The present application discloses a pattern mining method and apparatus. For the acquired candidate pattern set, the utility value in each transaction is calculated, and the transactions whose utilityvalues are less than the set utility threshold are deleted; the mode utility values of the transactions in this part are too small, and the mining calculation time can be reduced after deletion; theperiod value of the candidate mode is determined according to the time attribute of the remaining target transactions after deletion; and when the period value is less than or equal to the set periodthreshold, the candidate mode is determined as a mining result, so that the utility values of the mining patterns are ensured to be evenly distributed over time, and accurate decisions can be made ina more facilitated manner.