Embodiments of the present invention provide a positioning method, a positioning server, a terminal and a base station. The positioning method includes: notifying a terminal of difference threshold information; receiving cell subset information that is determined by the terminal according to the difference threshold information, where the cell subset information is used to indicate a cell pair whose reference signal measured value exceeds the difference threshold, or the cell subset information is used to indicate a cell pair whose reference signal measured value does not exceed the difference threshold; determining a configuration of a PRS according to the cell subset information, and notifying the terminal of the configuration of the PRS; and receiving an RSTD that is obtained by the terminal through measurement according to the configuration of the PRS, and determining a location of the terminal according to the RSTD.