The invention is applicable to the field of communication, and provides a method and apparatus for updating a character. The method comprises: receiving a character updating request sent by a client, the character updating request carrying a unicode of the character; looking up for a file which has the same file name as the unicode of the character, the file being used for storing a single character data which is obtained by dissembling a character data stored by a character library into a plurality of single character data; sending the file which has been looked up for to the client so that the client updates the corresponding character based on the character data in the received file. The embodiment of the invention can rapidly respond to a client request, and shortens the downloading time of the client.