BIMI — Brand Indicators for Message Identification

What is BIMI

BIMI displays your brand's logo next to the emails you send, in inboxes that support it (Gmail, Yahoo, Apple Mail, La Poste, and others). Not only are your messages recognised more easily, but it also acts as a visual trust indicator — because to get there, you must have passed all authentication checks.

Prerequisites

1. Full SPF + DKIM + DMARC — not just present, but passing with alignment.
2. DMARC policy must be p=quarantine or p=reject (not p=none).
3. SVG logo in a specific format (SVG Tiny PS — a strict subset of SVG).
4. For Gmail/Yahoo/Apple: a VMC (Verified Mark Certificate) from a CA such as DigiCert or Entrust. Costs approximately $1,500/year.

Example BIMI record

default._bimi.example.com.  IN  TXT  "v=BIMI1; l=https://example.com/bimi/logo.svg; a=https://example.com/bimi/cert.pem"

Fields:

• v=BIMI1 — version
• l= — URL of the SVG logo (HTTPS required)
• a= — URL of the VMC certificate (required for Gmail/Yahoo/Apple)

Selectors

default is the primary selector. You can have multiple selectors for different campaigns or departments within your organisation (e.g. marketing._bimi, support._bimi) and specify them in the email header BIMI-Selector.

SVG Tiny PS — what this means

You cannot upload just any SVG. It must be the "Portable/Secure" version of SVG Tiny 1.2:

• Static (no animations, no scripts)
• Embedded fonts only
• 1:1 aspect ratio (square)
• Specific XML structure

Tools such as the BIMI Group SVG converter can convert a standard SVG into the required format.

Is BIMI worth it? If you send transactional emails at high volumes and want brand recognition, yes. For smaller domains, the cost of the VMC is a significant factor.