Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC) algorithm is one popular image matching algorithm based on the intensity correlation, but its application is limited because of high computational complexity and long computing time. Therefore, a normalized cross correlation image matching algorithm based on adaptive step size is proposed. According to the normalized cross correlation coefficient, the step size is chosen adaptively which can increase the matching speed obviously. The normalized cross correlation coefficient is improved to increase the differential degree of step size thresholds. So the selection precision of adaptive step size is boosted evidently. At the same time, the matching time and the matching speed are allocated reasonably. Experiment results indicate that the matching time of the proposed algorithm is reduced to 10%~50% compared with the traditional NCC algorithm without loss of precision.