The present invention discloses a paging method and apparatus, The method includes: obtaining, by a first access network device in a first time period, a first paging parameter group used for paging a terminal device, where the first time period is a time period before the terminal device switches from a connected mode to a light connected mode, and the first access network device is an access network device to which the terminal device is connected last time before the terminal device enters the light connected mode or an idle mode; and generating, by the first access network device, a paging message for the terminal device based on the first paging parameter group, and sending the paging message.