You've probably noticed some senders show a little brand logo next to their messages in Gmail or Apple Mail, while everyone else gets a generic initial. That logo is BIMI. It's a reward for getting email authentication right — but it comes with strict prerequisites. This guide explains what BIMI is, how it works, and what it takes to earn the logo.

What BIMI is

BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is a standard that lets your brand logo appear beside your authenticated emails in supporting inboxes. You publish a DNS record pointing to your logo, and participating mailbox providers display it. The payoff is trust and recognition: a logo signals legitimacy and lifts engagement, and it makes impersonation more obvious because spoofed mail can't display your mark.

BIMI is a reward, not a starting point

The most important thing to understand is that BIMI sits on top of everything else. You can't add it first — it only works once your authentication is fully in order. The prerequisites are firm:

• SPF and DKIM must be set up and passing for your mail.
• DMARC must be at enforcement — a policy of p=quarantine or p=reject. A policy of p=none is not enough; mailbox providers require an enforced policy before they'll show a logo.

In practice this means BIMI is the last step of an email-authentication journey, not the first. If you haven't reached an enforced DMARC policy yet, start with how to set up DMARC.

Preparing your logo

BIMI requires your logo in a specific format: a square SVG following the SVG Portable/Secure (SVG P/S) profile, with a solid background. Ordinary SVGs exported from design tools usually need to be cleaned up to meet the profile. The image is referenced from your DNS record and fetched by the mailbox provider.

The VMC: the part that costs money

Many major providers — Gmail among them — require a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) before they'll display your logo. A VMC is a certificate, issued by an authorized authority, that proves you own the trademark on the logo. That means:

• Your logo typically must be a registered trademark.
• You buy the VMC from a certificate authority on an annual basis — it's the real cost of BIMI.

Some inboxes will show a logo without a VMC, but the widest support (including Gmail) effectively requires one.

How the BIMI record works

BIMI is published as a TXT record at a special hostname — default._bimi.yourdomain.com — containing a link to your SVG logo and, if you have one, a link to your VMC. Once it's in place and your DMARC is enforced, supporting providers begin fetching and displaying the logo.

Check your BIMI readiness

The BIMI checker looks up your BIMI record and flags the prerequisites — including whether your DMARC policy is strong enough to qualify. Not there yet? Work through SPF, DKIM & DMARC explained and how to set up DMARC first.