A method for mapping between a virtual central processing unit (CPU) and a physical CPU. The method includes obtaining, by a virtual machine manager, a set of to-be-mapped first virtual CPUs in a current time period and a first physical CPU that has fewest to-be-run tasks, obtaining, by the virtual machine manager, a first characteristic value of each first virtual CPU in the set of first virtual CPUs and a second characteristic value of the first physical CPU, obtaining, by the virtual machine manager from all the first characteristic values, a target characteristic value that matches the second characteristic value, and mapping a target virtual CPU corresponding to the target characteristic value to the first physical CPU for running. By means of the foregoing technical solutions, resource contention and a decrease in overall system performance are avoided when mapping a virtual CPU to a physical CPU.