The present disclosure discloses an uplink detection method and device in a NOMA system. The method includes: performing pilot activation detection on each terminal in a first terminal set corresponding to a NOMA transmission unit block repeatedly until a detection end condition is met, wherein the first terminal set includes terminals that may transmit uplink data on the NOMA transmission unit block; performing channel estimation on each terminal in a second terminal set that determined through the pilot activation detection within each repetition period, wherein the second terminal set includes terminals that have actually transmitted uplink data on the NOMA transmission unit block; and detecting and decoding a data channel of each terminal in the second terminal set within each repetition period.