Embodiments of this application are applicable to the field of communications technologies, and provide a physical downlink control channel PDCCH monitoring method, an apparatus, and a terminal. The method includes: receiving, by the terminal, search space information configured by a network device, where the search space information includes information about a first search space set group and a second search space set group; and when the terminal monitors a PDCCH based on the second search space set group, if downlink control information DCI used for data scheduling is received, stopping monitoring a PDCCH based on the second search space set group, and starting monitoring a PDCCH based on the first search space set group. According to the method, switching between the search space set groups may be performed based on a type of information received by the terminal. When a monitoring period of each search space in the second search space set group is relatively large, and a monitoring period of each search space in the first search space set group is relatively small, switching of the terminal to the first search space set group to monitor a PDCCH helps to quickly complete data transmission and reduce a data transmission delay.