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BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is an email standard that lets supporting inbox providers display your verified brand logo next to authenticated emails.

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What is BIMI?

BIMI, or Brand Indicators for Message Identification is a relatively new email standard that allows you to add your brand’s logo to your authenticated emails. Adopting BIMI will allow your brand’s logo to appear next to your emails in your recipient’s inbox without manually needing to add and maintain it on a provider by provider level. As long as the email client supports BIMI, your logo will appear.

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Which email providers support BIMI?

A growing number of email providers support BIMI. The current list of supported providers includes: Here is the full breakdown of who does and doesn’t support BIMI as of right now: Infographic showing BIMI support by mailbox providers

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How does BIMI actually work?

Setting up BIMI will take a bit more work than simply uploading your brand’s logo and hitting save. Technically speaking, BIMI is configured with a DNS TXT record (your “BIMI record”) that points inbox providers to your hosted logo (and optionally your Verified Mark Certificate). At a broad level, after you send an email, your recipient’s email provider verifies your email authentication (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC). If those checks pass, the provider can look up your BIMI record to fetch and display your logo next to the message. To start, the sender (you) will need to ensure that you are DMARC compliant. DMARC (domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, & Conformance) is an email authentication policy and reporting protocol that defends against unauthorized use of domains. Basically, DMARC helps protect your brand by detecting emails that aren’t coming from your domain – preventing spoofing and phishing attempts. The email provider will also run through the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) protocols to ensure that the sender’s email address was sent from the correct domain. Next, you will need to create the logo that will actually be used. The current recommendation is a square SVG file. The naming convention of this file should be: https://yourservername.com/logo.svg Next is an optional but recommended step. To fully embrace BIMI, your brand should acquire a VMC, or a Verified Mark Certificate. This will help validate the true ownership of the logo being used. More on this in the section below. The full implementation guide from BIMI can be located here.

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BIMI requirements (high level)

Before BIMI can work, inbox providers generally require that you have strong email authentication in place:
  • SPF configured for your sending domain
  • DKIM signing enabled
  • DMARC set up with an enforcement policy (often quarantine or reject)
If you’re setting up sending in Loops, start with our sending domain guide and then review the deliverability docs (like sending reputation).

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How to set up BIMI (step-by-step)

  1. Make sure SPF and DKIM are set up and passing for your sending domain.
  2. Configure DMARC and move to an enforcement policy once you’re ready.
  3. Create a BIMI-compatible SVG logo and host it at a public URL.
  4. (Optional) Purchase a VMC if you want the strongest verification.
  5. Add the BIMI TXT record to DNS (usually at default._bimi.yourdomain.com) and reference your hosted logo (and VMC if you have one). For example: 
    v=BIMI1; l=https://yourdomain.com/logo.svg; a=https://yourdomain.com/vmc.pem
    Notes:
    • l= is the URL to your BIMI SVG logo.
    • a= is optional and points to your VMC (Verified Mark Certificate).
  6. Validate your setup using the BIMI inspector.

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How much does BIMI cost?

Along with taking some technical chops to get BIMI fully set up, it’s also not free. Getting the Verified Mark Certificate mentioned above currently costs $1,500. On top of this cost, to qualify for the certificate your brand logo also needs to be a registered trademark, which will also come with additional costs and possible legal fees.

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Checking your BIMI record

Now that you’ve gone through the work of setting up your BIMI records, it’s time to confirm that everything is working as expected. The BIMI group provides a BIMI inspector where you can enter your domain to ensure everything is set.

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Implement BIMI, build trust

As you can see, fully embracing BIMI is a lengthy and potentially expensive process that may test your patience. However, leaning into this new email standard positions your brand to gain your reader’s trust while limiting the manual labor and upkeep on your end to ensure that your brand’s logo is always at the forefront of their inboxes. As the inbox becomes a more and more competitive landscape with each passing day, anything that you can do to stand out should be done. BIMI just might give your brand the edge it needs to capture those sought after eyeballs.
Last modified on February 5, 2026