A method and an apparatus for displaying an Instant Messaging (IM) message are provided. The method includes, when the size of a picture to be processed is greater than the size of a container, setting the display size of the picture to be processed to be not greater than the size of the container; and drawing the picture to be processed according to the set display size. As such, a picture to be processed having the size greater than the container size can be adapted to the size of a container in IM software, and the IM software can directly display the entirety of the picture that is originally greater than the container size.