The characterization of solid oxide cells (SOCs) relies mainly on direct-current (DC) and alternating-current (AC) methods that provide only average surface electro-chemical responses. As such, the spatial distribution is not well captured and the complexity of the electrochemical system is not fully represented. Infrared imaging could be used to locally characterize SOCs. This method has only been performed at steady-state, but, analogous to DC and AC characterization methods, applying a thermal perturbation could improve its sensitivity. This work proposes the use of active infrared imaging to characterize an operating SOC. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method, an SOC was exposed to a current pulse while monitoring the infrared response using a CMOS camera. The phase and amplitude representation of the infrared response was then computed by Fourier transform and used for rapid identification of regions of interests. Results showed that less than 10% of the SOC was useful in the electrochemical process.