The present invention provides an address allocation method and apparatus. The method is applied to a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server. The method comprises the steps of receiving an address request packet; and comparing first address information in an address resolution protocol (ARP) table acquired from a network device with second address information in the DHCP server, and selecting unused address information from the second address information according to a comparison result and allocating the unused address information to a host. In the existing IP address allocation manner, the IP address allocated by the DHCP server may conflict with a statically configured IP address, consequently, the network experience of the user is lowered. Through adoption of the method and apparatus, the problems in the existing manner are solved.