Embodiments of the invention provide a license plate identification method and a terminal. The method comprises the steps of obtaining a to-be-processed image; preprocessing the to-be-processed image to obtain a target image; training the target image by adopting a target classifier to obtain N target regions containing characters, wherein N is an integer greater than 1; connecting the N target regions by using a first preset algorithm to obtain M candidate boxes, wherein M is an integer greater than 1; screening the M candidate boxes according to preset geometric features of license plates to obtain K target candidate boxes, wherein K is a positive integer less than M; segmenting the K target candidate boxes into a plurality of characters by adopting a second preset algorithm, and obtaining a plurality of character sequences through the characters; and identifying the character sequences to obtain a target license plate. Through the method and the terminal provided by the embodiments of the invention, the correct rate of license plate identification can be increased.