Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) has been widely used for the measurement of molecular diffusion in living cells and tissues. We developed an image-based FRAP (iFRAP) technique using a modified real-time microscope and a 488 nm Ar-ion laser. A fractional intensity curve was obtained from the time-lapse images of fluorescence recovery in the bleached spot to determine the diffusion coefficient of fluorescently labeled macromolecules in porous medium. We validated iFRAP through experiments with agar gels (0.5% and 1.5% w/v) containing FITC-Dextrans (10, 70 and 500 kDa MW). Further validation was performed by a Monte Carlo approach, where we simulated the three-dimensional random walk of macromolecules in agar gel model. Diffusion coefficients were deduced from the mean square displacement curves and showed good agreements with those measured by iFRAP.