A novel photonic technique for instantaneous microwave frequency measurement based on hybrid microwave photonic filter (HMPF) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The HMPF is composed of an all-pass filter and a band-pass filter with negative coefficients. By properly controlling the power relationship between the all-pass filter and the band-pass filter, the HMPF can realize a monotonic frequency response, and then a unique relationship between the output power and the input frequency is established. A high measurement resolution can be achieved for a given frequency range.