A method is proposed to compensate the output drift for cooled infrared imaging systems at various ambient temperatures. By calibrating the cryogenic infrared detector which absorbs the radiant flux of blackbody directly, the internal factors can be obtained. Then, by combining the calibration result of infrared imaging system at an arbitrary ambient temperature, the output drift can be calculated and compensated at various integration time and ambient temperatures. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method can eliminate the effect of ambient temperature fluctuation on the system output efficiently.