An electronic device and a method for detecting an intensity of ambient light are provided. The method includes: sensing a light intensity of incident light, wherein the incident light includes ambient light passed through the display screen and light leaked from the display screen; obtaining an estimated light intensity of the light leaked from the display screen based on display data of a target region of the display screen; computing based on the estimated light intensity and a temperature compensation coefficient corresponding to a current temperature of the display screen, to obtain a light intensity of the light leaked from the display screen; and obtaining a light intensity of the ambient light passed through the display screen based on the light intensity of the incident light and the light intensity of the light leaked from the display screen.