In order to improve the detection accuracy of dim target in infrared image with complex background, an infrared small target detection algorithm based on multi-feature tightness difference decision coupling improved Top-Hat transform. Firstly, multi-scale structure elements was obtained by segmenting the single structural element, and the gray change map was defined according to the gray difference between the small target and its surrounding background, and the target decision factor was constructed by calculating the mean and variance of this map, so the new Top-Hat transformation was formed by embedding it and multi-scale structure elements into classical Top-Hat transform. Then the multi-feature tightness difference model was established to extract candidate regions that contain the real weak and small targets were extracted by combining the gray intensity, contrast and structure information. Finally, the pipeline filtering pattern was introduced to eliminate the suspicious objects in the candidate region and keep the real dim target. The experimental data show that this algorithm had higher detection precision to completely check out the dim target with better ROC curve under the complex background.mapping; pipeline filtering mode