A charging method applied to a network architecture in which network control and data flow forwarding are separated. The method includes receiving, by a control plane (CP) entity, a charging rule delivered by a policy and charging rules function PCRF entity, generating, by the CP, a user plane UP entity reporting policy based on the charging rule, requesting, by the CP from an online charging system OCS, a quota required by a rating group in the charging rule, receiving, by the CP, a quota delivered by the OCS, and generating UP quota information based on the quota; and delivering, by the CP, the generated UP reporting policy and the generated UP quota information to the UP.