Inter prediction method and apparatus are disclosed to resolve problems in the conventional technology that prediction samples obtained in an inter prediction mode are spatially discontinuous, prediction efficiency is affected, and prediction residual energy is relatively high. The method includes: parsing a bitstream to obtain motion information of a to-be-processed picture block; performing motion compensation on the to-be-processed picture block based on the obtained motion information, to obtain a prediction block of the to-be-processed picture block, where the prediction block of the to-be-processed picture block includes a prediction value of a target sample; and performing weighting calculation on one or more reconstructed values of one or more reference samples and the prediction value of the target sample, to update the prediction value of the target sample, where the reference sample(s) have a preset spatial position relationship with the target sample.