A circuit for monitoring an optical receiver or transceiver, architectures, circuits, and systems including the same, and a method for monitoring received optical power are disclosed. The receiver monitoring circuit comprises an avalanche photodiode (APD), a microprocessor, and first and second transresistance amplifiers. The microprocessor is configured to supply bias voltage to the APD. Photocurrent produced by the APD is supplied to the first and second transresistance amplifiers, and then the microprocessor captures optical power from the voltage signal of the first and second transresistance amplifiers. By algorithms and microprogramming systems, the circuit for monitoring the optical receiver and method of monitoring optical power enables precision compensation for monitoring burst mode optical power in commercial temperature ranges and powers, and also can be applied to high precision digital monitoring of optical transceivers in a PON system in the commercial temperature range with error values within ±1 dB.