Embodiments of the present invention provide a data communication method, a terminal device, and a network device. In the solution, a terminal device receives first indication information in a first time period; and the terminal device transmits first information in a second time period, where a duration of the first time period is a first time unit, a duration of the second time period is a second time unit, and a duration of the second time unit is greater than a duration of the first time unit. In this way, although the terminal device receives the first indication information in a first time unit N, the terminal device transmits the first information in a second time unit M whose duration is greater than that of the first time unit. Therefore, a disadvantage that a system capacity is reduced due to lack of uplink transmission resources for transmitting the first information by the terminal device is avoided.