The present invention is applicable to the technical field of communications, and provides an upgrading method and apparatus. The method comprises: searching for and obtaining information about to-be-upgraded firmware in a server by a device; upgrading the firmware at a set time according to the information about the to-be-upgraded firmware; sending firmware version information after the upgrading to the server, so that the server updates firmware version information of the device; when an intelligent terminal starts application software corresponding to the device, obtaining user information and software version information of the device; according to the user information and the software version information, performing upgrading by obtaining upgrading information of the application software from a device list corresponding to the user information and a mapping relationship table of device firmware versions versus application versions, wherein the device list and the mapping relationship table are recorded by the server. According to the method and the apparatus, the intelligent device can upgrade firmware thereof automatically, and the intelligent terminal can upgrade the application software used on the intelligent device to a most advanced version corresponding to the firmware version of the device.