Disclosed in an embodiment of the present invention is a method for controlling an application. The method comprises: acquiring an operation parameter of at least one application operating in a terminal; acquiring, according to the acquired operation parameter, a target application from the at least one application, the operation parameter of the target application being greater than or equal to a preset threshold; closing the target application. Accordingly, further disclosed in an embodiment of the present invention is a terminal. The embodiments of the present invention can reduce the power consumption of the terminal, and increase the power endurance time of the terminal.