An apparatus and method for estimating intra-channel nonlinear damage, including: a first determining unit configured to determine a nonlinear phase shift weighting dispersion distribution function of an optical fiber transmission link according to a parameter of the optical fiber transmission link; a segmenting unit configured to segment the nonlinear phase shift weighting dispersion distribution function of the optical fiber transmission link into at least one rectangle; a calculating unit configured to respectively calculate a nonlinear perturbation coefficient of each rectangle in the at least one rectangle, and perform summation on the nonlinear perturbation coefficients of all the rectangles, so as to obtain a nonlinear perturbation coefficient of the optical fiber transmission link; and a second determining unit configured to determine intra-channel nonlinear damage of the optical fiber transmission link according to the nonlinear perturbation coefficient of the optical fiber transmission link.