The present invention discloses a path request method. The method includes: receiving, by a stateful path computation element Stateful PCE, a path computation request message sent by a path computation client PCC, where the path computation request message includes first attribute information, and the first attribute information is used to designate an acquisition manner of a path requested by the PCC; acquiring, by the Stateful PCE, information of a path that conforms to a request of the PCC according to the first attribute information; and sending a path computation reply message to the PCC, where the path computation reply message includes the information of the path that conforms to the request of the PCC. Embodiments of the present invention also provide a stateful path computation element and a path computation client. The embodiments of the present invention are used to solve a technical problem of inflexible routing technology method in the prior art, which limits network scalability.