The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for detecting a hydrogen leak in a fuel cell system including initiating a shutdown process of a fuel cell stack in the fuel cell system by a controller, measuring a volume of hydrogen in a reservoir, pulsing a volume of hydrogen into the reservoir or pulsing hydrogen directly into the fuel cell stack if the volume of hydrogen is insufficient to sustain a voltage discharge process during the shutdown process, making the fuel cell system enter a discharge state by the controller, wherein hydrogen and oxygen in the fuel cell stack are consumed in an electrochemical reaction to discharge voltage in the fuel cell stack, measuring a rate of the voltage discharge by the controller, and detecting the hydrogen leak based on the rate of the voltage discharge or via negative pressure measurements made at the anode inlet.