This application provides a positioning method and an apparatus. The method includes: A location management device provides assistance information for a terminal device, where the assistance information includes information about one or more cells used for positioning of the terminal device and reference signal configuration information of each of the one or more cells. The location management device provides a first request message for the terminal device, where the first request message includes measurement reporting configuration information. The location management device receives a reference signal measurement result of each of the one or more cells from the terminal device, where the reference signal measurement result is obtained based on the measurement reporting configuration information. The location management device obtains a DAOD of the terminal device relative to each of the one or more cells based on the reference signal measurement result.