Does the API consume from monthly credits first?

Yes — every API request to Valid Email Checker draws from the monthly bucket first, falls back to rollover credits (Enterprise only), then dips into Pay-As-You-Go. This is the same waterfall the dashboard uses, applied identically to programmatic traffic. See which credit bucket does the API consume from for the broader picture; this article walks through a worked example so you can predict what your balance will look like after a day of API activity.

The order, in one line

monthly → rollover → payg. Every API request walks the buckets in that order, deducts from the first one with a non-zero balance, and stops once the request total (one credit for /verify-single, N credits for an N-address /verify-bulk) is fully covered.

Worked example

Assume you start the month with:

• Monthly bucket: 5,000 credits (from your Starter monthly subscription)
• Rollover bucket: 0 credits (you are not on Enterprise)
• Pay-As-You-Go bucket: 2,000 credits (from a top-up last quarter)
• Total: 7,000 credits

You run an API integration that makes 6,000 verify-single calls over the next ten days. The deduction plays out like this:

After call 5,000 the monthly bucket hits zero. The next 1,000 calls flow seamlessly onto PAYG — no error, no reconfiguration — until PAYG also drains. At that point the next request gets 402 Insufficient credits (see what error code does the API return when out of credits).

Why this matters at month-end

A common pattern: customers on a $29/month Starter plan run their high-volume API integration mid-month, watch the monthly bucket drain, then top up with a PAYG pack of credits for the tail end of the cycle. The result is that monthly is fully consumed (no waste) and PAYG carries the spike traffic.

Mixed deductions in a single bulk request

If a bulk request crosses a bucket boundary — say you have 100 monthly credits left and submit a 500-address bulk task — the deduction is split. 100 credits come out of monthly, the bucket hits zero, and the remaining 400 come from PAYG. Each portion is logged as a separate ledger entry in the Credits History view so you can audit where everything went.

Can I reserve monthly credits for the dashboard?

No. The bucket order is global. There is no setting that says "use PAYG for API but monthly for dashboard." If you want a hard partition, the only path is two separate Valid Email Checker accounts — one with the monthly subscription for the dashboard team, another PAYG-only for the API integration. Most customers find that overkill; the unified balance is usually simpler to reason about.

Next steps