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AdvancedDNS records · 10 min read

BIMI — your logo in the inbox

Authenticates your brand mark next to your sender name in supported clients. Requires DMARC at quarantine or reject, plus a Verified Mark Certificate for Gmail and Apple.

BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) lets you publish a logo that supported inboxes render next to your sender name. As of 2025, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Fastmail, and Apple Mail all support it.

The BIMI record

dns_bimi.acme.dev. IN TXT "v=BIMI1; l=https://acme.dev/logo.svg; a=https://acme.dev/vmc.pem"
  • l= — URL of your SVG logo (specific BIMI-compliant subset of SVG 1.2 Tiny PS).
  • a= — URL of your Verified Mark Certificate (VMC). Required by Gmail, Apple, Yahoo. Not required by Fastmail.

Prerequisites

BIMI does not light up unless every box below is checked.

  • DMARC policy of p=quarantine or p=reject (none does not qualify).
  • pct=100 in your DMARC record (no partial enforcement).
  • A registered SVG Tiny 1.2 PS logo, square aspect ratio, ≤32KB.
  • A VMC (Verified Mark Certificate) issued by Entrust or DigiCert — a year-long process for trademark verification.
A VMC requires a registered trademark on the logo. Cost: $1,500 to $1,800 / year. Renewal annually. Only worth it if you have brand recognition to amplify.

Common Mark Certificates (CMC)

In 2024 Gmail introduced a lower-tier CMC for unregistered marks. Cheaper and faster, but with a smaller logo and a "Verified" badge that says "trademark not verified" on hover. Worth it if you want the badge but cannot get a VMC.

The SVG specification

BIMI requires SVG Tiny 1.2 Portable Secure (PS) — a tiny subset of full SVG. No external references, no scripts, no CSS, single root <svg>, baseProfile="tiny-ps", and a viewBox attribute. Most logos need a redraw to comply; we provide a free linter in the dashboard.

In VoltMail: upload your SVG; we lint it, host it on our CDN, and write the BIMI record. If you also upload your VMC, we serve it from the same domain. The BIMI status appears in the domain dashboard.