A reference signal sending method and apparatus is disclosed. The method includes the following operations: sending, by a network device, configuration information of a reference signal, where the configuration information of the reference signal is used to indicate air interface sending information of the reference signal; and sending, by the network device, the reference signal based on the configuration information of the reference signal, where the reference signal is a cell specific reference signal, user equipment specific reference signal, or user equipment group specific reference signal. Correspondingly, the embodiments of the present disclosure further disclose a reference signal sending method and apparatus. According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the network device can flexibly configure the reference signal, and reference signal overheads of the network device can be reduced.