Concept

BIMI prerequisites: what you need before BIMI works

BIMI displays your brand logo next to your email in supporting inboxes (Gmail, Apple Mail, Yahoo, AOL). It only works if your domain is at DMARC enforcement AND your logo is a properly-formatted SVG Tiny PS — and for Gmail / Apple Mail, you also need a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC).

TL;DR

  • 1 DMARC at p=quarantine or p=reject with pct=100. p=none won't work.
  • 2 Logo must be SVG Tiny Portable/Secure (SVG-PS) — most agency-supplied SVGs need conversion.
  • 3 VMC ($1.5K-$2K/yr from Entrust or DigiCert) required for Gmail and Apple Mail; not for Yahoo/AOL.

What it does

BIMI is the visual reward for being good at DMARC. Once your domain is at enforcement (p=quarantine or p=reject with pct=100), publish a BIMI record pointing to your SVG logo URL plus a VMC. Supporting receivers display your logo in the avatar slot — a strong visual trust signal in inboxes flooded with phishing.

Three logo formats exist (SVG Basic, SVG Tiny PS, SVG Standard) — BIMI requires SVG Tiny PS specifically. Standard design tools (Illustrator, Figma) export Standard SVG by default; you need to convert.

How it works

  1. 1

    Get your DMARC to p=quarantine pct=100 or p=reject. BIMI explicitly fails if p=none.

  2. 2

    Convert your logo to SVG Tiny PS. Use a converter (search 'SVG to BIMI SVG' — several free tools exist) and validate at bimigroup.org/svg-validator.

  3. 3

    Host the SVG on HTTPS — same domain or a CDN, but HTTPS-only and a stable URL.

  4. 4

    If you want Gmail and Apple Mail support, buy a Verified Mark Certificate from Entrust or DigiCert. You'll need a registered trademark on the logo.

  5. 5

    Publish a BIMI record at default._bimi.yourdomain pointing to the SVG URL and the VMC URL (a=tag).

Example record

default._bimi.yourdomain.com TXT Click to select
v=BIMI1; l=https://yourdomain.com/bimi/logo.svg; a=https://yourdomain.com/bimi/vmc.pem

Common pitfalls

  • Publishing BIMI while still at p=none. Receivers silently ignore — no error, no logo, no signal you've messed up.

  • Logo isn't Tiny PS. Validation tools will tell you exactly what's wrong (often: unsupported filter, gradient, or external font reference).

  • Trademark required for VMC. Self-drawn / borrowed logos won't qualify even if the SVG is valid.

  • Path-only selectors. Many tutorials show default._bimi but you can publish per-subsidiary (selector._bimi.yourdomain) — make sure your sending From: aligns with where you published the record.