The present invention discloses a multi-mode string matching method and apparatus, in order to improve the matching efficiency and the matching speed of multi-mode string matching. In the method, mode strings with the prefix inclusion relation in the mode strings are compressed into a mode string to obtain a compressed mode set; a prefix set is constructed according to the compression mode set; and the AC automaton is constructed according to the preset algorithm. The method comprises: for each to-be-matched text string, successively inputting characters contained in the current sliding window into the AC automaton so as to obtain at least one initial matching position; for each initial matching position, if the length of the matched string of the initial matching position is less than the preset length, adding the initial matching position and the matched string into a matching result set; if the length of the matched string of the initial matching position is equal to the preset length, adding the initial matching position into a secondary matching entry set; and carrying out secondary matching for each entry position, and adding the entry position of the secondary matching and the matched string into the matching result set.