The present invention discloses a working method of a multi-mode terminal and a multi-mode terminal and relates to the field of communications technologies, which can implement switching between multi-mode multi-standby and multi-mode single-standby, and improve user experience. The working method of a multi-mode terminal includes: determining, according to a network where a terminal currently camps, a currently applicable working mode of the terminal, where the currently applicable working mode is a multi-mode multi-standby mode and a multi-mode single-standby mode; and configuring a working mode of the terminal to the currently applicable working mode of the terminal. The present invention may be applied to the field of communications technologies.