BIMI: The Brand Logo in the Email Inbox
BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) displays your brand logo beside your emails in supporting inboxes like Gmail and Apple Mail: effectively a favicon for the inbox. It requires a specific logo format (SVG Tiny PS, square, on a solid background), DMARC set to enforcement, a DNS record pointing at the logo, and increasingly a Verified Mark Certificate proving you own the mark.
The favicon of the inbox
BIMI puts your logo next to the sender name in the inbox, the same way a favicon marks your site in a tab. It's a different channel with the same purpose: a small, trusted brand mark that helps people recognise you at a glance.
The catch is that email is adversarial, so BIMI is gated on proving the mail is really from you. The logo itself is the easy part. The requirements around it are where the work is.
What BIMI needs
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Logo format | SVG Tiny Portable/Secure, square, solid background |
| DMARC | Must be at enforcement (quarantine or reject) |
| DNS record | A BIMI TXT record pointing at the logo |
| Certificate | A Verified Mark Certificate, required by Gmail and others |
BIMI FAQ
What is BIMI?
A standard that shows your brand logo next to your emails in supporting inboxes, provided you've authenticated your mail and published a BIMI record pointing at a compliant logo.
Is BIMI the same as a favicon?
Same idea, different channel. A favicon marks your site in the browser; BIMI marks your mail in the inbox. But BIMI adds email-authentication and certificate requirements a favicon never has.
Do I need a certificate for BIMI?
For major inboxes like Gmail, generally yes: a Verified Mark Certificate that proves you own the trademarked logo. Some providers display BIMI without one, but the widest support assumes a certificate.