) and a small white popover drops down. It shows up to three rows depending on what is in your account:

• Monthly — subscription credits, if any. Hidden if zero. Resets each billing cycle.
• Pay-as-you-go — PAYG credits. Always shown. Never expire.
• Total — the bold sum at the bottom, in indigo.

The popover dismisses when you click outside it or click the pill again. For what these buckets mean and why VEC treats them differently, see Monthly vs PAYG credits.

How the widget updates

After a verification (single, bulk, API), the pill updates within a second or two without a page refresh. The same is true for purchases, refunds, and auto-refill top-ups. If the pill ever lags behind reality, refresh once and it will resync. The number that appears after refresh is the authoritative one.

Team members see the shared pool

If you log in as a team member, the widget shows the owner's total balance — not your own credits, because team members do not have their own credits. The popover adds a small note reading "Shared credits from main account" so you know what you are looking at. Verifications by team members deduct from the owner's pool in the standard consumption order.