The invention discloses an electric energy meter compatible with 645 and 698 communication protocols and a communication method, and relates to the technical field of electric energy meters, the electric energy meter comprises a communication receiving port, a first UART receiver, a second UART receiver, a protocol processing unit and a communication sending unit; the receiving pins of the first UART receiver and the second UART receiver are connected in parallel and then are connected to the communication receiving port; the output ends of the first UART receiver and the second UART receiverare respectively connected to a protocol processing unit; the first UART receiver and the second UART receiver are respectively used for correctly receiving communication data of different protocols;and the protocol processing unit is used for processing the communication data transmitted by the first UART receiver or the second UART receiver and outputting the communication data through the communication transmitting unit. According to the electric energy meter and the method, a traditional one-to-one method of the UART port and the communication receiving port is changed, and two protocolsof 645 and 698 can be compatible without setting.