A method, apparatus and system estimating channel power, and monitoring a frequency spectrum characteristic. A method for estimating channel power includes extracting frequency spectrum information from a received signal, so as to obtain a frequency spectrum of the received signal, estimating power of a central channel in the frequency spectra according to a power value of a flat area of the central channel, and estimating power of a neighboring channel in the frequency spectra according to a power value of a flat area of the neighboring channel. With the embodiments of the present disclosure, the power of the central channel and the power of the neighboring channel may be estimated by using only frequency spectrum information obtained by a single optical receiver, so as to quantitatively evaluate influence of a power imbalance effect, thereby ensuring precision of the power estimation, and reducing effects of nonideal factors on the estimated values.