The embodiment of the invention discloses a JPEG image decoding method and apparatus. The method comprises the following steps: before decoding processing is performed on image data, establishing a Huffman low byte code table and a Huffman high byte code table in advance, then reading preset bits of to-be-processed data from to-be-decoded image data every time, and searching a first decoding result corresponding to intercepted high bit data from the Huffman low byte code table; searching a second decoding result corresponding to intercepted low bit data from the Huffman high byte code table; and determining a Huffman decoding result according to a zone bit, and performing run decoding processing on the result to obtain an entropy decoding result. The above operations are repeated to accomplish the decoding processing of all to-be-decoded image data. As the low byte code table and the high byte code table are established, a Huffman code table with complete size does not needs to be established, and the subsequent Huffman decoding operation can be processed in parallel, compared with the traditional Huffman decoding operation, the decoding speed is high, and the memory consumption issmall.