The present invention provides a method and apparatus for processing differential clock recovery. The method comprises: a receiving side device receives a first Ethernet packet sent by a sending side device, wherein the first Ethernet packet is an Ethernet packet acquired by the sending side device after converting a time division multiplexing (TDM) service data frame according to a packet delivery rate of the sending side device; the receiving side device acquires a frequency deviation value according to the packet delivery rate of the receiving side device, the working clock frequency of a counter on the sending side device and the value of the counter in the acquired first Ethernet packet; the receiving side device acquires the output frequency of a phase-locked loop by means of the frequency deviation value; and the receiving side device recovers the TDM service data frame from the first Ethernet packet according to the output frequency of the phase-locked loop. In the present invention, a frequency deviation value is acquired by means of software according to the value of a counter in a first Ethernet packet, and therefore different hardware solutions are mutually compatible.