A flow control apparatus includes a status monitoring unit, a flow control deciding unit, a flow control strategy storing unit and a performing unit. The status monitoring unit is configured to report the current operating status of a service node to the flow control deciding unit. The flow control deciding unit is configured to provide the current operating status of the service node to the flow control strategy storing unit, generate a flow control command based on an evaluating result which is obtained by the flow control strategy storing unit based on one or more flow control algorithms and the current operating status of the service node, and distribute the flow control command. The flow control strategy storing unit is configured to store the one or more flow control algorithms, obtain the evaluating result based on the one or more flow control algorithms and the current operating status of the service node provided by the flow control deciding unit, and provide the evaluating result to the flow control deciding unit. The performing unit is configured to control new services arriving at a service processing system according to the flow control command distributed by the flow control deciding unit. A flow control method is also provided.