This application discloses a method for reducing power consumption of a terminal, and a terminal, and relates to the field of terminal technologies, to resolve a problem of relatively high power consumption of a terminal caused by a background application program. The method includes: when a background power consumption current value of the terminal is greater than a preset current value, controlling, by the terminal, a target application program, to reduce the background power consumption current value, where the background power consumption current value is a sum of power consumption current values of all background application programs on the terminal. The target application program includes at least one or more of the following application programs: a background application program whose use frequency is lower than a preset frequency threshold, a background application program whose power consumption is greater than a preset power consumption threshold, and a background application program with abnormal power consumption. The method is applicable to a process of controlling a background application program.