Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and an apparatus for detecting a cell identity conflict. The method includes: determining that a user equipment accesses a first cell or performs connection establishment or connection re-establishment in a first cell at a first time point T1; searching whether interaction information related to the user equipment exists in other cells except the first cell near the first time point T1; and performing cell identity conflict detection on the first cell and a second cell when it is found, through the searching, that the interaction information related to the user equipment exists in the second cell among the other cells near the first time point T1. The embodiments of the present invention do not rely on a neighboring cell list and an operation of reporting cell information by a user equipment, thereby improving detection efficiency of a cell identity conflict.